SX SST 57 Vintage

This review is going to be of the SX SST LTD2 2TS, and NOT the vintage '57 strat. The reason I am submitting a review in this section is because the LTD2 is basically an upgraded version of the lower priced sx strats and, in my opinion, there is a lot of bad information being posted here for potential buyers... and I don't want other people the read all these positive reviews (like I did) and think the LTD must be even better.

I won't go into all the details about the features that have already been mentioned, but the main difference between the vintage 57 SX Strat and LTD2 2TS and NAT is that the LTD bodies are made from swamp ash and the neck is supposed to be AAA flamed maple neck with the new SX headstock. Other than that it's the pretty much the same junk hardware and electronics.

I was supposed to get a "NAT" with a clear butter scotch looking finish, but Rondo sent me the "2TS"instead with the dark cherry burst finish; they are basically the same guitar with a different finish. I did return the guitar for a full refund (more on that later), but feel it's still important to share my experience and tell the truth.

I'm only giving the features on this guitar a 5 because, IMHO, the swamp ash body and AAA flamed neck (the two reasons I wanted to purchase this guitar) are of little added value from the vintage 57 when taken into account that the neck looks like it's been puked on with yellow cat barf and then dunked deep into a giant bath of hot gooey crispy donut glaze... it's that bad. Other than that it has the same junk hardware anyway and so the features aren't much to talk about.

The neck seems like a really good strong piece of maple- too bad it looked like it had about a quarter inch of plastic shrink wrap melted over; I must of spent about half an hour looking for the starting point... no kidding, it's that bad.

I'm very disappointed... if only they had given the neck a standard satin or gloss finish it would be a very nice neck, but as it is it feels very "plasticy" and toy like to play on and as if the sound wasn't bright enough with swamp ash and maple... the thick coat on top makes it snap crackle and pop even more to the point that it's just way too bright to play on... beyond that the logo that looks like it's branded in the pictures on Rondo's website is now just a cheesey looking gold paint.

No complaints here... the pickups actually sounded very good for cheap stock pups, but only at lower volumes as they would just sort of fall out and lose power as you turned up the volume. Still, they aren't bad tonewise and there was clear definition of strings and a nice tonal range from all 5 tone settings.

The swamp ash body just resonates with full vibrant sound and is, IMO, the best thing about this guitar. It really breathes and looks fantastic.

The neck seems like it would really sound great too if it wasn't for that thick clear coat messing things up... way too much lacquer makes the maple neck sound too bright and poppy on an ash body... with a plasticy sounding dead-end to boot.

The neck could be very really good, but NOT thanks to lacquer overkill!

Again, the body sounds great!!! If you still want to try the LTD2 out with swamp ash body, maybe get one with a rosewood neck (if that's even possible) and that might balance things out tone wise and you wouldn't have to deal with the blinding glare.

The frets are indeed jumbo and actually would be very nice to play on if only they were polished "round" at the end, but instead they are "cut" way too short from the edge of the fretboard which is the cheap and easy way of doing it so as not to hang over the edge...

Normally, that would be okay for somebody to just polish the sharp edge off, but they are cut way too short and when you pull off on the e string it slides down on to the wood of the neck and the string goes dead. Not good.

I've heard you can't remove the glazed finish either because the frets are placed over it and if you do it will leave a big gap under the frets and above the finger board with daylight showing through forcing an entire refret.

The neck pocket was nice and tight and the action was not too bad out of the box, but I couldn't even adust the saddles because Rondo sent me the wrong Allen wrench and I had misplaced my own.

Anyway, intonation was a bit off, but not so bad that it wouldn't tune up and I could tell that there was plenty of room to intonate the string saddles back properly when and if I needed to... but I never kept the goo guitar that long.

I noticed a slight buzz at about the 7th fret and so tried to give the neck a slight turn to add more relief (since I couldn't raise the saddles), but quickly noticed that the relief was already all the way out of the truss rod and the only resistence keeping the neck straight was the THICK coat of lacquer covering it. No kidding... this thing doesn't even need a truss rod... you could probably put 12-14 gauge strings on without any bow whatsoever!

The finish on the body LTD 2TS is very nice... simply beautiful! You can see the swamp ash wood grain showing through the clear coat (also thick, but acceptable) and the burst was very nice as well. The clear finish was a little too deep for my taste, but still very nice with absolutely NO FLAWS anywhere.

Almost too perfect! The swamp body and finish is really a nice selling point to this guitar, but really... if that's all you're getting... it's not worth $222 shipped + all the mods. For that kind of money you can get a nice nitro finish that's just as deep looking without actually being so deep, if you know what I mean.

Don't know about the electronics, but obviously the hardware is utter junk and would have to be changed out. The tuners were like happy meal toys and it was scary to use the whammy bar... don't do a dive bomb... the bridge will rip right out.

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What can I say... nothing bad can be said about the customer support. Rondo really shines here... so even if your worried about getting something you don't want... as long as you play by the rules they will honor them.

From the day I orderd the guitar to receiving it and sending it back and getting my account refunded it was only about 17 days for a cross country round trip. That's very timely and not just due to Fed

If you track the package you can see that Rondo responds very fast and lives up to the great comments that people have made in the reviews as far as customer service. Also, when I told Kurt that I wanted a refund there was no attempt to change my mind or get an exchange. All good here... thanks Kurt!

Would I do business with Rondo again? Absolutely, but I only wish they took the time to care for the customer before they send the package as they do once the package is returned. I'm very sure that nobody even took the time to look inside at what they were sending me... it was the wrong guitar and the neck was missing a nice patch of toner in the back and the "silk" cover inside was torn from the case and they sent me the wrong Allen wrench.... come on people!!!

I think with the cheaper $99 or less guitars there may actually be a bargain factor for mods, but for $199 ($222 shipped) the current LTD2 is just not worth it when you consider all you have to do. You're better off buying a used Mexican Strat!

The Good: The Swamp Ash Body and Customer Service...
The Bad: The Junk Hardware and Cut of the Frets!
The Ugly: The Neck Toner and OVERLY THICK "PLASTICY" LACQUER!!!

Rondo, if you read this please take note... this would be a fine product if you would just give the neck a normal finish and upgrade the hardware at least slightly. You could probably use the money you save in lacquer to buy decent hardware!

This review is going to be of the SX SST LTD 2TS, and NOT the vintage '57 strat. The reason I am submitting a review in this section is because the LTD is basically an upgraded version of the lower priced sx strats and, in my opinion, there is a lot of bad information being posted here for potential buyers... and I don't want other people the read all these positive reviews (like I did) and think the LTD must be even better.

The main difference between the vintage 57 SX Strat and LTD 2TS and NAT is that the LTD bodies are made from swamp ash and the neck is supposed to be AAA flamed maple neck with the new SX headstock.

I was supposed to get a NAT, but they sent me the 2TS instead; they are basically the same guitar with a different finish. I did return the guitar for a full refund (more on that later), but feel it's still important to share my experience. I will probably post this review in the 2TS section as well.

I'm only giving the features a 5 because, IMHO, the swamp ash body and AAA flamed neck (the two reason I wanted to purchase this guitar) are of little added value when taken into account that the hardware is utter junk and the neck looks like it's been puked on with yellow cat barf and then dunked deep into a giant bath of hot gooey crispy donut glaze... it's that bad.

I actually thought it had about a quarter inch of plastic shrink wrap on it and spent about half an hour looking for the starting point... no kidding, it's that bad.

I'm very disappointed... if only they had given the neck a standard finish it would be a very nice neck, but as it is it feels very toy like to play on with that surface covering and looks like a toy too.

I've heard you can't remove the glazed finish either because the frets are placed over it and if you do it will leave a big gap btwn the frets and the finger board with daylight showing through.

No qualms here... the so called cheap pickups sounded good, but only at lower volumes as they would just sort of lose power as you turned the volume up... probably due to the volume pots and caps, etc. Still, they aren't bad tonewise and there was clear definition and tonal range in all 5 settings.

The swamp ash body really resonates with a full vibrant sound and is, IMO, the best thing about this guitar. It really breathes.

The neck seems like it would really sound good too if it wasn't for all that clear coat messing things up... it makes the maple neck sound way too bright and poppy on an ash body... with a plasticy sounding dead end feel to boot. Could be very good, but NOT!

It's hard to describe, but you just get the feeling it would be a sweet sounding combination without the cheap THICK COAT of lacquer (or whateveter it is) giving it that plasticy feel and sound.

Again, the body sounds great!!! If you still want to try the LTD out with the swamp ash body, maybe get one with a rosewood neck, if that's even possible, and that might balance things out tone wise and you wouldn't have to deal with the clear coat problems.

Neck pocket was nice and tight. Action was not too bad out of the box, but I couldn't adust the saddles because the allen wrench they sent me was too big and I misplaced my own.

Little bastards... where are they when you need them.

Anyway, intonation was a bit off, but not so bad that it wouldn't tune up and I could tell that there was plenty of room to intonate properly when and if I wanted to... but I never kept it that long.

I noticed a slight buzz at about the 7th fret and so tried to give the neck a slight turn to add more relief (since I couldn't raise the saddles), but I quickly noticed that the relief in the truss rod was already all the way out...

I gues the only resistence keeping the neck in opposition to the string tension was the THICK COAT OF CLEAR GLAZE covering it. Not good...you could probably put 12-14 gauge strings on without any bow whatsoever.

The finish on the LTD 2TS is very nice... simply beautiful. You can see the swamp ash wood grain show through the clear coat and the burst was very nice as well. The clear finish was a little too deep for my taste, but still very nice with absolutely NO FLAWS anywhere. Almost too perfect!

Don't know about the electronics, but obviously the hardware is junk and would have to be changed out. Tuners were toy-like and bridge was too.

Don't do a dive bomb... it will probably rip right out.

Awesome!!!

Rondo really shines here... so even if your worried about getting something you don't want... as long as you play by the rules they will honor them.

From the day I orderd the guitar to receiving it and sending it back and getting my account refunded it was only about 17 days for a cross country round trip. That's very timely...

If you track the package you can see that Rondo responds very fast and lives up to the great comments that people have made.

Well, this guitar would be great for modding if they stopped putting so much clear on the neck and toned down the yellow (don't expect it to have the orange tint you see in the pictures, it's more of a puke yellow with orange highlights). Still, structurally it's a great neck that would be even better without the clear and stronger truss rod. Swamp Body is a great starting point.

I bought this guitar with the same intentions as most people buy this guitar and the lower end SX strats... to mod... but what's the point when you have to remove the finish from the neck and all the hardware and at some point even the electronics... it's not worth it for $199, but the $99 sx may very well be worth it.

The neck is a nice big strong neck with big frets and would be great without the finish being so overdone. I'm repeating this so much because so many others have said nothing but great things and it's very misleading...

My thinking was if the neck was as nice as they say it is and I get a beautiful swamp ash body then I've got a great modder... well the neck failed to live up to the reviews... so back it went.

The Good (The Body)
The Bad (The Hardware)
The Ugly (The Neck)

21 frets 3 single coils traditional vintage strat, Alder body, maple neck etc. I'm giving a 10 here because if you're looking for a vintage strat then this guitar has all you need. The neck is a little fat but to me it felt great

Don't let anyone fool you, if you're buying this guitar for the vintage sound, then you will be blown away by how close these pickups sound so much the fender 57 pickups. I originally thought for sure I was going to change the pickups but once I heard them and played them I quickly decided this guitar was not going to be a Frankestein. I has a great neck and body. I changed the nut and I might change the pickup selector but I install in it itw will be to keep imporve on the original configeration.
After I set up the action to Fender specs this guitar sound and feel
as good if not better than many american made fenders. if you don't know how to do a setup aguitar then by all means spend whatever amount needed and you will be way a head! Guitar 99! Setup is how much? for under a couple of hundreds you will have a true vintage strat. It's trully amazing that I was going to spend some money on after market necks and bodies and as I was lookig I heard about SX and came here for the reviews. You know the rest

If you don't care for the vintge sound then this guitar could be a great strating point to modifiy in any way you like, good neck good body and the rest is up to you

The action was very high. It was playble but it was somewhere near 8 to 9/64!! the good news I was able to bring it down to somewhere around slightly less or at 4/64 at the first 4 strings and 5/64 at the 5ht and 6th. These are almost the identical numbers suggested by fender at their website.

I kept three springs tenstioned with a distace of 23/32 fro the body cavity and the bridge is somewhere less than 3/32 for the body surface.
The pickups distance were neck 6/64, middle 5/64 and bridge 4/64.
if you want to go higher and retain the vintag sound i wouldn't go any higher than adding 1/64 t the above numbers. IF you really want volume raise the volume knob, don't raise the pickups, turst me on this, if you know tone you won't believe your ears.

This setup yielded a tremelo that stays in tune with light use and responds smoothly to the mere touch of your hand
I didn't like the nut so I changed it to a graph tech tremelo nut Preslotted so that wasn't so bad. I filed the new nut down after I nodged the old one with a small block of wood lightly tapping with a hammer came right out. After I put the new nut, there was good improvement but the original nut would have been ok. The finish is trully goregeous. I will give this category a 10 becuase if you want to buy a stratocaster to get rediculously low action then you have just bought the wrong guitar and I think 1/16 is damn nice action for any guitar for that matter.

This guitar will very likely outlive a few generation if it's not left out in the rain or hidden in a moldy basement but then again you never know

Kurt is very responsive. i sent an email at 4 AM got a reply around 7:am. It was a question about the order I placed.

I have to give it a 10 because every new guitar needs a setup and for a vintage strat this guitar has that sound. Most people including me buy it with the intention of swaping pickups but those of us who appreciate vintage tone will likley keep the guitar as is (changing the nut and basic electronics only enhances the vintage tone).
I will buy another one to modify with other pickups and I have no doubt that I will get a great guitar because the one i got has a great sound unplugged. I've been playinf for close to 20 years and I've played many guitars 20 to 30 times the price of this one and this one doesn't sound inferior.

Not sure what year it was made. 21 frets, standard S/S/S coil configuration. Alder body (same as Fender), maple neck with vintage tint. Regular standard Stratocaster body style, full size. String-thru body, steel bridge saddles, upgraded tuners and looks like a graphite replacement nut, and tremolo bar. The body and neck look and feel (except for slightly different headstock) exactly like Fender.

Very close to a vintage Strat sound. I'm using a solid state amp, but I can still here that very "Strat-type" sound coming from this thing. It sounds just like a Stratocaster should sound. The 5-way switch will give you all the variations you expect from a good Stratocaster. It does have the single-coil hum that you will get on even the most expensive Fenders. I can definitely get the Hendrix tone, SRV tone, with good, clear not separation in chords. I am very impressed with the sound. Especially at this price-point.

I got mine second hand from an estate sale. So I don't know what the factory set-up was like. I still had to do some minor adjustments, but that is to be expected from any guitar that you buy. As mentioned before, it looks like the factory nut has been replaced, as well as the tuners. I forgot to mention before that the pickguard was also replaced, and the plastic control knobs were replaced with chrome speed knobs. There is a small space between the top of the pickguard by the neck pickup and the neck itself. It might just be a poor fit with the replacement pickguard. My guess is that the body may be routed for H/S/H pickups, just as the new American Standards are. I haven't removed the pickguard yet, so I can't be sure. The finish is a beautiful 3-tone sunburst. I have owned an American Standard Strat, and it really does compare. VERY GOOD QUALITY!!! EXCELLENT VALUE!!

While I am not gigging professionally, I have owned pro gear. I believe with some minor upgrades this guitar could definitely surprise you. Again, it is an EXCELLENT value. It's a very solid-feeling guitar. Definitely as good as the MIM or Squire Standards, for a fraction of the price. Yes, you could play live with this guitar. I am so happy with it, and because I'm a huge David Gilmour fan, I plan on getting another in CAR (candy apple red).

As far as I know SX guitars are sold exclusively through Rondo Music Online. I will find out how they are when I purchase a NEW SX SST SE Stratocaster! I have heard though that they are very good in customer support.

I have been playing guitar off and on since I was 10 years old. I got serious about it when I was about 20, and that was 30 years ago. So yes for quite awhile. I have owned all the great guitars, Gibson Les Pauls, SGs, Fender American Standard Strats, Teles, Marshall, Fender, and Peavey amplifiers. Lots of toys over the years. This guitar surpasses what I would expect from something at this price. These are currently $99.00 USD through Rondo's website. Simply incredible. I like the solid feel and finish of this SX SST Vintage. If it were stolen, I would definitely buy another. Heck for this price, buy 2 or 3!

Standard Strat style features. Vintage 6 screw tremolo, plastic nut, Vintage white body color, tinted neck. Body is 3 piece alder, 21 fret Maple neck with Maple fingerboard. Import quality tuners, bridge, etc. 2009 Made in China. Jumbo frets. Because of the nut and tuner quality, I give "features" an 8

OK. This is my 2nd go around with this guitar, as I sent the 1st one back due to shipping damage and defective bridge saddles. As far as sound, after set up and pickup adjustment, I am impressed. The 3 ceramic magnet pickups are hot and quiet. They are a bit too bright and brittle, but this guitar sounds like a strat should sound, in all pickup configurations. I am comparing this guitar to a Custom Shop '58 relic I once owned. The CS relic obviously sounded better, but at $3,000 + it should. I have played the snot out of this thing with numerous POD X3 models, and really enjoy the sound. I have recorded with it using a very accurately modeled vintage Marshall, and it sounds great. The middle pickup is reverse wound for noise cancelling, but all in all, the guitar is very quiet and stratty, no apparent mis-wiring or grounding issues. For th price, wow!

Set up was non-existent. I immediately adjusted the truss rod, set the string height, adjusted the pickup heigth, set the intonation and tuned it up. Because the nut is cheap plastic and the strings trees are rough, the tuners felt horrible. After putting some lipbalm on the underside of the string trees, and penciling some graphite on the nut, the tuners felt better, no pulling, quite smooth. Finish is very good, the wood in the neck is beautiful, with very nice figuring design. After set up and alot of oplaying, I must say this guitar plays very well. The action is vey low, it stays in tune, and the neck plays very fast. This is quickly becoming one of the best playing guitars I have owned. Knobs and pickup selector feel very solid, even though I know they are cheap, there are no issues.

This guitar will definately withstand live playing. The 1st one I got from Rondo worried me. Along with the shipping damage, there were stress cracks on both sides of the neck pocket, and the saddle adjust screw stripped out on the 3rd string saddle, rendering the guitar unplayable from the outset. On the replacement, the bridge and saddles seem guite good, although the tremolo block is small, pot metal, and will eventually be updraded.

Although I generally don't use the tremolo on a strat much, I put this through the paces and the guitar did go overly out of tune, which was surprising. The guitar is very solid and has a quality feel to it. It will go well with my Epiphone Les Paul on stage.

Kurt at Rondo offered an incentive if I wanted to keep the 1s one, I did not, so it was sent back and replaced with a perfect condition replacement. Kurt at Rondo answered every email promptly, and updated me on order status regularly. Excellent customer service.

I have been playing for over 24 years now. I started out as a drummer, and eventually became a jack of all trades. I have played in bands most of my adult life, on guitar, bass, and drums. I somehow got the recording bug years ago and have become very skilled at engineering and production. I like to think I have a good ear, ad definitely know good tone when I hear it.

Having a wife and 3 kids, my budget for another guitar was very limited. I read everything I could find on this guitar before ordering, and I am glad I did. I have many upgrades in mind for this thing, a new trem with a fullsize block, an Earvana nut, better tuners, and eventually better Alnico Pickups. However, as it is, stock, I am loving this guitar! Solid feel, great action, stratty tone, and it stays in tune. The neck is truly special, just like all the review hype about it. I will probably get another, to mod with a Fender licensed neck. Strip off the Poly finish, paint it black nitro, and relic it. I miss my '58 relic, and love he look of a reliced strat.

Don't hesitate to add this guitar to any collection. For the price, there is no better deal, and with some work, these guitars play well above the pricepoint.

SX sst 57 in vintage white "VINTAGE SERIES" model - 2009. I was looking for an alternative to the FENDER standard M.I.M STRAT ( since FENDER has jacked UP the price of the standard from a street price of $399 to a whopping $549 ...ADIOS FENDER) Out of frustration I decided to search online and stumbled across these SX guitars. WOW vintage tinted maple neck , alder body,sealed tuners, 3 ply pickguard , vintage tremelo, single coil pick ups , 5 way switch, vintage white finish; ok looks good . Price was $99 plus shipping- decided to test the water with this one first . If this one was gig worthy I would order another. When the guitar arrived I was not going to delude myself by thinking no set up would be necessary and had my tools ready to set it up to my tastes. Upon opening the box I noticed right away the action was " CHEESE GRATER" high. With the supplied allen wrenches I was able to reset the neck enough to adjust the saddles for a nice buzz free action. 15 minutes later I had it set ...time to tune up and plug it in!

I play rock , blues ,jazz ,c&w or what have you, and play regularly in church as well as public gigs. I ran this SX thru Fender Blues DEVILLE, REDBEAR MK50 CUB COMBO and VOX PATHFINDER 15r. I grabbed my M.I.M Fender standard STRAT (also in white )to do a side by side comparison. With the SX I found a great sound with either amp altho the stock pickups lacked definition; there just wasn't enough clarity between the notes of chords with the SX that I came to enjoy from FENDER. Still the SX came thru with the FENDER DEVILLE giving a very Fender -ish tone altho more similar to a MUSTANG than a STRAT. The SX output was slightly less than a FENDER and due to the lack of note detail a pickup upgrade is a must. Pickups get this an 8 .

AS stated the action out of the box was horrible but once adjusted was great. The neck was well done with a slick orange tinged finish. To my surprise the frets were well dressed and did not have the " IMPORT PALM -SHREDDER" feature found on most import guitars in this price range. The nut was a little cheesy but was entirely functional and presented me with no issues. The tuners held up fine and I do not see replacing them soon. There were no finish flaws and the guitar looked great . When doing a side by side comparison with the FENDER , the SX held its own in fit and finish. On the merits of the quality of neck alone I would give this a 9 ..the overall beauty and finish of this guitar earns a solid 9.

One of the things I love to do is find sleeper and awaken it to its's full potential. After my initial set up I took the SX out for its first gig! ( I NEVER gig without a back up ...anyone that gigs on a regular basis knows " MURPHY'S LAW " will SCREW up the intonation on your PRS Private Stock or yank the input jack right out of your GIBSON ES 335 at the worst time.) I however did have my trusty FENDER STRAT on standby. Playing the SX halfway thru the set on a few slow songs gave me the courage to let fly with a bendey ALBERT KING blues solo on the next song . The SX did sound bluesy thru the FENDER Blues Deville and did very well , altho the slight volume loss and lack of definition made me wish I would have grabbed the FENDER instead. VERDICT :PICKUP UPGRADE ( I'm thinking CARVIN PREWIRED PICKGUARD) The finish seems thinner than FENDER as I got a nice nice pea sized ding in the finish right away banging into a mic stand ....oh well $99 bucks not $999 ! The hardware seemed sturdy enuff for gigging ..I dont forsee changing them soon. Once I change out the pickups this SX will gigged bwith for sure! For the pittance paid for this guitar you get a whole lot of bang for the buck a well finished well made BEAUTIFUL guitar that with a pick up swap will give you a solid guitar to gig with! I WILL BUY ANOTHER RIGHT AWAY!!

Cmon this thing is a steal, don't hassle the man , buy it and tweak it yourself. If you do not have the cash to spring for a tech to go over your SX this is the time for you to learn and save HUGE. SOLID beautiful well finished neck and a well finished body in a good selection of colors is well worth the $99

I have been playing guitar for 15 yrs and mainly use Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Strats . I have several Mexican made Fender Strats for daily use which I have come to love. Due to FENDERS' insane jump in street price i.e $399 to $549 I chose the SX SST 57 as my new daily gigging guitar. I will buy several more . YES if bwere lost or whatever I would not hesitate to grab another . GREAT BUY!!

Recently I received my 57 Vintage guitar from SX and it's a beautiful axe. The guitar came in perfect condition with the exception of a missing screw which was a very minor thing. The tones are great as well as the pickups. It feels like a Fender strat. I'd recommend this product to anyone.

I've been playing guitar over 10 years now and honestly can't hear the difference between a fender strat and my SX. If it were a blind test, I'd think it was a 57 fender strat. I'm using a BXR 25 Fender bass amp with the guitar and it sounds great with it. The guitar sounds like a top of the line brand but only costed $99. You won't find a better deal.

The guitar wasn't really set up at all. I could tell that it was probably never played before, just put together and thrown into the box. The set up was way off. However setting it up myself allowed me to set it to fit me perfectly, it just took some extra time and was tougher because of the missing screw.

The guitar will withstand live playing and the hardware seems like it will last. The finish should last and the only part that has started to wear is the top of the neck and that's because of the allen wrench when I tried to set it up. You can depend on it. If it broke I'd buy another one.

I bought the guitar on a Tuesday and was playing it by Friday. It was shipped quickly. I never had to deal with the notorious Kurt because I didn't have any problems and didn't need to call Rondo.

Honestly, you won't find a nicer guitar that actually sounds like a genuine strat for less money. You could buy a more expensive Squier, but you'll just be paying more and will receive a poorer sounding guitar. The Sx SST 57 blows all other copies out of the water. Also as a side note, all 57 models are vintage, not just the white.

SX SST57 Vintage white, made in China. Alder body, maple neck and fretboard with a vintage-esque amber tone to the wood which turns out a bit too orange but to an extent makes it look more vintage. Cheap import hardware; tuners, tremolo and pickups but they're all something you can change.

The pickups are stock and weak but do an alright job for the price of the guitar. I wasn't expecting it to have top of the line pickups out of the box but they're not bad for what they are.

The neck is chunky and took me a few days to get used to, after a new set of strings and a saddle adjustment the guitar plays really well. Out of the box it wasn't too terrible but it wasn't to my standards.

Import hardware is junk, change it out and you'll have a solid guitar at an unbeatable price! The hardware really brings this score down.

Mine came in damages but Rondomusic made it worth while! I can't say enough about Kurt.

I bought this guitar to modify in the first place, if you're expecting a gig ready guitar out of the box don't even try. If you're wanting a solid no frills guitar you can swap things out on, whether you're a beginner and you're afraid to take a soldering iron to your Les Paul or you're a profession who'd taken a soldering iron to all of their gear, these guitars are worth giving a try!

Well its a strat. A strat with a big "S" with an atitude. Litlle rough around the edges with some flaws ... nobody is perfect, but this baby got caracter and can stand its own graund with a pride. The best fature is no doubt the neck, heavy laquer beautiful neck ... certanly one of the best neck i ever played and i have a lots of guitar and lots of strats. it gots vintage tuners, cant beat them, body is heavy nice finish, mine is black with maple neck. U just got to do your own set up and it may take a litle more time like usual, but ita a big pay off.

Sound. I have mexican, american, squire, g&l as a strats. As i plug this baby in and start to play ... well i ve got tears in my eyes its that good. Its got tons of character a big sound, articulate sound. I realy dont know how they do it for such a price, If u forget about the tag on the head and close ur eyes and just listen, its everything u want from the strat, belive me its just cant get any better. Pickups are not so sweet sounding like on g&l and not so lifeless like on mexican, they are wild ... dynamic, with some fine amplification u can get all strats sounds u want ... purple, hendrix, SRV, knopfler ...

As i say u need to do your own set up. take your time. Quality of the neck is just perfect. I used to have sx tele, sx ash strat (also a great guitar i just dont like natural ash as it looks) and now i have sx bass ... and they all have beautifil necks. Body finish is flawless. Electronics ... pickups are great, potenciometers are not so great, but i can live with that. This guitars have no money values, but they are keepers. Belive me i have some crap strats they look and sound like some f**** plastic toys, but not this one. This one sounds like a 57 strat ... just listen thats all u need.

as woods parts and finish ... its a strat its a tank its a haevy peace ... Electornics u may need to change, but keep the pickups. Tuners r vintige ones and they can coupe with lockin tuners anytime.

never deal with them

I have a lots of guitars, some i buy some i trade... right now i have fender cij telecaster, les paul supreme and this baby ... i just love sx guitars, they r wild beasts and beautiful guitars ... and what is most importand they sound and play great, give them some reverb and some overdrive and u r in strat heaven. For that kind of price there s no better deal. For this one i trade some amp twice the price of a new sx 57. But it was worth it.

Strat knockoff, made in China, solid (3 piece) alder body, Sunburst finish, Maple fretboard maple neck, s-s-s pickup configuration. Very nice looking right out of the box. Bought it strictly as a project. The body & neck are a great base to begin with so for that it gets an 8

Fairly lifeless sound as stock but that was expected. First off I shielded the body cavity. Then dropped in a set of BL Keystones, changed out the pots with CTS, soldered in new caps & resistors (custom values from internet research, ie: "woman tone") Did 5 way switch mod using push/pull vol pot for getting the two extra p/u combinations. Very sweet & extremely gig usable after all this. Twas much fun along the way. Strat types guitars are the easiest to do this sort of thing with & you come away with a much better understanding of what makes them tick. Make a change or a mod, try it out, make the next change & try that out etc. After all these upgrades I truly can call it a 9 in the sound category.

The action was mediocre but I was able to dial it in pretty dang nice. Certainly not a race car but I'm no race car driver. Great bluesy feel to it. Something you can really grab on to & pull the tone from. It intonats well with saddle adjustment room to spare. Had to flip a couple bridge saddles to gain more adjustment but it was there to be had. Just enough truss rod adjustment available to get some slight relief to the neck & drop the action to a very usable level. The tuning keys were bottom of the line so that was a necessary change. Now it's very serviceable & reliable. Finish & color are quite nice & allow me to kick this part up to an 8

Seems durable enough so far. Pretty sure it wouldn't survive a Pete Townsend attack though. Few do. Like I have said, it now is quite gig worthy but not before going all through it. For me that was just good clean fun & was my plan anyway. Better pick-ups are a must & the Bill Lawrence Keystones make this great fun to hear & play. For the money($99.00) it's a prefect choice for "Project Frankencaster" It sounds great on Zep,Beatles,any blues,etc. It has great tone & a nice feel, now.

I've purchased several guitars from Rondo & love them all. Great fast service from them. My others are Agiles but this is my first SX. I just might get another.

I've been playing since,.... well, all those oldies were brand new when I first learned them. I'm just a weekend warrior these days but it's still good fun & great therapy. Got some nice enough pro gear to try & do it up right as possible. Mesa 5:50, Fender telecaster w/Bardens, DeArmond M75T w/TV Jones, a couple of Agiles: AL3000 with great stock P-90's (nearly my favorite to play) & and an AS820 with Bill Lawrence L500's(too sweet). All analog pedals like Carl Martin, FullTone, TC Elec.,Maxon OD808. All goes together pretty well for getting what I think is a nice straight ahead tone that I've spent way too much time & money hunting for.

What year was it made? 2007

Where was is madeMade in China

Body and neck woods? Sunburst Tele copy with tinted neck kind of fat. Giant frets. I know, not vintage, but eeeaasy to play. I like neck. Neck good. Alder body, generic pups. Only a 5 cause Teles are plug n play. No bells and whistles

BUY BUY BUY! I paid $135 to Rondo music and this instrument was shipped to my door. I play a Fender Hot Rod Deville with JJ 6v6 tubes and this guitar sounds great with no effects. Full sounding pups loads of twang. No brittleness at all even on the bridge pup. Neck pup is a little more muffled sounding than the fender tele I used to have. I don't care cause the in betwen sound is great. If you're into teles, but can't do a genuine fender for whatever reason, this is one of those deals that people will talk about when they're not available anymore.

Me and the other guys in my band have bought a total of 4 of these guitars between us and they all have some minor issues. Mine has a few buzzy spots around the 12th fret. My buddie's has a buzzy 1st fret B string. The others I didn't examine closely. Mine plays great, really great (other than the buzzy frets mentioned) and I didn't do a thing to it out of the box. Point is for the money this is a steal. I would never buy a standard mexi tele over the internet. I've played too many of them and they can vary widely. Maybe the fenders can be set up better, but for my money I'm extremely hapy with my SX. I have never played an American Tele and I don't beleive these are meant to compete in that market. So, if you're a seriuos American Tele guy or a pro then you probably wouldn't be reading this anyway.

I've read that these have cheap electronics and switches. I don't care. Replacement parts are cheap. I have gigged with this guitar and it stays in tune and plays and sounds great.


Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off with lots of playing?

Once agan it was so cheap I don't care. Having said that the finish appears flawless and seems to be durable.

Would you use it on a gig without a backup? Yes I have backups.

Rondo was very helpfull when my wife ordered a different guitar for me for Christmas. I'm not sure what the deal was, but they somehow accomodated an extended return policy in case I didn't like it, since she bought it way before Christmas. Shipping is always reasonable and quick. I have not had to complain so I don't know how they handle that.

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
Been playing as a hobbyist and bar gigs for 30 years. I have owned 2 Gibson Les Pauls and 3 Fender American Strats, a Fender Tele and numerous other less and more expensive guitars. I don't know if the Tele was american or not. When I owned it in the 80's I didn't know to check. It was just ok (PUPs not potted). I play bluesy rock and stuff. Have played reggae, funk, hard rock, jazz etc. Grew up in the 70's so thats my main reference. Anyway I have enough background to be qualified to recommend this guitar. It's really really a good deal. Purists, like my guitar tech. Jim, don't bother. You wouldn't anyway.
What do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?
Like neck big frets and sound. Don't hate anything.
If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else
Definately buy again and wish the thief a happy life, cause it's sooo cheap.

This is a standard SSS strat copy, made in China like everything else. The only "feature" this has is the dark varnished maple fretboard. It looks very nice, and is about the same color as you see on Fender's Mexico made 50's Stratocasters.

The neck and middle pickups sound 90% as good as the Mexican Strat I used to have (ceramic pickups). I play with a good bit of overdrive, and this warms up the sound so that I would never describe it as "thin" or "tinny" (both of which are common criticisms of Stratocasters). These pickups don't make the famous Strat "quack"; I never cared for this sound anyway. The bridge is a bit too nasally sounding, and needs to be hotter than it is (you really don't get any boost in output when switching from the middle to bridge positions). Also, all three pickups don't respond super well to the bass strings-there isn't the high level of bite that you might expect. However, I know full well that I'm reviewing a $100.00 guitar. I have no intention of changing the pickups; they really do sound good enough, and no, I'm not a complete beginner or some kind of moron who doesn't know any better. Put it this way; when you play this guitar, you know that it sounds like a strat. If you don't like it, turn up the reverb a little bit.

There really was no set up. I knew it would be this way, so I wasn't disappointed. I looked up on the internet how to set string intonation (not as hard as it sounds), and I changed the strings out to GHS boomers (10s). The little claw that holds the trem springs needed to be tightened a lot. Stock, there wasn't enough tension on the springs to keep the bridge from pulling completely away from the body. So, I tightened the claw (very easy to do), installed a fourth spring (which I had in the junk drawer), and raised the saddles with the allen wrench that came with the guitar. Total set up time was about 20 minutes, and it didn't cost me anything! I'm sure you can do this level of set up yourself, and it will save you the $35.00 the pot smoking guitar tech dude down at the Guitar Center would charge you.
I will admit; the finishing of the fret ends could be better. If you shred like Yngwie, you won't like the way they feel. If you mostly play rhythm, or just poke around with old country songs like I do, you won't notice the frets. But you perfectionists out there will want to get the fret ends taken care of.

The finish on the neck is absolutely beautiful. A few missed spots with the varnish (for instance, inside the hole where the truss rod is adjusted). The body is beautiful (I got the classic sunburst-it looks very nice). It seems to me that the body is a hair thinner than my old MIM strat, but I don't own it anymore so I'm not able to say for sure. The switch feels pretty good, and it works right. But I'm sure they saved some money on the switch, so if you need the thing to be perfect you will probably want to have a Fender switch installed.
The hardware is actually better than it ought to be on a one hundred dollar guitar. If you just add up the sum cost of the neck, the body, the electronics and the tuners, you are well over the hundred dollar mark. How do they do that?

Rondo Music is a class act. They deliver exactly what they promise. The guitar looks even better in person than the photos on Rondo's website. They don't "oversell" their products. They got the thing from New Hampshire to Mississippi in just 5 days, and didn't overcharge for shipping. I'm very pleased with their honesty.

I've been playing for 3 years. I am self taught, but really not a horrible player. It sounds like a Strat. I wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with this guitar in a live setting. In fact, it's great looking, it feels very nice, and it is a perfectly presentable guitar. Any teenager with a birthday coming up would absolutely love you forever if you bought him (or her) this guitar. You will be kicking yourself trying to figure out how they can deliver this kind of quality (and sound!) for a mere hundred bucks. I used to own a $200.00 Squier Telecaster, and this SX is easily the equal to the Squier, and for half the money.

The Vintage White strat style from SX out of China, three decent sounding staggered pole single coils, 5 way, vintage 6 screw vintage trem, plastic nut, alder body, maple fretboard on maple neck, SX sealed tuners, 2 chrome string Ts. All the chrome appears medium thick. The maple neck is very nice with 21 jumbo frets that weren't finished in the ends, yellow color is dark and has walnut skunk stripe on bottom. "D" shaped neck. The white paint is thick and matches the plastic except for the white pickguard-3 ply WBW. The "aged look" is kind of ivory in some light but has a lime green tint in most light. Master Volume Neck, not middle tone, and reversed bridge tone. Came with small and large hex keys.

The neck pickup is very bluesy and variable depending on the tone for it, which is a nice change. The tone for the bridge was reversed, probably a screw up, but still gives the bridge all the way to a real telecaster twang. So you can get it all between the two even more than a regular strat. The pickups have a tendency to get noisy, probably need more shielding, but they don't have that real annoying chime--just right instead. Harmonic feedback is controllable and similar to a '68 Fender. It gets noisiest on highest treble settings and gain. I haven't been able to really rip it up because of the fret ends.

Finish was very good, set up was non-existent. Very flawed unfinished fret ends will take a day of sanding, filing, and steel wooling. It took hours to get it intonated, action height adjusted, trem spring tension and had to move them to outboard on two, and neck straightened. The hex nut is very deep and hard to reach, and string damaging with the movement it needed. The color just was wrong for a real vintage look, with that lime green glow that it tends to have. Action was way high. The pickup heights are OK for now. The plastic still has to come off of them and the pick guard.

It seems solid enough, but I would have a backup for string breakage. The finish and plating are thick enough to last. I wouldn't trust the nut to last long. It would definitely need a couple more springs with heavier that 10s. Big Bends Nut Sauce is a necessity along with Dunlop 65 or String Eze with those jumbo frets.

I had a week to return it , and almost did when I couldn't adjust the truss rod at first. The limey color, too and the fret ends were worse than a Mex strat. After I work on the frets, the neck alone is worth the price.

Too long to remember and too much to count. I'll be putting in Gold Locking Wilkinson tuners and straplocks, creme overwound pickups with full sized alpha pots, creme knobs for VTT, and I may paint over the green white cheese with almond then clear, which I think will have the look I want. I got it for that Hendrix at Woodstock look and sound, and would brutally kill anyone who stole it, even though it was only 100 bucks.

Strat knockoff, made in China, solid (3 piece) alder body, maple neck, s-s-s pickup configuration. I love the color - Vintage green with a amber-colored maple neck.

Not bad acoustic (unplugged) - very close to my American-made Strat. Plugged in the stock pickups sound harsh and lifeless. I put in some different pickups (out of a Korean Squier) and it actually sounded pretty decent. Vol/tone pots work OK, and you can get a variety of usable tones. I think it is capable of sounding pretty good if you drop in some good pickups. I'll probably stay with something inexpensive like GFS or Bill Lawerance Keystones.

Body paint (vintage green) is very nicely applied. There was a couple of varnish runs on the fretboard. It is not the thick, gobbed-on poly finish you often find in budget Asian imports. Body/neck joint is good, parts all fit like they should. Neck is straight and solid, large frets, no sharp edges, no buzzes. It came pretty well set up out of the box. After I changed the strings it needed intonation set, a little tweek to the truss rod and strings lowered a bit. The stock strings are worthless... won't stay in tune and actually hurt your fingers, even though they are very light guage (9's?). The nut is cheap, soft plastic and not cut well. The pickguard is white, and looks nice, but had some rough edges. The pickups and knobs are sort of yellowish to make them look vintage... they look very cheezy.

The body/neck is solid. No issues there. The tuners are poor quality and don't hold tune very well. The trem block is very thin and made of some sort of base metal (not steel). The vol/tone pots were very stiff at first, but loosened up. They seem to work OK, but are the small, cheap ones and probably won't last. The pickup selector is quiet and works OK. Strap buttons are small. I'm afraid the strap would fall off. The pickups look like they come out of a Fisher-Price toy... cheap, molded plastic.

I would not take this to a gig in stock form.

It was shipped quickly. I bought a guitar from Rondo once before that I had to return, and they were good to deal with.

I purchased this to use as a platform for modding and experimenting with various wiring options. The only parts of this guitar that are really servicable as a "professional quality" guitar are the neck and body. The rest will be replaced. There are a bunch of very positive reviews of SX guitars here that say they are "just as good as a real Fender" and a few that say they are trash. If you are expecting to get a guitar that stacks up to an American or Mexican strat, you'll be disappointed. It is a $100 guitar. If you are lucky and get a good one, it may be as good as an Affinity Squier. If you are a beginner with no knowledge of basic guitar set-up, know that for this guitar to be at all usable you will need to install new strings and have it set up by someone who knows how to do that. If you are getting this as a platform to mod or build your own... it has possibilities - the body is nice and the neck is decent. For another $200 or so into new pickups, tuners, electronics, and trem unit I'm hoping to end up with a pretty good sounding/playing guitar that should stack up pretty well with a MIM strat. It will never be as good as a MIA strat. My overall rating is based on out-of-the box, and considering it only cost $100. Compared to a REAL Strat I'd give it a 2 or 3.

SX SST 57 Vintage - Vintage White Strat Cost $109. Maple skunk stripe neck with maple fretboard and jumbo frets. All hardware from factory: 3 Single Coil Pickups, 5 position switch, Factory tuners, two tone knobs and one volume.
Came from Rondo Music with absolutely no flaws. All I needed to do to play this guitar was tune it. The action is a little high near the body but can be reset and will be just fine.
Under the right lights, the vintage white finish looks like key lime green... cool color.

I am just starting to play again... don't do well, but have been able to play some simple riffs, and actually make them sound like they should. I use a Line 6 Spider III 15 watt amp, which gives me enough options to make the guitar sound pretty much the way I want it. With more practice I think the guitar will really shine.
I have had no trouble at all with buzzing or other noises that have been nothing more than my inexperience.
I have been able to play a little Pink Floyd with amazing results.

As I said the action is a little high, and I will have that set when I can. The neck feels good; there are no sharp edges on the frets and the neck itself is a good fit with my hands. I do have a small problem with my fat fingers but that will improve with paractice.
The finish again is flawless and beautiful. I just love the lok of the vintage white and the maple neck and fretboard.

I don't have much of an opinion yet as to how long the guitar will last, playing live or otherwise, but it holds a tune very well, even with the cheap strings it came with.
The strap buttons need to be replaced with locks, but I think that would be the case with any buttons.

Rondo has been a great company to work with. The price of this quality of guitar is slightly unbalanced... The price should be higher. Rondo ships them with lightning speed. Got mine in three days from New Hampshire to Iowa over a weekend.

Great guitar, I would recommend it to any beginner or intermediate player.
If this axe ever gets "Nicked" I will buy another. Without hesitation.

2007 SX SST 57 Vintage with P-90 pickups, made in China.


For starters, the finish is nice and thick, with no flaws whatsoever. It can definitely hold up to more than its share of picking mistakes.

As for the body, it's the 1957 Fender Stratocaster, with some minor differences in the headstock. It's classic, and it's comfortable. Looks just like my cousin's Fender American Custom '57 reissue, save the the minor differences in the headstock. Not only does it look identical, the materials are identical as well. This is real Alder, and it's dense, heavy stuff.

The tuners aren't the best ever, but I really see no need to replace them (unless you play relentlessly, a la Husker Du). They're already keeping the guitar in tune, and I haven't even had it for ten hours yet. The nut is plastic, so it's robbing the guitar of quite a bit of sound.

The neck is solid maple. Yeah, solid maple, and not plywood. Surprising? Not as surprising as it being a *flamed* maple neck. I'm serious. It's so smooth on my fingers, and it's beautiful. It's got 21 frets, and to be honest, who needs more than that? This isn't a Metal guitar, remember.

The pickups are P-90s, so the features have been adjusted a bit (different selector switch, no third knob). It also came with a tremolo bar, though I only use it for looks at the moment. Overall, the hardware is good, but I'll be upgrading the pots, switches, pickups, and possibly tuners in the somewhat-near future.

The sound this guitar makes is outstanding, especially considering its price ($109). The P-90s really give the Strat a beefy edge, something that's missing in the single coil models. And not only does it give it some meat, it doesn't take any of the high-frequency jangle away, especially when you're just using the neck pickup. And these stock pickups are good, too, as there's no audible noise.

It's got a nice range of rich sounds that it can make, but it sacrifices the multitude of possible sounds a single coil strat can make in exchange for better overall sound quality. And in my opinion, that's a nice trade. This guitar can suit a lot of musical styles, but forget about Metal (well, unless you're as good as Randy Rhoads was).

That said, it could sound a bit better. The output's not quite as high as I'd like, and the pickups are missing a bit of heat and low end. A bit.

The action's at a medium level. Definitely playable, but it could go lower... All that's required is a truss rod adjustment (needs more tension in my case), and then a bit of bridge adjustment, and I'll be set. As for the frets, they're all perfect. Every single one of them, and they're *GASP* hand filed! I doubt that this guitar was a freak accident, because the fretboard is just too... Mechanical for that to have been the case. My guess is that SX has switched to computer-aligned frets in the production process.

Out of the box, the neck pickup was adjusted decently, but the bridge pickup wasn't even touched. It was almost inside the pickguard, and I quickly fixed that with a small screwdriver. Now, the pickups are in perfect position, and I'm getting the most out of them.

There are absolutely no flaws on this guitar. None. The initial setup can't be accepted as "flawed", as even $2,200 Gibsons need a setup. Every production line guitar needs a setup, no matter how big or small the job may be, and this guitar was no exception. But after it's set up, this guitar will play like a dream... And it already plays like butter, so keep that in mind.

I wouldn't even think twice about using this as my main guitar, if I were in a band. It's solid, it's sturdy, the finish is thick and smooth, and the hardware's not going to fall apart on you. There's not one single thing wrong with this guitar, and it's one that'll last for decades.

I'm not sure, as I've not yet dealt with Rondo Music. I just placed my order and waited for my package... Their shipping is speedy, and that's about all I can say.

I suppose their customer support is great, though, as a lot of people seem to rave about it.

I've only been playing for six months (I'm 19, though... late starter), but do understand that I'm obsessive about quality in absolutely everything I'm involved with. And this instrument is first-rate through and through.

If it were stolen, I'd hunt down and torture the bastard(s) whole did it. And I think that just about sums up how much this guitar is really worth.

It's a very no-nonsense guitar..strat type body and trem, 2 p-90's, 3 way toggle pick-up selector. Nice sealed tuners. Neck is strat scale but with a 50's gibson feel, thick, with a flat-ish radius. It's a nice piece of maple with a maple cap..cool! Body is mahogany. One volume, one tone pot. Came with a truss wrench and bridge wrench. Doesn't have a ton of features..just the ones you want..so I'm giving it a 10.

This guitar rocks! It's a blend of strat (body shape, neck wood, neck scale, and maybe a LP junior (mahogany body, P-90's, neck shape). I play lots of rock styles. The pickups, construction and materials add up to a balanced rock and roll sound. Great for ac/dc type rhythm playing, Probably not the best choice for metal styles. I wanted a P-90 guitar..tried Epiphone, Gibson, PRS, etc at GC. These pups have a nice tight midrange snarl.

Ok, for the money, excellent BUT here's what I found: Finish was nearly flawless. I'd prefer a thin nitro finish, but, for the money? can't whine too much! Body is a good piece of mahogany with nice grain and the 2 tone sunburst is nicely done. Pickups were adjusted perfectly..everything aligned first rate. The screws holding the tuning pegs weren't tight and the tuning peg collars. No big deal, just snugged 'em up and all is well. Action was a little high out of the box. I lowered it with the allen wrench provided and tightened the truss rod half a turn for a little less relief..perfect. I don't like a super glossy neck, too sticky feeling, so I carefully went over it with a FINE grit sanding sponge...knocks the gloss down without removing the finish..can restore the gloss with swirl mark remover. Then I removed some slight burrs on the bottom of the string trees with a metal file , put nut sauce on all the string contact points and restrung. Intonation needed to be set. Removed the tremolo spring cover...easy tweaks that make it play like a custom guitar! Frets were good.

Haven't had it long enough to say for sure but it feels pretty solid. I don't anticipate any problems.

Kurt answered my emails promptly and the guitar shipped right away. Beyond that I don't know about customer support. I noticed that they have new models based on customer requests..very cool.

I had been looking for a P-90 guitar for a while and kept coming back to this one. Finally hit the "buy" button. I own a lot of guitars including vintage Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, etc and this guitar is a lot of fun for cheap. I like the simple design...no gaudy cosmetic frills like a lot of guitars have these days. I don't think you can beat it for the money..just a little tweaking and it's sweet!

I'll just mention the best parts of the guitar:

Alder body - 3 piece
Maple neck in vintage
Pots are solid, but small, however they are fine, no upgrade needed
Output switch is solid

Now for the upgrades:
1) Gotoh Tuners
2) Graphite Nut
3) Fretlevel and crown + Polish
4) American Fender bridge - 6 hole vintage
5) New american 5 way switch
6) Rewired the bridge pickup to the tone pot

I will later put in bill lawrence keystone pickups.

I bought this guitar with the intention of upgrading it, so my rating is based on the wood quality. You can't get a neck or body for $100 bux these days, so this is the best deal around. I'm not even gonna include the rest in my rating.

And best of all, the body is routed for S/S/S. You can't even buy a guitar today that has that unless its a reissue fender.

Stock is sounded fine. With my effects board, anything will sound good. These sound just like any other pickup when run through my effects. But straight into amp, they sound fine. After the new 5 way switch, there was a slight improvement. I would rate the sound an 9 compared to an actual american fender.

Set up was alright. Nut sucked, tuners sucked, 5 way switch was alright but I wanted an upgrade, bridge is decent. The finish was flawless though. The frets were alright. JUST GET THIS GUITAR FOR THE WOOD!!

This guitar is reliable as hell now, shoot. I have two strats and this one is my favorite. My other strat is a 57 vintage reissue Made in USA.

Kurt is awesome!

Been playing for years now. I own two american kramers, agile les paul, american strat reissue, and a ton of pedals and amps.

Mind you, my guitar is far from stock. After all my upgrades, I prefer this to my vintage reissue, and I'll tell you why:

1) I'm not afraid to wear it down because it didn't cost so much
2) Its as durable as the reissue fender
3) The sound is the same, but I am gonna get new pickups
4) Feels more comfortable
5) Feels nicer

A few things to note:

1) I had to dowel and redrill to install new american bridge.
2) the bridge is set to float

Final comments:

My reissue obviously cost more, but the cost isn't justified. Remember, the quality of a guitar is the sum of its parts and workmanship, not just the name. The better parts you put in, the better the guitar will be, period. Seeing past the name, my SX is just as good as my vintage reissue. Some of you might slander me for saying this, but its true. I'm not even gonna get into that nitrocellulose lacquer crap that everybody loves because it doesn't make a difference in sound to have an effect on the human ear. If you can't hear it, whats the point? I know when we spend a lot on something, we expect it to be the best and better than the imitations, but things dont work out this way all the time.

Sunburst finish, Maple fretboard, Vintage tremolo Strat copy.
Purchased from Rondo Music for $112 with shipping. Check out their site for the specs.

Play hard rock and blues through a Behringer Vtone 210. Bridge pickup has some hum but expected through stock single coils. Middle pickups are quiet. Very good tone and clarity which was unexpected for this price. Has a good Strat sound. Pickups had more punch than anticipated.

Setup was not near as bad as other reviews I had read. I tweaked the neck a bit just because I put on .11 Power Slinky's. Action was a bit high and I lowered it as much as I could without any fret buzz. Couldn't get the action as low as I prefer but it's not too bad. Adjusted the pickup heights to my preference. The only issue I had is that I can't get rid of a minor fret buzz on the G & B strings at the 14th fret only. Intonation isn't perfect but that could be me. The sunburst finish is gorgeous. Tuning heads were better than I expected based on other reviews.

This is a solid guitar. Nice and heavy. Only hardware concern down the road would be the input jack which doesn't have as tight of a fit as I would like. I would not have any concerns gigging with this guitar and expect this thing to last just fine since I'm pretty gentle with my guitars.

I've had this guitar for about 6 weeks and haven't had to use customer support but I've heard that they are very good.

I've been playing for over 20 years and have owned cheap guitars before. This is not a $99 dollar guitar! I'm a bit of a bargain hunter which is why I was searching for an affordable Strat copy for my collection. I was very skeptical when I saw the SX line on Ebay because I had never heard of it. I did my homework on other knockoffs and kept coming back to the SX. I based my decision on the reviews from Harmony Central and it definitely paid off. If you are not hung up on the name on the headstock, this is definitely worth the money! I it were stolen or lost , I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

Finish: 3TS Sunburst Finish(absolutely gorgeous and flawless)
Body Style: Vintage Stratocaster Standard(Feels and looks like the real things)
Tuners: Comes with decent Sx tuners, not the best, not the worst. They work fine and I wouldn't even bother replacing them.
Neck: 21 jumbo frets with a rosewood finish. Frets are at a perfect hight out of the box
Year: 2007

When I plugged this guitar into my Fender DeVille, I was amazed at the sound quality. It sounds just like my friend's Highway 1 stratocaster that cost him over $1000. This guitar sounds awesome and has the classic stratocaster sound on all settings. I love it.

Action: I'm a soloist, so I rarely find a guitar out of the box with perfect action. This guitar was no exception. The action was at a normal level, for me it had to be adjusted. In the end, to get the guitar perfect, I had to adjust the saddles, truss rod, and intonation. Everything else was perfect
Pickups: Pickups were adjusted at a perfect position and still have not been modified.

The guitar has no flaws what so ever. You'd think I paid over $800 just by looking at the finish and not even playing it. Once you play it, you think its worth even more.

I already played this guitar at 3 live gigs and I had no problems at all. I got this guitar as a backup initially, but now its my primary over my Gibson Les Paul Custom($3,200) This guitar has it all. It is extreamly reliable. I depend on this guitar very much, but I never ever go to a gig without backup. Strings will always break, something always goes wrong during a gig. This guitar has proven to be very reliable though. Very solid

Never had to deal with rondo.

I've been playing for about 4 years now and have a Gibson Les Paul Custom, a Yamaha SA-500, a Fender Telecaster, and now my Sx Strat. The Strat is now my primary and favorite guitar out of them all. I love this guitar. If it was lost or stolen, I would be very upset, but since it was in expensive, would definatelly buy another one in a heartbeat.

This guitar is very deceiving. It seems like it is a very expensive piece of equiptment, but it's $100. I let a friend play it I asked him how much he thought I paid for it(he's been playing for 12 years, awesome guitarist, knows his stuff)He told me about $900...lol

I would highly recommend this guitar to even a professional player.

Features? It's got all that a strat has got through and through, standard stuff, nothing flashy. I ordered the stoptail version because: a)I don't tend to use tremelos even when a guitar has one, b)All of the reports of cheap and flawed tremelos on this guitar turned me off, and c)I have never felt this feature to be so vital that it's worth detuning my strings every time I use it. So, that's one feature that I won't be reporting on. Mine was made in China in 2006. The guitar came well packed with a tremelo arm (?) and two allen wrenches. The finish is three-tone sunburst, with a white pickguard which was cut poorly (though I'm very willing to overlook this). Tuners are SX brand, and are definitely cheap. However, after reading all of the reviews here that trash these tuners, I find mine to be just fine; they keep it as well-tuned as any other stock guitar tuners. The nut is plastic and cheap as well, but gets the job done for now. Electronics check out all right.

I play mostly blues through an EQ pedal and a Marshall amp, and this guitar is well suited to my needs. It can deliver on the deep blues notes when needed, plays good rhythm, and has great sustain in the upper and lower registers for soloing. There is a clicking noise on all settings when my hand is not on the strings, but it's not bad at all for cheaper single coils. Actually, I expected more idle noise than it has. I changed the strings out (it came with D'Addario EXL110 I believe) for D'Addario EXL120 (just my preference) and, though I lost some sustain, it's makes the lower strings especially a bit brighter. I was very impressed at how good this guitar sounds without amplification, which is one of my major tests of an instrument (and its quality of wood). I should also add that my sustain may be better than tremelo models due to the stoptail.

I was surprised at how well it came set up. I think I may have gotten lucky in this department. The action was almost right on, so I just adjusted the bridges a tiny bit, tuned it up, and was good to go. The pickups came set at the right height, and the nut is cut well. I really can't find any real fault in the finish except for a small knot on the backside, but I doubt it has any effect on the sound. The neck is acceptable but definitely not perfect on mine. The fretboard is just glued on and glazed over to blend in, and there is a small (very small) knick in the glaze near the 17th fret. That said, the fretboard itself is good with a nice finish and decent quality maple. The frets are filed well, no rough edges or any work needed there. The body wood is alder and is quality as well.

I would trust this for a show, but of course not without a backup (or two). The hardware should last for a good while, at least until I decide to replace the tuners, nut, switch, and pickups (More on this later); I see no reason that they'd break down. The strap buttons are just fine. I'm not one to thrash around a whole lot while playing, so I don't require much, but they're fine. I've only had it two weeks now, so I'm not going to rate this category.

Unknown. It was delivered in three days from NH to WI. I emailed customer support after receiving it just to ask if I needed to register the serial number, and got a reply a couple of hours later. Hundreds of people rave about their support, and I have no reason to doubt that it's worth raving about. I am not aware of any warranty.

I have been playing guitar for about six months, but have been involved in music for years and know a few things about guitars (though I can't say I'm an expert). I also own a Washburn WI64DL. At this point, if it were stolen or lost, I would absolutely buy another. If my washburn were stolen or lost, god forbid, I would be tempted to replace it with an SX (or perhaps an Agile) based off of my experience with the SST57. I really, really, like this guitar, but I do wonder if I got a "good one" since there's a few scattered reports from people calling theirs junk. But, that's complete speculation. If it cost twice as much, I'd still like it, but would probably want a better nut and tuners at least. My favorite feature is the price -specifically the freedom that the price gives me. I can swap parts here and there and not feel like I'm spending too much for too little as usual. I may not give this guitar the full customization treatment, but I could without going broke, and that's a great feeling. I very highly recommend this instrument, and I hope that everyone's experience with it will be as positive as my own.

this is a response to people who have talked up this guitar.this guitar is a complete piece of garbage.iv'e read people say on here that this guitar plays just like my fender reissue fender 57 strat.bullshit.this guitar looks feels sounds nothing like the real thing.i bought one of these guitars from rondo music and i can say for sure the build quality was very bad.some people say this is way better than a squier strat.i just bought a squier standard ltd strat and it is vastly better than this turd.

this guitar sounds terrible even if you replace the pickups.they say on there web site that this guitar is made with a alder body.it's not alder.the squier standard strat ltd i ordered has a real alder body.my squier is the limited edition verision the regular ones have a agathis body and they still sound way better than this guitar.they also come with alnico pickups.

this is where this guitar is really bad.the fit and finish where teribble.this guitar has a maple cap fingerboard.you could see glue squirting out where they mated the fingerboard to the neck they just finished over it.on some other spots of the glue joint you could see spaces between the neck and fingerboard again they just finished it over.piss poor quality.heres the reason i say this guitar does not have a alder body.i pulled the neck from mine to clean out the neck pocket and a piece of the wood between the neck pocket and pickup cavity was broken out.this wood did not smell or look like alder.i was able to take this piece of drift wood and break it into several pieces with just my fingers.this so called alder was very brittle.

this guitar is garbage.if you want a cheap guitar thas is well built buy a squier or a epiphone who also build very nice affordible guitars.i don.t see why anyone one would want to play this turd live.evey piece of this guitar is poor quality.the standard squier series guitars are all up graded with very good hardware and electronics and they only cost $100.00 more than this piece of shit.

will never buy anything from this company again.iv'e been playing guitar for over 20 years and this is one of the worst guitars i ever bought new.iv'e have exspencive guitars before but i like to buy and play cheap guitars now.all of my guitars are under $500.00.it's increadable what you can buy now in guitars for cheap.ibanez,samick,jay turser,and many more makers are building good guitars at cheap prices.cheap at these manufactures does not mean cheaply built.the sx is very cheaply built.why buy something this poorly built when you can buy a name brand with a full warrinity.there is a reason why your local music store dosen't carry this garbage.

This is for the SX VST57/LH/VWH.

Vintage White finish is not too shabby. I expected some flaws but was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Strat style guitar with all that implies (vintage-style trem, non-locking tuners, volume and 2 tone controls, S/S/S config, etc.). Maple neck and fretboard, alder body. 21 jumbo frets. All electronics and components are no-name, as one would expect for $99.

I was pretty impressed with this guitar. I have a Fender 50's Strat reissue and the "feel" of the guitar is comparable. By that I don't mean it's right on, but they obviously considered the neck and body shapes in designing this. It's a solid guitar, and the neck alone is worth the price. Came with extra trem springs and adjustment wrenches, no manual or other accessories though. I'm completely satisfied with what I got for the price.

I bought this to gut and redo, and fully expected it to sound like shite out of the box. For the most part, yeah it's not so great. But it's better than I expected. I have a 25w Fender amp, and when I plugged it in I immediately figured out where the cost savings come from. It's pretty limited in stock condition, but you can actually live with it which was a surprise.

That being said pickups aren't terrible if you just want something to bang on or are just learning. There's a great deal of variation between the pickups, too much in my opinion but maybe you might like it. The bridge pickup is reasonably bright and strong, the middle less so and the neck is downright muddy. It's cool to have tone variation, but there's too much too soon on this. Other than the bridge and bridge/middle settings, I'm hard-pressed to find a useable tone. It's a nice touch to have a reverse-wound middle pickup so you can get some out of phase sounds, though. As for noise, it's comparable in hum to a low-end Fender.

Seriously, who plays a guitar with the factory setup? You can play with it out of the box, but if you're at all serious expect to either put some work into this on your own or get a professional to help. But that applies to any guitar.

Factory setup on the action is reasonable, clearly they put some effort into it. The pickups were kind of randomly adjusted, so not so much effort there. The tremelo is screwed down tight to the body, but seems to be responsive. Finish on the neck and body are great, as is the fit.

The neck and body are outstanding for the price, better than a Squire in my opinion. As I've said before, the neck is worth the $99 price by itself. The tremelo is thin metal, so either replace it or take it easy with it. If you're a tremophile, it just won't stand up. For lighter use, it will be decent enough with some setup. Any use of the trem throws this thing way out of tune because the nut is cut laughably bad. I'd say that the nut might have been cut by monkeys, except monkeys would probably have done a better job. At least it would be funnier.

Pretty satisfied overall though. Well-constructed neck and body, better than a Squire. A half hour or so with the included wrenches and you're set other than the trem. Points off for the nut though, you'd think they'd spend the extra $2 for something decent. I'd pay $105 for this if they did....

Man, if you're so hard on guitars that you need to worry about them falling apart onstage, then you DEFINITELY need to buy $99 guitars. Other than the trem (and you oughta get that settled before gigging with it) yeah this is just dandy for onstage use.

I ordered it, it came in 2 days. I haven't had to deal with them for any problems, but they shipped quickly and securely and that's all I really ask for. No warranty information included, but Rondo's reputation for service gives me confidence.

This is the best investment dollar-for-dollar I've ever made on a guitar, and I've made a bunch of them. I've been playing for decades, and I own (or have owned) guitars of every price range. Up to a point you get what you pay for, after that it's just foolish. Personally, I subscribe to the theory that paying more than $1000 or so for a guitar is idiotic unless it's strictly for an investment.

I wanted a project guitar that I could gut and upgrade, and this is perfect. What surprised me is that depending on your playing level and style, you could even use this without major upgrades. I'd recommend this over any Squire or other similarly-priced Strat model, and I'm completely confident in saying that you couldn't get a better guitar for less than $200. I'll probably buy another of these to mess around with, and am planning on getting one of the Rondo basses soon just for the hell of it. So buy one already!

For a $99 dollar guitar, this is really a steal. The features at this price-point are incredible. The 57 Vintage I purchased is antique white (very close to the color of my Gibson Les Paul). Stratocaster body, 3 single coils, vintage tremelo, chrome tuners, skunk stripe maple neck and alder body. For $99 its not a junk guitar at all. Amazingly good !

I play country, rock, blues and contemporary Christian music. I play every weeek and have played for, ummm more years than I want to mention... I have AGE disease. I'm in my 40z, closer to 50 ... yikes! The guitar has amazingly good sound just the way it is delivered. I will change the pickups soon, but the stock pickups are really decent. I am surprised at how good actually. It sounds very stratty (is that a word?). There is definite definition to the sounds gained by all five positions on the main switch. Volume and the two tone knobs dial in different sounds.

The action out of the box wasn't very good. But, I've purchased high-end guitars and unless a music shop goes over them, they likewise have required a set-up to play decently. My guitar had no major flaws, a couple of very minor things that only someone looking very critcally would find (ie. small imperfection in the paint, end of the neck small spot in the stain finish, pickguard screws not driven straight, some scratchiness in the tone pots (not a good thing)). But, this is a $99 guitar... not a $999 guitar. It is not perfect but... for what it is.. this thing is amazing!

I just bought this, so I have not had enough time to assess durability. Anyone though that would gig without a backup is an idiot. Stuff happens. I've learned that across the years. Murphy's law do apply at any and all randomly selected gigs.
I may post again after living with the SX 57 for awhile. The strap buttons seem very solid and are tight, as is everything on the guitar. I would say the tremelo seems very light, the tuners are weak and the football shaped cord fitting/jack is of cheap construction.. but more on that later.

Here is where Rondo really shines! The big companies could sure take a lesson in customer service from Ronda and specifically from Kurt. Whatever Rondo is paying him, they should give him a raise. He responded to my emails very fast, on an inexpensive product, even in the rush of a busy Christmas season were product was flying out of their warehouse system he had time for me. Thanks, Kurt! In all honesty, this is the best customer service experience ever with a company. I had a similar experience with MTD as Michael Tobias took the time to answer my emails personally. Now that is service. I'm an MTD fan for life! Great basses by the way :)

I have to give this guitar a 10 for what it is at the $119 (including shipping) I paid for it. This would make a great starter instrument right out of the box for someone or a great fun and don't worry about it instrument for someone more advanced. With a good setup it can be made to sound really nice.
My plans for it.. after I play if for awhile and make sure there are no undiscovered flaws I'm not seeing, is to upgrade many of the components and turn it into something better than basic. I will be putting new locking tuners on it, upgrading the pickups to alnico texas premiums from GFS, rewiring the guitar with all new electronics (pots, capacitior, switch, cord football/plug). Eventually I will probably replace the tremelo.. but after the earlier upgrades are done.. I'll see if I want to put any more money into it. I bought the guitar for 119.. tuners, pickups and electronic upgrade 113. I hope to have something that sounds/plays well to gig with for under 250. That's a bargain.

Body finish: Black gloss paint w/ clear gloss lacquer
Neck finish: "Ambered" vintage lacquer

Strat body style

Import-spaced vintage-style tremolo (10.5mm string spacing)

Standard C-shaped neck with 13.7" radius maple fingerboard, 21 jumbo nickel frets

Only included "accessories" were a truss rod hex wrench and another hex wrench for adjusting the string height on the bridge saddles

Made in China in 2006.

3-piece alder body, 1-piece maple neck

Standard Strat controls: 1 volume, 1 neck pickup tone, 1 mid pickup tone

Pickups were low-output import no-namers. The pickups didn't sound bad, but they didn't sound very good either. They lacked sparkle, but would get the job done for a beginner.

Passive electronics.

Out of the box, the SST57 Vintage sounded OK. It wasn't noisy or defective in any way, but it was also kind of flat and uninteresting.

I purchased this guitar with the full intention of replacing the electronics, pickups, tuners and tremolo right away. I did play the stock guitar prior to tearing it down, just to make sure it wasn't defective.

I was almost shocked when the string height and intonation were very nearly set correctly. The .09 strings that came on it were crap, and they did not provide enough string tension to keep the stock tuners in tune. It was playable, but not very enjoyable to play. Once again, a good guitar for a beginner or someone who isn't very picky about tone (which isn't very many guitar players I know), but if you don't upgrade this guitar, it is really only a starter guitar or a "guitar kit in the making" as it is sold now. Surprising quality for $125 delivered, for sure.

I replaced the tuners with Wilkinson EZ-LOK tuners. I replaced the pickguard, fully shielded both the pickguard and guitar cavities. I replaced pickups with two GFS ProTube single-coils and a GFS Loudmouth humbucker. I also added in a Sprague Orange Drop 0.22uf tone cap, a 500K blender pot, a full-sized 500K tone pot and a 500K push-pull volume pot.

Why did I tell you all that in the Sound section? Well, after all those mods, this guitar sounded incredible.

Unmodified, the SST57 Vintage is a 5. But the potential for this guitar when properly modified is incredible. It gets an extra point for this fact.

Shockingly, the setup on this guitar was pretty good right out of the box.

The .09 strings on it didn't provide enough tension to keep the stock tuners in tune, which would be a MAJOR annoyance if I played .09s or lighter strings (which I don't.)

All body routs (under the pickguard and trem cover) were very rough, but everything that wasn't covered up was finished pretty darn well.

Another pain in the butt about this guitar is that it uses an import string spacing on the tremolo. This makes it impossible to replace the stock zinc tremolo sustain block with an after-market steel one. I ended up having to fill the holes for the tremolo mount, re-drill them for a US-spaced vintage tremolo replacement, upon which I then mounted a steel tremolo block.

This is not a defect per se, but more of a heads-up to anyone out there thinking they'll just swap out the crappy zinc block for a steel one....you'll be replacing the trem (and drilling the body) for a US-spaced trem.

So once again, unmodified fit and finish were good, but for the price range of this guitar, they were great. After modding things a bit, it shapes up quite nicely.

Bottom strap button screw was stripped right out of the box, so minus one for that. Thank goodness Dunlop Straploks use a larger diameter screw, so that resolved the problem without further fixing.

Stock tuners seem spotty, but I suspect that was more due to using ultra-light strings on it. Tuners would not hold up (or be tolerated) for very long, I suspect. Another minus point on that.

Neck and body wood were very good for a guitar in this price range. The wood quality was the reason I bought this guitar so I could heavily upgrade it. The wood should hold up as well as it is taken care of by the owner. Plus one for the wood.

5-way pickup selector switch was better than the switch on my Carvin kit...by a long shot. I'm going to swap the stock switch (now that it's no longer in use in the SST57) into my Carvin because I like the way it feels and operates. Plus one for the 5-way switch.

The 1/4" input jack had a nice, tight fit and was wired correctly with insulated wire. I've seen and repaired other Strat copies which had horrible input jacks and jack wiring, so I was impressed that they took the time to wire in a proper input jack. (Plus one again...)

In terms of warranty support, I have no experience on that point. Once I verified the stock guitar did not have any significant defects -and- verified that it worked out of the box, I promptly gutted it and upgraded a lot of the components. So no warranty coverage for me.

Even so, Kurt was very helpful and responsive before the sale. I've bought several items from him in the past (including other SX guitars) and I've always been impressed with Kurt's helpful and responsive support.

I'm not going to get into all the usual rubbish about what other guitars/amps I've owned/played/etc. It really doesn't mean much, but I will say that I've been playing long enough to know what I want in a guitar and really only enjoy playing my customized guitars. To me, most other stock guitars feel like a brand-new pair of boots...until you break them in and make them your own, they never feel right.

If this guitar were stolen, I'd laugh at the thief. Even though I've invested about $400 total in this project, the resale value of this guitar is zero. I'd be pissed off that someone took my "customized baby", but for another $400, I could build up another SX SST57 into a replica of mine. It's a good starting point for a "project guitar", for sure.

One reason I picked the SST57 over the Squier Strats...I like the 12" fingerboard radius on my Carvin bolt, so the 13.7" radius on the SST57 was much closer to my liking than the 9.5" radius found on Fender and Squier Strats.

There's nothing else that I wish it had, as I've already added/replaced everything I want.

My overall rating reflects this guitars position amongst other "starter guitars", which is defined as a sub $300 guitar. The SST57 isn't fancy or refined, but it's a helluva good starting point in the Strat realm.

At the risk of being redundant to the other reviewers,,,, I bought this SST-57 upon advice of our Bass Player. It is Chrome Red with a Maple neck and fretboard. Vintage tremelo and 3 single coil p-ups. It came with a gig bag and appropriate wrenches for adjustment. I assume the body is Alder. 21 jumbo frets and a definite Strat knock-off as noted by everyone else.

My music style is Blues and Classic Rock with a little Jazz and Country added for spice. I usually play this and my other Guitars through either a Line 6 (Flextone,Flex III, or Spyder), Peavey Classic 50, Fender Hot Rod Custom, Fender Dual Showman Reverb, or a Pignose Tube amp. It has some noise if you are "gained up" or lean close to the amp. Right out of the box it nailed the single-coil sounds with great clarity and color. I particularly like the middle/fingerboard pick-ups switch position as it has a smooth yet bright/hollow tone especially on the low E,A,& D strings. I feel that the only drawback tone wise are the Caps used for the tone pots. Better caps would improve the tone control a lot!!

As noted by others, the factory set-up was not on par with more expensive Guitars. The nut grooves were too tight which prevented proper tuning and allowed for detuning via string-bends. The bridge required a new set of saddles because I broke strings constantly with the originals,,,,, and I don't use the Trem Arm at all. I put graphite saddles on and that created an entirely new and awesome instrument. I haven't broken a string on this Guitar ever since!!!! I should also note that this has become my main Guitar and I usually play 3 or more nights per week. I also added two more springs to the Trem simply because I wanted a solid bridge for staying in tune.

This Guitar REALLY will put up with weather extremes and take string bends as far as you can push/pull without losing tune. It is usually in tune when I pull it out of the case. I have dropped it and it is still in tune!! The hardware seems solid. Tuners hold just fine. Pick-ups don't "howl" from loose mounting. Strap buttons have presented no problems. String trees have presented no problems. Frets seem to be fairly level and even. I have and I would use this Guitar without any backup because it has yet to fail since I changed the bridge saddles,,,,,,, electrically or mechanically!

I've not contacted Rondo for any warranty or repair. However I did recently order the "Ash" SST-57 and they were highly cooperative when the order was incorrect (my fault). They sent out the correct Guitar immediately,,,, no questions asked. NOW THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!!!! Rondo will go to extremes to make the customer elated and happy. YES, KURT ROCKS!!!!!

I've been playing Guitar for 40 plus yrs. This is my first Guitar purchase without playing it. Obviously I would do it again. I own 28 Guitars, 3 Bass Guitars, and a Cello (my first string instrument). My guitars range from a 60 Les Paul Jr., 65 Firebird III, 94 Blackhawk, 2 fender Tele's, etc. etc. I love them all but this inexpensive knock-off has won the competition. Chances are that I will buy yet another SX soon. Let's see,,,,,, that will make 3!!! The value with this instrument is,,,,,, oh,,,, 90 or so !!

This guitar has all of the features that the classic Stratocaster is known for, no need to go into detail. Jumbo frets and reverse wound middle pickup a bonus.

Testing done with guitar plugged directly into a number of amps (Soldano Decatone, Rivera combo and Omega modified Fender Hot Rod Deville, Fender Bassman). The sound will get you in the ballbark of a Stratocaster, stock pickups have the usual single coil noise, reverse wound middle so no hum in positions 2 & 4. The output of these pickups is on the lower end of the single coil scale, not much personality, pretty sterile. Roll back the tone controls and it turns to muffled crap. Definitely in need of some electronic upgrades.

This is where things get more interesting. When you open up the box the guitar has a nice sexy "wow" factor, and they look nice on the website too. Mine is finished in the asian version of Daphne blue with a maple neck, with all of the vintage treatments (tinted laquer, faux aged plastics). The body is finished reasonably well, nice color with an even spray job. The tinted laquer on the neck is almost comical, it is a bright orange color and it is very thick with plenty of uneven spots on the fretboard. The nut has extra slots, i think the "craftsman" was unsure where the slots where supposed to go. On the plus side the frets are big by strat standards and finished pretty well. Pickguard screw holes are pretty sloppy (some stripped, malaligned or slanted). Setup on this guitar is utter shit, non existant. Even with a good setup there is so much slop in the tuners it's impossible to keep in tune. I am guessing that the factory that makes these things is a training facility before they become "real" craftsman.

The bridge is not too bad, tuners have to go. Once this guitar is properly setup i'm sure it would hold up as well as an average strat.

Rondo is easy to deal with and has very quick service. All emails are answered promptly, virtually 24-7. Mine came shipped with wrong trem arm, they sent me the correct replacement immediately.

I see people throwing out 10's on these SX guitars like mad, great for them but i just don't see it quite that way, maybe just my bad luck.
The bottom line is this, i was jonesin' for a maple neck strat and for 100 bucks figured this would be a good platform to start with and could do the necessary setup, parts, ect to make this a good daily player. with the addition of Fender Hot Noiseless pickups ($100), Gotoh locking tuners ($30) and a professional setup ($35) I brought the total investment up to $282.00 and ended up with an instrument that is only O.K.
The moral of the story is this - You Can't Polish A Turd!
For the record this is my 2nd SX (SJM-62-looks cool, absolute junk) and my bass player has 1 (p-bass copy, not bad), so i feel i have enough of a background to judge their quality.
I would recommend anyone who is attracted by the cheap price to look elsewhere.
You can get a Fender Standard Stratocaster MIM that will absolutely blow the doors off of these things (that includes playing professional gigs out of the box) for around $350.00, or go the extra $ for a Fender Highway 1 Stratocaster, it's money well spent for excellent build quality and resale value. One other observation from this experience, there tons of independent local dealers stocking great affordable instruments that will cut some smooth deals. Go support these guys, they usally have on site service/support after the sale. Quit spending so much time shopping on the internet. Have Fun.

Honestly, I figure the heap of reviews here cover this guitars features. It's strat... and as such has everything any other strat should essentially have.

I've played a number of strats, American, Mexican, and Squire. This is no American strat, but I've never been particularly impressed with the Mexican or Squire series (squire just isn't worth buying in my mind). After reading a series of reviews over and over again, I finally went ahead and placed the order for one of these. Wow... I immediately plugged it into my Marshall setup and it sang! The pickups aren't Seymour Duncans, but for the price I'm not sure how they managed to produce such a great strat sound. The middle pickup leaves something to be desired, but the bridge just screams. Straight out of the box it was obvious adjustments needed to be made. I raised and lowered the pickups heights accordingly, and it's made me an absolute SX strat fan. I play a variety of styles, including punk, blues, classic rock... you name it. For metal, this is definitely NOT what you're looking for, but for what I tend to play it suits perfectly. No real hum in the pickups, some reviews state otherwise, but I suppose I've gotten lucky in that regard. Bear in mind however, they're single coils, a bit of hum is imminent... but it's more than bearable. for the price, keeping value in mind, I can't give the sound on this axe anything less than a 10 following adjustments.

Factory setup was definitely subpar, but it's nothing 30 minutes of setup can't fix. Pickup height had to be adjusted slightly, truss rod needed some correcting as the intonation was pretty off (a little bow in the neck as well). The finish is gorgeous! The vintage white gives off more of a banana cream look and I'm absolutely in love with it. No flaws in the finish whatsoever. The neck itself is worth the money paid for the entire guitar! A little grime on the frets, easily taken care of with a little polish. the nut... as everyone's said here, is cheap. Plain and simple. For my style it's not imperitive I replace it just yet, but I'm considering it in the future. If your a stickler on tuning, you'll definitely want to consider replacing the machine heads. I have yet to do that myself, but it's at the top of my list. I've had worse, but if you plan on gigging with this baby, REPLACE THEM. Other than what I've listed above, this guitar is gorgeous.

Will it withstand live playing? I certainly feel it could... hell after a few weeks of play this has easily become my main axe (I own a washburn, and ibanez, epi les paul, and several acoustics). Again, if you're looking to gig with this as you're main guitar, a number of inexpensive modifications are essential. The tone pots, are completely useless. One didn't even work when it arrived. The volume and pickup selector switches aren't anything special, but they have yet to fail me. Strap buttons feel deeply rooted in this thing. I'm not sure how they'll hold up if you're stage diving on a constant basis with guitar in hand, but for your everyday rocking out, they've held up perfectly. As far as using it at a gig without a backup... that's generally not the best idea to begin with, but given I'd have no other choice, sure.

I've never dealt with repairs or anything of the sort. I've heard nothing but good things from Rondo. Shipping was prompt and to the point. Excellent service.

I've been playing guitar for 8 years, I've been in a series of bands, and I have plenty of experience with a variety of guitars. I feel this guitar is an AMAZING buy for 100 bucks... hands down. If you can work through the kinks and initial setup issues, you've got a great clean strat copy. Coming from me, this puts squire to absolute SHAME. If it were stolen or lost, I'd buy a new one the very next day provided I had the money. The look is clean and the neck is unbelievable for the price. Slightly thicker than any strat I've ever played, and jumbo frets, which makes it that much more enjoyable to play. Don't kid yourself, it's no 1000 dollar guitar, but it could easily pass as one provided you give it a good initial setup. For 100 bucks? If you've ever wanted a strat, do yourself a favor, and just GET it. Stop delliberating, and questioning it, just do it. :)

This review is for the SX SST 57 Vintage model. The body color of this particular example is baby blue. It's not exactly Sonic Blue, nor is it Daphne Blue, but I confess that one of the main reasons I bought it was the color. The Rondo site has had these baby blue SSTs go out of stock rather quickly at least twicw now! Anyway, standard Strat configuration, with 3 single coil pickups, maple neck, maple cap fingerboard, gloss finish on neck, jumbo frets, nicely finished, yada, yada, yada............. It has the same features you would expect from the guitar it copies, so since there are no surprises, I'd rate it highly.

This review is for the SX SST 57 Vintage model. The body color of this particular example is baby blue. It's not exactly Sonic Blue, nor is it Daphne Blue, but I confess that one of the main reasons I bought it was the color. The Rondo site has had these baby blue SSTs go out of stock rather quickly at least twicw now! It's not the first SX Strat I've owned, but certainly my favorite for reasons I'll get into a little further. Anyway, standard Strat configuration, with 3 single coil pickups, maple neck, maple cap fingerboard, yada, yada, yada............. Now there's nothing really wrong with the sound of these SX Strats with the stock pickups, and I've never modified any of my previous examples. But, they are what they are - and the electronics are the only components that don't really hold their own with the "name brand". Still, they sound good enough to leave 'em alone and enjoy them.

Here's where I was pleasantly surprised. As I mentioned, I've bought other SX gear, and I always fully expect that I will have to do some tweaking of the action, filing of fret edges, neck adjusting, etc. on a guitar in this price range. But this time around, I received a guitar that was perfectly set up, with no buzzes, excellent in all aspects right out of the box. It is as comfortable to play as any Strat I've owned (and that's a lot!), enough so that I decided to drop in a set of GFS pickups to replace the originals. That upgrade has resulted in me playing this cheapie rather than my high-end Strats.

Well, I replaced the pickups, and the only other weak link would possibly be the pots and switch. Since I don't gig regularly, I believe this guitar would be reliable over time. I am pretty easy on my equipment, and reliability or durability are in part based on how you treat your instruments. Since it's new, I can't rate this category now.

The hype surrounding Rondo and Kurt Z. is all well-founded. Simply the best customer service available!

I've been playing for 40 years, have had hundreds of guitars from high-dollar to cheapo, and this guitar will stay in my current collection for the foreseeable future. At $99, it is one of the best values available! I don't hate anything about it (even though I changed the pickups), and I love the playability, jumbo frets, vintage aged neck and....yep - that baby blue color! You cannot go wrong with one of these, and I'd buy another in a heartbeat if something happened to this one. In baby blue, of course!

3TS finish, strat style, tune-o-matic, stock tuners, fat neck, jumbo frets, came with allen wrench, 3 peice solid alder body (almost every strat guitar under $800 is a 3 peice out there, including Fender USA. Look into it). SSS pickups (pretty good pickups). Passive electronics. Whats so good about this gutiar is that if you just want a body and neck, you dont need to go to warmoth.com, just buy one of these. If SX was a USA factory based manufacturer, we wont get these for less than $500.

Sounds pretty good. Im using a randall rh100 (which is mostly a metal amp) and I'm getting pretty clean sounds and nice distortion sounds. Im also using a digitech rp1 which has a noise gate, so there isn't any hum. It has a rich and full sound, but not very bright, but thats because of my amp.

It has medium action which is my favorite, I dont like it low or high. No flaws. This is such a beautiful guitar. I got mine with a stop tail bridge because I have a tonepros set that I will be putting in this guitar. Other people say the frets are medium jumbo, but they are not. They are jumbo, kinda big, but nice. I will change the nut to bone. The neck is awesome and the vintage finish is a nice add on. The body sunburst is what you will see on very high priced guitars.

This thing is sturdy and reliable. Built solid. Finish is strong, and I dont need a back up, but I bought another one so I will have two. The tuners arent that great though, but work OK.

Kurt at Rondo is like the holy grail of customer service.

This guitar is a 10. I would give it an 11, but I dont like the tuners. I basically bought a overhaul kit for this strat. This review is before I put any mods on it. I'm puttin on wilkinson locking tuners, GFS vintage alnico staggered pickups, Tonepros complete bridge and tailpiece replacement, and new electronics, and new bone nut. Overall, this will cost me 200, which ISN'T bad at all!!. For a 100 bux stock, its as nice as any fender Ive played at guitar center inluding the US models except the ones that cost over $1000. With my mods, it will exceed the $1000 fenders. I just also want to say that this guitar is great even without changing anything.

This is a new 2006 sx strat 57 copy.
The tuners are smooth, better than on johnson strat copy I owned and the neck is vintage tinted, a beautiful neck thick for this price and easy to play comparing it to my 80s fender super lead 3 which has a maple neck.
The body is alder wood, black with a white pick gard and vintage aged looking pick up covers and knobs.
It has the vintage style tremolo, works well.
pickups sound like a strat should. The pick ups and pick guard had plastic protective wrap on it when arrived.
They took great care at rondo music to ship it and came in great shape.
I did not expect such a great quality guitar for this price.
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This is an update to earlier review I submitted with corrections, it was late when did 1st one. Please use this one in place of
Thanks Wade....

The pickups on mine are fine, pots are fluid and sounds like a strat.
I Will eventually replace with better seymour duncan alnico but it sounds fine as is.

It felt alright out of the box, after I set it up some, lowered action just a tad, got the right radius for stings at the bridge and got rid of a buzz on high e string etc...
Now I am playing most of the time over my fender guitar. It did need to be set up to my preference, but this is an awesome guitar now.
I had a johnson strat copy that cost a bit more than sx and the sx is by far the best feeling neck, even better than some fender strats I've played on.
Yes its that good.

First class, a solid well built guitar. just had a buzz on e that I was able to correct in set up. As long as you know how to set up there should not be a problem. The tremolo is not bad but have seen better. may at some time replace. I would have no problem playing live with no back up.

Great so far

I love this guitar and plan to buy 2 more to set up with different pickups and experiment with tunings.
Looks a lot like David Gilmours guitar of pink floyd used live at pompeii on dvd. Its a beautiful guitar, love the pro finish on this neck.
I prefer this guitar over the fender guitars i have played lately. More like a custum hand made feel to it. This guitar is lighter than my finder but I like that. Has good tone unpluged as well.

This is a new 2006 sx strat 57 copy from rondomusic.net
The tuners are smooth and the neck is vintage tined, a beautiful neck thick for this price and easy to play comparing it to my 80s fender super lead 3 which has a maple neck.
The body is alder wood, black with a white pick gard and vintage aged looking pick up covers and knobs.
It has the vintage style tremolo, works great.
pick ups sound like a strat should. The pick ups and pick guard had plastic protective wrap on it when arrived.
They took great care at rondo music to ship it and came in great shape.
I give it a 10, I did not expect such a great quality guitar for this price.

The pick ups on mine are fine, pots are fluid and sounds like a strat.
I Will eventually replace with seymour duncan alnico but it sounds great as is.

It felt great out of the box, after I set it up some lowered action just a tad, got the right radius for stings at the bridge and got rid of just a little buzz on high e string etc...
Now I am playing most of the time over my fender guitar. It did need a little bit of set up to my preference, but this is an awesome guitar now.
I had a johnson strat copy that cost a bit more than sx and the sx is by far the best felling neck, even better than some fender strats I've played on.
Yes its that good.

First class, a solid well built guitar.

Great so far

I love this guitar and plan to buy 2 more to set up with different pickups and experiment with tunings.
Looks a lot like David Gilmours guitar of pink floyd he used at live at pompeii on dvd. Its a beautiful guitar, love the pro finish on this neck.
I prefer this guitar over the fender guitars have played lately. More like a custom hand made feel to it. The weight is a bit lighter than my fender but I like that. It rings out a nice tone even unpluged.

This is one of the newer vintage strat copies from Rondo music. I purchased one the ash strat copies a few days ago and was so impressed I had to order another SX strat a few days later from their website. It has the traditional strat copy layout with a vintage green color to the body. The body is made of alder but I can't tell how many pieces. It has a maple neck thats covered with this aging toner, it looks retro. The neck is hefty for a strat copy and feels vintage with rolled edges along the edges of the fretboard that give it a broken in feel while playing. It has a tremelo that works very well. The guitar has 21 jumbo frets.

The guitar arrived with defective tone pots. The tone pots I got on my other SX ash strat last week work fine but these tone pots have no business being on a guitar. They are scratchy when the tone knob is turned and offer only treble frequencies, I can't back off the treble on the guitar. I think the pickups sound fine but I could make a better judgement of the pickups sound with new tone pots installed. The guitar has very good sustain. It does not feel like an economy guitar while playing. I think all of these SX guitars have some degree of fret buzz and there is some fret buzz on this guitar. I don't think this axe would make a good studio guitar because of the fret buzz situation.

When I opened up the guitar box I was shocked at the high quality level of the guitar. The overall cosmetic quality looks to be equal to that of a good made in Mexico Fender strat. I can't find any cosmetic flaws anywhere on the guitar! Amazing construction and detail for the price paid.

It looks very durable and suitable for live playing.

I've been playing 20 years and this is the 20th electric I have purchased. I liked the guitars color which is why I purchased it. The guitar I really wanted was that MIM Fender 50's strat in surf green but this guitar did not dissapoint me as an alternate axe at a lower cost. This guitar is very impressive overall and I don't think there is anything as nice out there as these SX strat copies in this low price range.

Fabulous Strat copy, Alder body vintage looks, great neck.

For the money this is a great buy. Pickup's are pretty damn good and have a vibe all of thier own. I play this through a Vox ac-15.
great Strat tones all round.

Needed a bit of tweaking when i got it but overall wasn't to bad.
Great Sunburst finish. Tight neck pocket.

It's a couple pieces of wood like a USA strat is a couple pices of wood..you know what I mean. Yes you can depend on it.

For a spare gigging guitar or even a main guitar this is the buy of the century. Great quality for the price.

Easy to play electric guitar, perfect for the beginner or intermediate player
A great backup guitar for the professional
Solid Alder body for that great rock-n-roll sound
High quality P-90 pickups offer superior output and outstanding treble response
One volume and one tone control plus a 3-way pickup selector switch
Beautiful Maple neck with adjustable truss rod and Rosewood reinforcement for added stability
Ultra-fast Maple fretboard with 21 jumbo frets
Vintage fulcrum bridge with six adjustable saddles
Three-ply pickguard (White, Black, White)
D’Addario strings are installed at the factory
Actual weight is only 8.5 lbs
Overall length is 39" including the strap button
Scale length is 25.5" Width at the widest point is 13"
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 1/8" Body thickness is 1 3/4".

Sound.. It sounds great!! I've got another P90 Strat using Mighty Mite Pickups and this sounds much better..
Nice ..Full and smooth!!

Had to do a basic Setup.. everything else seems fine!

Shouldn't be any problems..

Haven't used it but I've heard plenty of positive stuff about Kurt at Rondo.com

Been playing for 12-13 years
I own 3 other guitars and a couple of Custom Hand built Tube Amps..Lots of pedals..on and on..

For the $109 plus freight you can't miss with these axes...

SX SST-57 Stoptail model made in 2005 in China;21 fret;sunburst finish; alder body with maple neck & fretboard with S/S/S pickup configuration( and S/S/S routing, not S/S/H) and standard Strat vol/tone controls;Tune-O-Matic style bridge(not string through body- no tremolo). Bridge pickup has no mounting ring like a humbucker guitar so it's a little far from the strings, maybe 9/32's , when fully up. The other pickups can be adjusted okay. Have to take at least a point off for that.

Sounds just like the SST-57(sounds like a real strat), which isn't too bad considering the price, but not sure about any real gains in the sustain over the tremolo model. Switched the pups out for Fender Deltatones on this one (a little more clarity and bottom end but not as big an improvement as expected, which says something about these pickups) and Bill/Becky Lawrence 280s/290 in my other tremolo SST 57 (even better). Comparing again quality wise to my American Lonestar Strat - 95% of the way there. Maybe I should go play a Squier at a local music store some day ? All ratings are based on price factor ! If this were a $1000 guitar it might be an 8 stock.

Action was a little high, nut slots slight sticking "G" and "E" strings, bridge pickup needs springs removed to get more height even with bridge at semi-string buzzing levels; fret #13 a shade high with low action, causing a buzz when "E"& "B" strings bent hard. Finish was great, strap pins nice and wide; tuners could have less play; volume/tone controls work fine.If you like a medium to high action then the only problem would be bridge pickup height adjustment.They probably should have used a string through non tremolo bridge instead.

Hardware, weight, and feel are not as good as an American Fender, but more like my Mexican Tele and Strat. For the money it's good quality.

This is maybe the 5th or 6th Rondo purchase with no problems or returns. E-mails answered promptly. Warranty ?

Playing on/off since 70's, mostly on in last 7 years; if stolen or lost might give up and buy a new American Fender Deluxe with SCn pickups and S-1 switching, but only after trying out at least 10 in stores. Have or had Gibsons, Fenders, Michael Kelly, Agile, Tacoma, and the differences in quality don't seem as extreme as many write about here, but the price differences are extreme ! Anyway, I enjoy swapping pickups and rewiring almost as much as playing.

i think it is a 2005 model, vintage series strat 57 copy. purchased in the phlippines of all places to practice since i left my real vintage strats in canada. this guitar is ok. it is not a fender 57 or a reissue but it is ok. the neck shape is more C shaped than a 57 which has the soft V so i am having some problems playing it but still ok. in general, this guitar is good value for the money and i would purchase for a beginning guitar player. it is superior to a fender squire for several reasons. firts it has nice lacquer finish n the neck and finger board. i do not know what wood is in the neck but i'll call it "maple style". the frets are jumbo and work ok after i dress some of them. the machine that rolls them into the finger board leave ridges in some frets and they are difficult to remove. once removed everything ok. the nut is not quite cut to the right depth in my opion and it affects the action enough in the lower frets to mess up the intonation. it is sharp from the 1st to 8th fret depending on which string you check. after that it is bearable. skunk strip is well fitted and unnoticeable to the touch while playing(i can't say the same for my 57 reissue fender strat). my sx has 2 string trees in the headstock. the one for the 3rd and 4th strings is superflous and only services to stiffen the feel of these strings so i popped the strings out and they feel much better.
the brige and the tremelo system is a problem but i am getting it worked out. first the tremelo creaks and does not keep tune like the fender 57 reissue. fender really does have that system mastered. both my strats stay in tune regardless of how much i use the tremelo but the sx isn't quite right and i have not solved the problem as yet. the saddles are ok but the tremelo mount screws interfere with them on the 4th string. i filed the screw so i could get the intonation set on this string. others are ok. it is possible to set the intonation of the sx but the saddles on the 1,2,3 strings are in strange position when complete. also the actin is so low it is on the verge of buzz but plays real nice now. trouble is it affects the tone; so good tone and intonation are not possible on my sx.
the tuners are low quality but nearly the same as fender reissues. the hold tune ok, but i suspect they are wearing out after only 5-6 months of use since it is becoming difficult to get the exact tuning possible when new.
the pick ups are ok but i cannot comment on their sound at volume since i have not played the sx at volume. it sounds ok at living room volumes. the pick up separtion is good, the tone differences are good even on the combined pick up settings(i have the 5 way switch set up).
the volume pot works nice but i have not experienced much tone pot use. i set my tones on 10 and forget them.(1 vol and 2 tone pots). the finish is good and the strap buttons stay afixed to the body( hahaha! my 57 strat tail button popped out the 2nd day i owned it).
there is a problem with the cable jack on my guitar. it is mounted well but internally it is weak and if the chord is moved too much it loses contact.
only other really annoying problem was the tremelo bar. shame the tremelo housing was not threaded through. mine is blind threaded and so the tremelo bar will not go into place. it is an easy repair but the assembly line engineers need find another career. it might also be nice if they changed the material in the tremelo. the white metal crap doesn't thread easily and the tremelo bar brings the threads out with it when removed.

plays ok. i play blues and rock and roll. cannot comment on stage volume since i have yet to play it on stage. loses tune sometimes when bending strings and the tremelo creaks when doing same. the guitar is sharp from 1st to 8th fret(depending on which string) and it needs work 16th to 21st.

factiry setting, hahahaha! i think they look at a picture of a fender strat that is properly set up and just place the saddles in same relative position. action was so bad i could not play it off the rack. if the line engineers saw my present saddle set up they would calculate for a month to figure what was wrong. my neck seems ok. it has a slight bow in the middle( similar to fender spec) but i am not yet certain the the neck angle with the body is quite right. time will tell i quess. this is a work in progress now. i am also contemplating the nut depth?? not sure about it yet. it is centered ok but depth ???
pick ups were set ok for the factory set up, hahaha!
controls were quiet but the knobs are knurled to finely and i suspect would slip the shafts under stage use. gentle use goes out the window when i'm in the middle of a tune.
body construction and neck mounting is strong and stable.
one thing both sx and fender need to learn about their strat guitars. you know that plastic cover over the tremelo hole in back side of body? shame someone would not take a look at it and MOVE THE HOLES so we can string the guitar without removing the cover. really stupid engineering mistake their!

finish is good. i would need a back up. i trust my fenders now because i have put them to the test but the sx??? buttons good and strong, jack not strong enough.

i do not have any experience with this

have been playing 37-38 years. i will keep it and use it along with my strats. price is good for how it plays when the bugs worked out.

A great strat copy made in China. It has a flawless sunburst finish with looks that will match any Fender and your standard Strat 3 - single coil configuation with a 5-way selector and 2 Tones and 1 Volume. It has no-name tuners and fairly thin metal Trem and a plastic nut (which I changed out) but we're not talking about a $1000 guitar.

This guitar is one of the best sounding copies that I have heard. I play mostly classic rock and blues. My other guitars include an Epiphone Les Paul modified with Semour Duncan Humbuckers and a Tele copy. I wanted something that would give me the SRV and Clapton sound and this close to dead on. Even though ir sounds great out of the box I will probably change outh the single coils later.

The only reason for an 8 here is the plastic nut. This seemed to bind the strings and caused the guitar to go out of tune when you used the whammy bar but I changed out the nut with a graphite nut and that fixed the problem. As I mentioned before the finish was great. The guitar was perfectly set up out of the box.

It seems almost as rugged as a Fender. I take care of my guitars so I beleive that it will last a very long time as long as you don't go beating it on the stage. You could probably use it on a gig without a back up but who would do that (even if you had a Fender, Gibson, or PRS)

Haven't had to deal with customer service but I bought it online and had a very pleasurable experience with the company. It was sent to me very quickly and packaged extremely well.

I've been playing for 7 years and for the money, this is about as good as it gets. I thought if the sound of a strat was right for me, I might get a Fender but instead I'll keep what I've got (and maybe buy a couple more).

Typical STRAT setup. Sunburst Alder body with maple neck/fingerboard with 21 jumbo frets. Chrome hardware, 3 ply pickguard, 3 single coils, 2 tone & 1 volume control, whammy bar, etc. Made in China

I play mostly blues, classic rock, surf & this guitar fits the bill just fine, once you get everything adjusted correctly (I'll get to that in the next category). When you look at the pickups, they look cheesy, but they definitely have some punch & actually sound very good. They have the typical hum of standard single coils, but nothing excessive. My amp is a Fender Performer 1000 hybrid (100 watts). Playing Clean, with no distortion, this guitar sounds as good as any Fender I have ever played, even at higher volume. The bridge pick-up has that Classic, glassy twang perfect for Surf guitar. Position the switch between the neck & middle pickup, & you get that beautiful, sweet tone of Stevie Ray's " Tin Pan Alley" or Craig Erickson's "No Reply".
Playing with distortion, it has warm vintage tone for Classic Rock & blues.

The wood & finish on these guitars is beautiful! The Neck is the best part of the guitars! High gloss, age tinted laquer finish. It is very slick & fast & the Jumbo frets are a huge bonus! (more below about that). The sunburst body is highly laquered & polished near perfectly. As most reviewers have stated previously, this guitar needs a lot of adjusting out of the box, but you have to expect that with a 99.00 guitar. The neck had a slight bow in it, so a few light turns of the truss rod fixed that. The tuners were terrible. It wouldn't hold a tune for 5 minutes! The pickups were too low & the action was too high. The tremolo was very tight & would barely move. The low E string was binding in the bridge saddle. The intonation was pretty close, but after all the other adjustments are made, you will need to re-do that too. The electronics seem to be very good. The switch & pots work correctly & are quiet. The pickguard is very cheesy, but adequate. With all that said, I had this guitar in top playing condition within a week & I really love it!
I replaced the tuners with some used Gotoh's & installed a Graphite nut.

With a bit of tweaking, I don't see why this guitar wouldn't hold up for Professional gigging. Anything can go wrong, even with expensive guitars.

I have had only minimal Email contact with Kurt,the owner of Rondo Music. He seems like a good guy. I really don't care about the warranty. It's a 99.00 guitar. As long as there is no damage when you get it, it should last for years.

I've been playing for about 27 years. I play for my own amusement, not professionally, but I know a good guitar when I see one. I currently own & Gibson les paul Classic & a Fender Waynes World Japanese squier. I have had probably 12-15 guitars over the years.
I really like the sound of the WW Squier, but is has a very slim neck & tiny frets, so I was going to buy a neck with jumbo frets & replace it. While searching for a neck on Ebay, I came across these SX guitars with Jumbo frets & the whole guitar was cheaper than if i were to buy a quality neck. So I came to Harmony central to check out the reviews & most of the reviews were were fairly Positive, so I figured I'd try one. I looked at new Fender guitars first, but you can't really get a reasonable Fender with jumbo frets. The MIM & Squiers would be the most I could afford, & they only come with Medium or Vintage style frets. The Jumbo frets are great for vibratos & bending strings, so if you like to play blues like I do, bigger frets make life easier. The neck is shaped perfectly, not too fat & not too thin.
When this guitar arrived, I was pleasantly surprised that the reviews were accurate for the most part. The action & set-up were terrible, but the wood/finish was beautiful & all the basics were there. Once you get it set up correctly, It's really a great guitar! Even the Tremolo works good, once you get it adjusted. I'm not saying that it would hold up to AIR RAIDS or DIVE bombs, but for basic Surf & Blues playing, it's just fine & stays in tune well.
The sound is very good & is classic single coil Strat! If you're into Heavy Metal, this guitar ISN"T for you. If you like the sound of SRV, Trower, Buddy Guy & Dick Dale, this should meet your needs just fine. I changed the Tuning pegs, the nut & the pickguard, but I think everthing else will suit me just fine!
If you want to build a Monster STRAT, the body & neck on this guitar is more than worth the price!

I got this guitar in early 2004. I think it's made in china, I took the sticker off a while back. Maple neck with 21 jumbo (huuuge) frets. The neck is coated in a thick laquer. This takes some getting used to. The body is supposedly alder, but there is no way for me to verify this unless I grind off the paint, which is a very nice lake placid blue. The paint seems to hold up well enough, but not quite as resilient as my standard strat. It has strat electronics, 5-way switch, 3 single coil pickups, 1 volume and 2 tone control, etc. Vintage style strat tremolo w/ modern style bridge saddles. Tuners are generic 6 inline type.

Sound is like a regular strat, but even more bright. The pickups seem to be pretty hot in this one, so some EQ adjustment is usually necessary. Needless to say it really cuts through even in the in between pickup settings. Probably would sound more mellow with some new pickups. Acoustically it sounds good.

Guitar was setup ok from the factory, the bridge springs were really cranked down however (with the bridge set against the body). I went out and got it (mis)adjusted and finally did my own adjustments to get it where I liked it. It plays fine compared to any other guitar I have. The only factory flaws I noted were a couple of strange black marks on the font of the headstock. It looks like someone accidentally touched it with a sharpie.

This guitar would hold up as good as any other for live playing. I will make a complaint about the hardware however. The bridge inertia block thing on mine was mis-cast, so it wouldn't thread the tremolo arm. The arm ended up shearing off inside the bridge as I was tring to unthread it. I just left it for the longest time until recently when I replaced it with a mighty mite strat bridge (much better construction - $25) The string spacing on the SX stock bridge is a little more narrow than standard bridges, so it's not a perfect drop-in replacement. I don't really like the feel of the tuners since they are not perfectly smooth when they are rotated. However - my standard strat has the same problem, just not as bad. I would consider replacing them if this were my main guitar.

I never tried to contact the company, although I thought about it when my trem arm broke off in the bridge. I'm not sure if it comes with a warranty at this price

I will just point out that you may be replacing some hardware, however you will also be saving a lot of money over buying a fender strat. Overall a good value, might be a good base for a project guitar.

awesome strat copy for 100 bucks.

its very versitile, and sounds great for all kinds of music, i play, punk, metal, classic rock, jam, alt, etc. with my band and it goes in great. this guitar is my back up though, i use an ibanez jet king 2 for my main guitar but this one holds its own when i need it to. it sounds like your basic strat, even with standard pick ups which i probably wont even change. no dislikes at all.

the action was ok, needed some work, so i set the intonation, action, pickup height, etc. in about 1hr 30mins. no flaws on the finish mine is candy apple red which seems to have metal flake in it and a maple neck. the only thing i have wrong with it is that the high e string has a bit of odd twang to it but i think it needs a new nut is all. which i have i just havent installed it.

this guitar is very durable, strap buttons arent moving, finish is very thick and strong, and it is very dependable. i dont gig much but when i do i always us a back up so it wouldnt matter by the way again this is my back up guitar.

i have dealt with the company before by email and they responded really fast, they are nice, and do a good job. i dont have a warranty on it, i dont remember if it came with one, but since its my back up and it was only 100 i can afford to replace it.

i am 16 and i have been playing guitar seriously for about 8 months now and i own a line 6 30watt amp which has a bad pot so i dont use it, a marshall 15 watt practice amp, squire p-bass, hohner acoustic, and my baby the ibanez jet king 2. if it were stolen i would not buy another one unless i was on a tight budget. i would probably buy something more high end and probably hollow or semi-hollow body. this is a great guitar for the price and from a great company.

You've read it all in the other reviews. Strat copy. This particular guitar is Vintage White, Maple neck, Alder body.

Plugged it into a Fender Champ 25 and then a Marshall 15 watt valve combo. I was very surprised. It sounds like a good Strat.. for 99 bucks.

Action was a little high, intonation not good.
I checked the neck... there was a bow. A couple of little turns of the truss rod and the neck straightened out.
I spent a couple of hours on intonation/action and it is now excellent.
Nut was a little squeaky. Rubbed #2 pencil in there and there are now no creaks and jumps.
Guitar looks great - has real 'vintage soul'.
I would expect to set any guitar up - this was no surprise.

Of course it will stand live playing. (Is there any other kind?)

Rondo are excellent - absolutely excellent.

I've been playing professionally for 35 years.
I've owned a lot of name guitars. My main guitar is a 65 Firebird.
This little Strat is fantastic. I purchased a Butterscotch SX Tele a few weeks back which was so good I thought I'd just get one of these and I was not disappointed. It's silly money... how can you go wrong?

SX SST57. Standard Strat setup....You know the deal.

Sounds good...but not great out of the box...more on that below. I will tell you exactly what to do to make this guitar irreplaceable.

Rough setup. Did you actually buy this for $99 thinking you would have to do nothing to it?

I basically buy these guitars for the wood. That part is exceptional! Tuners suck. Electronics are suitable.

Absolutely the best! You rock Kurt!

HERE IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO MAKE YOUR AM. STD. STRAT GREEN WITH ENVY!!:
First, Replace the pickups with something better. I use a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. in the bridge and GFS Vintage alnico staggers in the neck and middle. Second, take the bushing nuts off your tuners and throw some thick penetrating oil in them. Third, replace the horrible plastic nut with either bone or graph tech types. Be very careful when removing the nut, it is glued in there with amazing mega super glue. You can actually rip part of the fingerboard off in the rosewood versions. Fourth, take some 400 grit sandpaper and sand down the sharp edges of the string trees. Fifth, re-string and play, then sit back and wonder why you ever payed so much money for that American Strat. I absolutely love the necks on the SX Strats! If you are a blues player and do alot of bends, look no further. This SX absolutely smokes any Fender guitar I have ever owned....and not by just a little bit. There is something about the way these guitars feel, and their responsiveness for lack of a better term that keeps me buying them. I cant get enough! If you are capable of doing these simple repairs, you are about $200 away from pure guitar bliss. I used to be one of those headstock name people, and I still encounter them at gigs, but once they hear this guitar they eat their words real quick!

Brand new, China, 22 frets, solid top, 1 vol, 2 tones standard strat setup. The rest, blah, blah, you can read below.

My style, . . . mmmmmm.... is terrible a stlye? I have been trying to play guitar for 27 years and I'm still terrible. But, it suits my style, for than matter, any guitar suits my style. I can make a $2000 guitar sound terrible, so I'm not worried about a measley $100 guitar. I do my best to make this one sound terrible also. But to my surprise, it sounds pretty good. Not as sweet and glassy as my "real" strat, but acceptable and usable.
Amps = A Peavey, a Fender and a Crate. Don't know models, and I'm sure you don't care. I know I don't care so why should you?
Noisy? Only when I put my amp on 10 and slap the pig snot out of the strings with the palm of my hand. (What a noise, scared the dog next door) The single coils make a little noise in position 1 3 & 5. Nice and quiet in 2 & 4. No more noise than any SSS config.
What kind of sounds? Funny thing, it makes sounds that remind me of a guitar. Strange!
Variety? Well, it won't sound like an elephant in heat, but it will sound like a guitar with single coils.
Likes? I like guitars that sound like guitars, not elephants.
Dislikes? My crabby neighbor next door. (this is why I scared his dog)

This was manufactured in a sweat shop in china on a human assembly line of smelly underpaid communists. Setup? They crank these things out faster than a duck craps. They don't have time to set them up. They slap a set of strings on it and ship it out. Lots of little imperfections that would not be acceptable on an American made guitar. But for another $1000 you could have an American made guitar.
Pick up adjustment? Well, they were in the guitar.

Don't know what a bookmatched top is. So no comment there. Bridge is ok. Here's the bottom line on this thing. For $100 it is a bargain. There are some very minor things, but what do you want for the price?

Live playing? Let me see, I specifically was looking for a guitar that would not withstand live playing. I did a search on ebay for "guitars that would not withstand live playing." Couldn't find any. So I emailed Kurt at Rondo asking if he had any guitars that would not withstand live playing. He said no. So I was stuck with this one. Yes, I think it will withstand live playing (which really dissapointed me) as long as you don't throw it at the drunk on the dance floor. I know, we have all been tempted!!! Fess up!!!
Finish seems very good. Pretty color nicely done. Strap buttons are solid.
Can I depend on it? Depends on what you depend on it for.
Never gig without a backup. (espically if you throw it at the drunk on the dance floor)

???????????

Been playing long long time. I am closer to the end than the beginning. If it were stolen I would buy another one right away. Maybe 2. I can't imagine paying this little for a guitar that is this good. Remember it is not an American made Strat. It is really almost up to the same quality as my Mex strat at 1/3 the price. The components leave a little to be desired but even if you changed out all the pups, electronics, bridge and tuners with something better, you still would probably be spending less than a Mex Strat. So my overall rating is based on the price/preformance quotent. (whatever that means) I would also like to share my uglyness with you but I know you don't want it. I guess I'll just stay the ugly, terrible guitar player....

Most of it is said already: 3-piece-alder-body, 2-tone-sunburst, vintage vibrato, maple neck, 3 Single Coils, 5 way switch.........forgot anything?? The quality of the vibrato is very good what I don't like are the vintage tuners.

Sound was excellent, when you take the price into account. But I decided too change the pickups to Ultra Sonic Reference pickups. Not because the stock pickups where that bad, but I needed a cleaner, somewhat more 80ies Strat sound like Alex Lifeson had on Power Windows or Hold Your Fire, or Ty Tabor had on the first view King's X Recordings. With that change the guitar sounds even better and has won a lot.

Surprisingly good, when you think aboout the price!

think this one will make it a long time in my setup!

Very good. I only dealt with a dealer here in germany, but that worked out perfectly!

Great gutiar with lots of potential for modifications!!!

Made in 2004 in China. 21 Jumbo frets. Body is solid Alder. Neck and fingerboard are Maple. 2 tone controls, 1 volume control, 5-way selector switch. 3 single coil SX pickups. Passive electronics. 3TS sunburst finish. Strat style body. Bridge is string-thru body with tremelo (I keep it locked down). Tuners are OK. They don't slip.

It fits my style nearly perfect. I play Pop,Country and Southern Rock. I play it through a Rocktron Chameleon (preamp with effects), A Stewart World 1.2 Power Amp and JBL 15 inch speaker. The pickups are a little noisy but not too bad. After all they are single coils. The sound is rich, full and bright. Every setting on the selector switch has a purpose. I use them all.

The factory setup was good. I was able to tweak it more to my liking by adjusting the truss rod and bridge. The action is very good. The selector switch was bent when I recieved the guitar. I was able to bend it back with my thumb. The metal is very soft.

I have been playing this guitar live 2 or 3 nights a week for 6 months and it is holding up fine. I suspect the hardware may be a little soft but will hold up fine if treated with respect. The finish is beautiful and shows no sign of wear after 6 months. I depend on it. I use it on gigs without a backup. The strap buttons are solid.

I have never had to deal with them.

I have been playing 55 years. I still play. I own a Squire Telecaster. If my SX were stolen or lost, I would definitly buy another. I love the playability. The jumbo frets makes it easy to bend strings and to get a vibrato effect. It seems to come alive. It is very responsive and sustains forever. In my lifetime I have owned 2 Silvertones, a Gibson ES295, a US Fender Stratocaster, a Fender Jaguar and 3 Gibson ES335's. I like my SX better than any of these. I love this guitar. It sings.

Purchased in 2005, not sure when it was made. 21 frets, sunburst, standard strat config, two piece alder body, maple neck w/ maple fretboard, sx tuners, fat c shaped neck, fatter than my 93 mim strat, included the two allens for adjusting bridge and truss rod as well as the vibrato w/ aged cap, nice touch.

OK, I had read these reviews here and decided to give it a try. Mine really sounds as good as their rep here on thi site. p/u's are nice, vintage tone, real "glassy" like I like em, plenty of that fender tone that ya just cant get from a humbucker. SOunds excellent through my marshall valvestate, as well as my solid state peavey. necks fat, bridge is "glassy", and the centers in the middle. My 5 way shitch works well and is wired correctly. I had figured on replacing the with some gfs's but decided to take the cash and order another sst 57 in vintage white instead.

High action out of the box, needed to be set up. The best thing about this guitar ios the neck, mines maple, its very nice. This things like a classic fender but with gibson jumbo frets, no sharp edges, very clean. The necks the real value here, no cheap ass jay turser or arai, quality product.

Is live playing any more harsh than playing at home? I always use a strap so its all the same to me, besides, how intense ya gonna get, its a single coil guitar. It's got solid strap buttons which go into a solid alder body, it's not goin anywhere.

NA, havent dealt w/ em.

Buy one of these first, get it set up and your all set. Sure its no mim fender, the action wll never get there, but it gets close. Given the quality of the neck and the solid bodies these would make excellent starters for a frankenstrat, but its just to nice to mess with for me. I may upgrade the p/u's in my second one but that tone of the stocks on the neck with a tube amp at volume is sweet. I was so impressed with mine that I immediately bought another, nice product SX.

Standard old strat features - see Rondo Music site.

Shocking good sound for the price. I can get lots of different sounds and the tone pots actually work! I've tried many cheap guitars where the tone knobs were purely cosmetic.

This thing was playable out of the box after a quick tuning. It was even well intonated and I found absolutely no fret buzz. I can't believe the quality level. There was a tiny, tiny smudge of one of the fret marker dots on the side of the neck which is not noticeable. Otherwise the finish is flawless. I went down to a local music shop and found both Squier and Fender Standard Strats to be inferior. The only thing I would suggest is a little less lacquer or whatever the finish is on the neck. If you know anything about woodworking then this looks like it was put on way too thick. However, it gives a great vintage look from a distance. Across a smokey bar someone would definitely think you have a vintage Fender in your hands and the damn thing sounds good enough to fool them too!

Just got it but but after a few hours of hard playing I see nothing to suggest it will not stand up.

Rondo Music shipped quickly and packed the guitar very well. I also got an outstanding gig bag for $15 that is far better than the $30 ones from MF. Heard nothing but good things about Rondo.

I've played for 20 years and run the gamut from Fender to Gibson and just about every knockoff. I sold a Raven to buy the SX and like it much better. I'll buy the one with humbuckers next, certainly worth a try for a hundred bones. This thing actually has me excited about playing again.

I bought this guitar in December 04. I has a quilted maple top and a flamed maple neck in a sunburst finish. It is a special handmade version that is numbered and I believe mine was 68 of a hundered and twenty made. Standard strat layout. It came with a harshell case. Gold hardware. The guitar stays in tune reasonably well, has jumbo frets that are well dressed, and a very nice neck.

The sound is very clear with a bit of edge to it. I have several other single coil guitars, (Jackson DK2, Fender Squire Strat) and this guitar cuts through better than either one of the above guitars. It has a absolute perfect sound for playing blues. When combined with a good tube amp the sound far exceeded my expectations. My general style of playing has been driving rock in the style of UFO, Scorpions, Nugent, ZZtop, etc. This style of music matches up better with humbucker equiped guitars, but as I get older now I enjoy playing clean or on the edge of breakup, and this guitar does this great.

I set the guitars action to my preferences once I recieved it, but I have done that on every guitar I own. The fret work is outstanding, to be honest if I bought the neck for what I paid for the guitar, I would have been happy. The pickup selector switch and volume and tone pots are the weak links on this guitar. I am not having problems with them now, but the overall feel / look of these componets seem to less than stellar. The fit of the neck in the neck pocket is the best I have ever seen, The finish on the guitar is outstanding, overall the guitar has a sturdy / quality feel when playing it.

If you changed the volume tone pots and put a swithcraft switch in, I would gig with this guitar without reservation. (I had to do this same thing to my Squire Strat, in fact my Squire was made in China
also and I wouldn't be supprised if they came from the same factory) I am sure the finish will not last as I sweat alot when I play and tend to destroy the finish on everthing that is not nickel plated.

I sent them the money / they sent me the guitar, no problems.

I have been playing thirty two years, I have a Gibson SG, Ibanez Artist, Ibanez Les Paul, Schecter C1, Jackson Dinky, Fender Squire Strat, Amps are Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Carvin, Fender, Line6, Pignose. If i had to rate this purchase as value for the money then a 10 would be the only choice, when you examine this guitar you wonder how the hell they do it for the money charged.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS GUITAR. I PURCHACED IT FROM RONDO MUSIC. BE SMART AND BUY A SQUIRE BULLET OR ANY THING ELSE SO THAT YOU WON'T FEEL AS RIPPED OF AS I DO. The first day I had it the nut broke and cost me $45 to have repaired. This is yet another chinese Strat copy. says "Custom handmade" and "Vintage series" on the headstock. It features a nearly unattractive, overly heavy application of vintage toner on the neck looks almost yellow. The frets are horrible on this guitar.The bridge rattles due to the fact that he screwds that adjust the bridge saddle heights ratte in thier holes! That's poor workmanship!

Since it is so poorly made that it can not be played, it makes no sound at all. It's crap.

THE FRETS ARE HORRIBLE ON THIS GUITAR! AND THE NUT BROKE ON ME THE FIRST DAY I PLAYED IT! TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! The fret ends stick out so far as to CUT your hand when you play because the fret ends were poorly "dressed". Becasue of this you should not buy this guitar as it costs about $75 to have a professional repiar person dress every fret end AND ANOTHER $50 to get a new nut intalled! That's $170 of repair to a $99 guitar. YOU DO THE MATH!

Since this guitar can not be played due to the extrememly poor workmanship it is not even playable and therefore can no be reliable in any way.

Rondo Music is an on-line retailer that is based out of my state. All that They would do for me is to tell me to send it back to them so that they could exchange it for another guitar.You have to pay $35 to ship the guitar back to them and then after they exchange it with another piece of crap, it costs you another $35 for them to ship it back to you again! That's $70 total for shipping becasue THEY se3nt you a piece of crap. That's unacceptable and essentialy amounts to ZERO CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

If Rondo Music wants to sell crap, then they should expect to get CRAPPY reviews like this. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS GUITAR. BUY A SQUIRE BULLET OR AFFINITY STRAT FOR JUST A FEW DOLLARS MORE INSTEAD BECASUE EVEN A BEGINNER THAT KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT THE GUITAR, WOULD KNOW THAT THIS WAS A PIECE OF CRAP.

This is yet another strat copy. Compared to the ones they sold when I grew up (80's) these new knock-offs are simply wonderful. But please don't expect the quality of a real Fender no matter what you read. I'm a little disappointed that so many fellow guitarists say this is as good as a Standard (MIM) Stratocaster - I think that is very misleading. Featurewise, this guitar is set up like all basic strats. My thoughts below are based on owning several SX strats.

Okay, by it's very design it sounds close to a strat as you'd expect. Higher volume levels on your amp will expose some of the pickup's limitations but at practice level volume they sound decent.
Each of the 5 pickup settings are fairly distinct and demonstrates
the versatility this style of guitar posesses.

This is where I really want to put my 2 cents in. I'll go over both the good and the bad:

First, these guitars look very nice. I have a LPB and 2 sunbursts. I like the colors, the durability of the finish and even the wood grain, when it shows, looks attractive. The aged/yellowish knobs and covers are a nice touch as is the look of the neck. You see one you'll want to play it. Very nice for a $99 electric. Okay, now the flip side...

The pickups are even cheaper than those found in older knock-offs. Try taking one apart and you'll see what I mean immediately. The wiring on one of my guitars was shoddy - positions 4 and 5 were the same. The frets on another SX stuck out a bit on the sides. In general I find that SX maple fretboards feel better than their rosewood counterparts. The tuners aren't too bad but the string trees were sticking pretty regularly, making tuning a constant problem. Of course the trem wasn't very good either so I locked them out. Even so, the saddles had problems of their own (getting stripped, cutting strings, etc).
For $99, yeah you'd expect these things. They have to cut corners somewhere, right?

For who and what this guitar is designed for...yeah, absolutely. A gigging musician? no. A collector? no. This for playing in the house and garage not the stage.

Rondo is easy to deal with. Return anything you don't like. Every guitar player needs to check out their website. I've come to find that Agile electrics are VERY good and not very expensive (best bang for the buck). SX on the other hand are pretty good and very cheap - a lot less bang but a lot less bucks, too!

Who is this guitar for? Great for beginners - I'd say the quality is better than Squire Affinitys and about equal to Squire Standards but for a lot less money. If you only have experience with humbucking guitars and want to try the single coil sound for cheap, it's a good option. And finally hot-rodders like myself - SX is a good way to go.
I bought a left-handed one so that I could do the ol' Hendrix conversion to it (found that I hated the knobs and jack up top!). I bought a blue one to slap in a JB humbucker with coil taps and finally a third to take on vacation without fear of damaging or getting stolen. But you know what? You really need to put in a decent amount of money, time and trouble to get these up to even MIM Strat kind of quality and I found out it's not worth it. To those I mentioned above I'd recommend one of these cheap beauties. But for you others I'd recommend a real Fender Stratocaster (Mexican made - U.S. made are great but a little pricey). I got one used for just under $200 and there is no question it has a little something even a souped-up SX version doesn't. It bugs me to think a decent player out there bought 2 of these instead of a used Fender because of what some have said in these reviews.

Strat style, made in China, 21 medium/jumbo frets, 1 volume 2 tones, 5 way pickup switch, s/s/s configuration, solid alder body with individually routed pickup cavities ( not swimming pool routes ), gorgeous bolt on maple neck & maple fretboard, vintage style bridge. The finish is exceptional, especially on the neck and fretboard.

Great sounding & musical; playing thru Peavey Ultra 112 tube amp and Boss GT-6; didn't use middle pickup position on strats until this one. Sustain was surprising.

Strings & pickups were on high side, and both were lowered. Have to deduct a point because switch stopped working and had to be cleaned. Might have to replace it in the future. Very slight movement in one of the tuners, but stays in tune( I don't use the tremolo however). No fret problems. Bridge set screws and hardware worked fine so far.

Should withstand live playing but would be concerned about the switch dropping out; strap buttons are decent. Don't gig without a backup !

Rondomusic.net is pretty responsive, but I never had any serious problems. They seem willing to work with you. This is at least my fourth guitar from them.

It's a great guitar for the money, and stands up to or surpasses my Mexican Strat, probably closer to my Lonestar Strat. Have been playing since the seventies on/off. Part of this section of the ratings is the value factor( IMHO ), and this one deserves a ten easily when compared to what else is out there for a hundred bucks !

This is an update to my entry from November. Now that I've been playing this guitar for a few months I can say my inital great impression of this guitar has not changed. It still is one of the best playing Strats available anywhere. One observation I've made is, this instrument reminds most of the Japanese made Fender Vintage Reissue guitars. Almost the same exact feel. I've been gigging and recording with this guitar. Except for the 5 way switch, the guitar has held up well. The neck has not needed adjustment, the pickups sound great! It actually sounds more like a Strat than Fenders from the last several years. I've been playing it through a variety of tube amps and modeling amps with awesome results. I still can't believe this thing was only $99! I suggest replacing the 5 way switch, (mine broke) and you might want to consider installing a graphite nut like I did, as the plastic one tends to bind a bit. The heavy laquer finished neck plays better than my $1000 American Standard Strat and my $1400 Zion as well. Great guitar!!!

The features are typical strat style - 21 fret, 1 vol, 2 tone, 5-way selector, 3 single coil, maple neck, classic trem bridge. As far as features go, this has everything you'd want in a strat-style guitar, unless you want a locking trem.

I play lots of different stuff - punk, metal, classic rock. Right now I play at home through a V-amp2. I've sold most of my gear and wanted a cheap guitar I could leave out and not worry about my two small kids dinging up. I have a Rickenbacker that I wasn't playing much because it's hidden away under the bed in it's case so they can't do any damage. If I have the V-amp hooked up to the computer the pickups make a good amount of noise, but otherwise, they are actually fairly quiet for single coils. The pickups have some good character. You can get a nice twangy sound or a smooth bluesy sound from this guitar. I do think that the neck pickup is a bit muddy. I have needed to change a few of my amp settings for that pickup, but they were set for my Rick, which is very bright. I don't use the trem too much, and I haven't had any tuning probs.

Action was a little high and there was a slight bow in the neck, but a few turns of the truss rod and adjusting the string height and everything was playing nicely. It came with D'Addario strings, which I left on. No buzzing. Overall pretty good.

This guitar seems to be a pretty capable little strat. I don't play live anymore, and if I did, I'd probably still use my Rick, but this seems pretty dependable. If I were gigging, I might change out the switch and the pots and rewire just as a precaution, but for a beginner or home use, it's really sturdy.

I haven't had to deal with them at all. From what people say here, it sounds like they are pretty easy to deal with.

I've been playing for almost 20 years, but hadn't played too much in the last few. I was looking for a cheap guitar that I wouldn't get too upset about getting dinged up and I'm really happy with this litte thing. If I keep playing I might get something with a humbucker to cover some more styles and I will definitely look at whatever Rondo has to offer. I'd much rather buy 2 or 3 guitars and have an arsenal of sounds than pay a lot for something that is almost the exact same thing. As I mentioned before, there are some things that could be improved upon, but those things don't cost a lot. Overall, it's a real deal. If you want to tinker with a guitar, it would be great for that. If you need a backup, it's more than adequate. I was a little wary, but I'm glad that I finally went ahead and got this.

Strat style, made in China, 21 jumbo frets, 1 volume 2 tones, 5 way pickup switch, s/s/s pickup configuration, solid alder body, beautyful bolt on maple neck, maple fingerboard, vintage white finish with aged plastic parts, vintage style bridge (cheap bridge).

I like to play blues, blues rock, hard rock, heavey metal. This guitar can fit any style; sounds like a $1000 or more guitar.
I use it with a Peavey Triumph 120 tube head, 2x12 celestion 70,80's equiped cab, and a lot of pedals. Trust me, you gonna be impressed with the guitar sound.

The action out of the box was perfect, low and no fret buzzing. Good intonation.
The bad part on this guitar is the bridge, dont use it or you gonna be out of tune, dont work. The nut is cheap, im gonna replace it with a brass nut. (ok what do you want for $99?)

You can use it in a live playing, just dont use the bridge or you gonna need a retune. I dont care if the finish last, i like the abused finish guitars (like Steve Ray Vaughan guitar).

Kurt is very fast answering your emails. I think is good.

I have playing for 6 years, i have a Washburn 335 style guitar, Fender Musicmaster II (the ebony fingerboard one, very rare), Takamine acoustic, a year back sold my american strat.
If lost or stolen im gonna buy it again, never gonna buy a brand name guitar again.

Standard Strat stuff, trem arm allen wrenches, single coils, 5 way switch a beautifully tinted deeply flame maple neck and excellent tuners.

LIKES,
I've got a Custom shop 58 reissue Les Paul a 1982 American 62 Reissue Strat and a 52 tele Reissue and I was looking for a fender 50's Strat(I LOVE THE NECKS ON THE MEX 50's STRATS) for some pickup experiments but I didn't feel like paying $500+. I stopped in Rondo Music to buy a case for my Tele and started fooling around with the SX and I figured for $99 how could I go wrong.
The guitar sounds great thru my Vox Tonelab as well as my AVT 50 combo and my Mode four 1/2 stack, when I play it thru either of my Marshalls and kick in my Univibe I very easily get that lush TROWER sound you don't hear anymore. When I run it thru my stack with some echo and the gain on about 5 think BLACKMORE playing Mistreated live.
The funny thing is while this strat is very light sounds great acoustically and has incredible sustain.The tonal range is quite good and with a tweak of the tone knobs you can dial in a variety of sounds.

DISLIKES,
The switch sucks not to mention it was wired wrong the pots are garbage and the wire used is about a hair thicker than a hair, that sounded stupid but you get the drift.None of the things I mentioned was a surprise to me because most of the Asian manufactured guitars with Dillion being the exception have garbage electronics.

A PLEASANT SURPRISE,

The surprising thing was the pickups which tested from 7.9-8.3 on my meter and sounded great.
Well I scrapped everything except the pickups put in a Fender American made harness, cts pots, cloth formvar wiring a vintage capacitor and a few peicies of copper shielding.
Well $55 and about an hour for the install and setup I had created a tone monster that blows away my 62, go figure.

The set up out of the box was perfect, nice low fast action.
Pickups were a bit low but no biggie and the bridge was surprisingly tight and well adjusted.
I bought the Olympic white and the only reason I chose that was the Candy apple red one had a scratch on the back and they didn't have another in stock(I'm picking up the candy apple this week.
There were no flaws in action fit and finish department.

Other than putting on a set of straploks and maybe having to change the bridge saddles, the chrome always wears off the import stuff
I have no fear of working this guitar heavily. I'll be putting my 62 on my wall at home after I get my CAR SX 57 this week.

For $99 I'm not going to be putting in any warranty claims, LOL!

If not for the crummy electronics I would have given this guitar a perfect 10 but I'm going to give it a 9.8

2004 SX SST57 1957 Strat copy, usual features. Includes allen wrenches for truss rod and bridge saddle adjustment.

I've been playing for thirty years (yikes!) and own some really nice guitars. Zion Radicaster, Fender American Strats, Fender American Tele, Gibson Les Pauls Standard and Classic, SG Standard, Flying V, several Ibanez guitars, Steinbergers, etc. I know good gear and have been a USA guitar gear snob all my life. This Chinese guitar plays, sounds and feels every bit as good and better than most USA Fender Strats!!! Over the years, I've owned probably two dozen USA Strats, Strat Pluses, new American Series Strats, etc. All I can say is save your $ and buy a few of these. They are that good! I play everything from blues to funk and Metal. I'll usually use a guitar with humbuckers for metal, but for everything else, this is the way to go. Everything is authentic from the tone of the pickups, (even better out of phase than most Fenders) to the feel of the heavy laquer finish, which gives these a great vintage vibe!

Action was bit high, truss rod was loose when it arrived. Intonation was dead on. Set it up in ten minutes and now it's perfect! An added bonus is they use jumbo frets, which were dressed extremely well, and should give many years of life even with occaisional fret dressings, (which I like to do every few years). The alder body had an excellent finish, although they did use three pieces of wood. Still for $99, you usually get press board. The fact that they use alder and hard rock maple for the neck is astounding.

There' no reason this won't hold up. Go for it!

Rondo music has legendary support.

i've spent the last 30 years with the best gear on the planet. The SX is easily included in that group. I plan on buying a few more for the heck of it.

I don't know when it was made, but it was made in China. 21 frets, laminated top, I'm sure. Standard Vintage Style Strat setup, with one volume and two tone controls, 3 way selector switch and three single coil pickips. Make and model of pickups? Who the fuck knows or cares? No place for a battery, so I figure they are passive electronics. Body is solid alder, neck is maple. Beautiful 3 color brown sunburst finish, stratocaster style body - can't tell the difference between it and the real thing as far as body style and thickness are concerned. Standard tremelo bridge, string through body, tuners are vintage style tuners, just like the ones on the Fender'57 Stratocaster (Made in USA price $1,200) and the Fender 50's Strat Reissue (MIM - price $649.00)that I have. The only difference is the tuners between the Fenders and the SX are that the two Fenders which together costed me over $1,800 do not stay in tune worth a fuck and the SX which costed me $99.00 does stay in tune - for days I can play it without retuning. I'm lucky to make it through two songs on the Fenders without having to fuck with the tuning. Neck is nice and thin, very fast, maple fretboard. It came with a cord, which wasn't much good, but hey - for $99.00? I did not give my two Fenders 10's when I rated them on here, because they costed so damn much money and were a letdown. I'm giving this SX a 10 because it has all the strat features and STAYS IN FUCKING TUNE.

I play mostly rockabilly, classic rock (late 50's to early 70's) and blues, everything from Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Beatles and Stones to Hendrix, Zeppelin and most things in between. Occasionally I will have an AC/DC type mood or something like Jackyl. Lately I've been getting into the "alternative country" sound and the twang on this thing is great, I also play a lot of what you call "biker" music as the places I play at tend to be biker bars, because I'm a biker, and yes it is true that Yamahas, Kawasakis, Suzukis and Hondas are made to keep assholes and faggots off of harleys. It actually has more of a vintage sound than either of my Fenders, but it handles all the music above except the heavy metal stuff very well. This is not a heavy metal guitar just through an amp, but I do have a ZOOM 606 Pedal and you can put that fucker on the Marshall Stack Amp mode, max the distortion and gain on the pedal and this guitar will sound just like a humbucking Les Paul for Zeppelin or even Metallica, but my moods for the Zeppelin and Metallica are not so frequent now that I'm 50 something. However, my son is in to the new stuff like Nickleback and Creed and he can get their sound perfectly with this guitar, although he has his own Les Paul. I'm using this on two amps one at at home being a VOX Pathfinder 15R and the other where I gig (not my amp - but the clubs) which is a Fender Super Reverb. This guitar sounds great on both of them, however, I wish I had a big VOX like an AC30 or something because I really love the VOX sound. There is very minimal of the single coil hum with this guitar, and it isn't because of weak pickups because I've compared it to my two Fenders and the output is just as good, better actually than the MIM Fender. The bridge pickup gives you a nice bright twang which is good for country and rockabilly and that Jeff Beck type sound and if you are into something like Tom Delonge, the ZOOM Pedal has a Fat Strat setting and my son can make this thing do a perfect Tom Delonge imitation , if you cut back the tone a little on the amp's treble, it is great for hard rock riffs. The in betweens are great, 2d position doing really good Dire Straits type sounds and Hendrix stuff and the 4th position does very good Clapton type bluesy stuff. The neck pickup is where it does really well on heavy metal through the pedal. It can go from twangy and bright on the bridge pickup to a rich full sound on the neck. It is extremely versatile and like I said, only $99.00!!! I love everything about it. I brought it for a backup for my Fender Strats and now, I'm gigging primarily with this one because it stays in tune so much better.

Now this is where it won't get a 10. I used to be a guitar tech before I joined the military back in the 70's, so it was no problem for me, but the setup sucked. It came with Diaddario strings, which were great, but everything had to be adjusted. Some of the strings were too low, some too high, the intonation was off and the pickups needed to be adjusted and the neck was slightly concave. It took me about 30 minutes though and it was perfect, even to the point of being perfectly in sync with standard tuning open and fine tuning at the 12th fret. The frets themselves are excellent. One of the reviewers said that the neck pickup wasn't as powerful as his Fender, but check the distance from the neck pickup to the strings. If yours was like mine, the neck pickup was too far from the strings and I had to raise it a tad, both on the treble and bass side and then it was perfect. No flaws at all on the finish, bridge was routed perfectly, wood is excellent quality, to be honest, I don't know how the fuck they do it for $99.00. I've got a few strat and tele style guitars that I made myself, and they sound good, but I couldn't build them here in the North Carolina mountains for $99.00. They both costed me over $300 each to build from scratch. I gotta take a few points though for the setup. I don't expect a guitar that is shipped to be perfect, but I do expect it to be playable out of the box. This one was not, it was badly in need of adjustment, so SX only gets a 7 here.

This guitar does withstand live playing three nights a week in several places between Black Mountain and Boone North Carolina. The hardware is just as good as any, finish is great, it's tough, strap buttons are plenty solid, it is dependable, but there is no musician with any experience that would gig with any guitar without a backup. Like I said, I bought this guitar as a backup for my two Fender Strats, you think I'm gonna gig with a $99 guitar without a backup.

I got this through Rondo Music, ordered it online. It arrived within two days, packed very nicely, and to be honest, I've never even looked to see if it had a warranty. My Fender's both have warranties, but I still had to pay everytime they had to go to a better guitar doc than me, which incidently, I've had this guitar for over a year now and it has never crapped out on me, everything is as solid as the day I brought it. Both of my Fenders had to go to better techs than me within 3 months of purchase because of something going wrong on those fuckers. When this thing was so outta whack out of the box, I emailed Rondo music about it, and they offered to send me a new one, no questions asked. I had already fixed it to my preferences though.....but the offer was very kind. Looks like they love to keep their customers happy. I am, and I plan on buying one of their Les Paul copies one of these days.

I am 54 years old, and been playing a guitar since I was maybe 3? My daddy played guitar as did his daddy before him, so it's a family thing. Over the last 40 years or so, my music preferences and guitar preferences have changed quite a bit. I'm a pack rat, so I never get rid of anything so I have everything basically. I've got Les Pauls both Gibsons and Epiphones, Strats both Fenders and Squiers, several Ibanez and Washburn Electrics and a shitload of copies and acoustic guitars. I only use Gibson and Taylor Acoustic guitars though, so I don't have as many acoustics as I do electrics because price wise Gibson and Taylor acoustic guitars are a big fucking OUCH to the billfold. I can't find good quality off name brand acoustic guitars, even tried a few Takamine's and I didn't care for them much. Fender, Epiphone and Ibanez Acoustics are not my cup of tea either. However, I have one Washburn Acoustic that is quite nice. I find however, that I have run across several extremely inexpensive guitars that are copies of Les Pauls, Strats and Tele's that are excellent. For example, I have a Nelsonic Les Paul Copy, one of those Lesert Models and a Nelsonic Telecaster Copy and they are awesome. I also have a not so inexpensive Yamaha Studio Pro which is a Les Paul copy and it sounds better than ANY Gibson Les Paul out there. So, folks, my advice as an old musician is don't get stuck on the name of a headstock or the shape of it. There are a lot of inexpensive guitars out there that are just as good and sometimes better than the real thing. This SX SST 57 is one example of that. It is awesome, and yes, I would get another one if this one was lost or stolen, however, I ain't gonna lose it, it ain't gonna get stolen from me at one of my shows because I am 6'7" tall and weigh 275 pounds and ain't saying I'm bad, but the bad don't fuck with me, and in order from them to steal it from my house, they are going to have to get through one German Shepard, one Rotweiler, one Doberman and one each mean as hell pit bull. It is their job to guard my house and everything in it, as well as my Harleys. If they get through my dogs, I've got a few surprises for them in the house if I'm home and if I ain't, my wife can shoot the head off a match stick from 50 ft. She might be a little bitty lady, bout 5'2 and 100 lbs, but I've seen her knock out big bad ass bikers at a many of the events we go to to party at and play.

2004 Cream model made in China. The features have been well described. Pretty much a straight Strat copy.

I have this guitar for a couple of weeks, playing through a Traynor YCV-40. Just got done comparing it to my 1986 MIJ Strat.

In positions 3,4, and 5, the SX just exudes the strat tone and vibe. The neck pickup, however, is considerably weaker than the one on my strat, and also lacks definition.
Middle and Bridge pickups are excellent.

I own two SX's. Both arrived very poorly set up. If you purchase an SX of any type, be prepared to pay for a set up or to do it yourself.

The overall quality and workmanship of this SX strat seems wonderful. A beautiful finish, upon which I have found no flaws.

Neck and fretwork are very nicely done.

Finish seems durable.

I didn't really have all that secure of a feeling doing the intonation. There was this nagging feeling that you don't want to do this very much, I just had the feeling that I could strip a screw pretty easily.

That being said, nothing untoward has happened to it yet, everything works.

Tuners are not very high quality, however. I find myself having to tune more often than with other guitars. These will be replaced.

No idea.

Been playing over 30 years. Own some Gibsons, a couple of Fenders, a couple of Ibanez, and half a dozen various Asians. I like the name brands, but am also fascinated at the overall quality of the "cheap" guitars available these days.

It wouldn't break my heart if it was stolen (heck, that's one of the reasons why I BUY some of these Asian instruments) but it's a lot of fun to play so I might get another one.

All in all, respite some reservations, I'd rate this guitar a screaming value for $99 bucks. It looks great, feels and plays like a real strat, and can hit, right on the nose, about 60% of the sound.


Always hard to rate these cheap guitars. Do you rate them with exactly the same parameters as an expensive unit, or do you rate them within the universe of inexpensive models.

"10" means, in this category, "fantastic value." But while the SX is exactly that, it really isn't a "10" guitar, because of the neck pup and the tuners, and the "percieved" softness of the metal parts.

Universal classic strat features: 3 single coil, one vol, two tone, 6-pivot trem, plain sealed tuners. Mine has a maple neck and alder body. I give this guitar a 9 because most low-end guitars, like low end software, have what some people call "box features" - features that a piece of software <i>does</i> have, but only for the sake of advertising that feature - e.g. pop can metal bridge on every cheap import strat. Everything but the nut and trees on this guitar worked to my satisfaction out of the box.

Wow! This thing has strat vibe in spades. Let's put it like this: judging from MIM standard and Squier, Fender doesn't "get it" - but the guys who made this SST 57 do. Even the pickups have strat mojo. No kidding - if I had a set of these a la carte, I'd try them in an expensive guitar. This guitar sounds very loud and bright acoustically - lots of depth, sustain, definition.

Here's how I think about Action, Fit, and Finish on budget guitars: (1) I can't afford a classy finish; if I want a John Suhr beauty, I'd probably have to pay Suhr prices. (2) I assume that any guitar under $500 or so is going to need a lot of TLC right out of the box. I don't expect a $99 guitar to have had much attention anywhere in the chain from China to my home. It's just not the same kind of thing as when you buy a "pro" type guitar and you have a relationship with the store and their tech and you expect them to service the purchase until it's right. Apples and oranges.

<BR><BR>Having said that, (1) The finish is plenty nice enough - better than any Squier I've noticed, and (2) all I did with setup was new trees and nut, (flat bottom, 1/8" - graph tech pre-slotted, center foot took about 5 total swipes of the file to make it really good), saddle height and intonation, and my favorite strings. That's it. Now it's a total player.

<BR><BR>BTW - it has jumbo-ish frets and a flatter neck, so if you're a purist classic strat type guy, just be aware. If you like that feel the SST 57 does it very well. I would have been happy getting just the neck for $99.

I asked about the bridge on the HC guitar forum because people were saying it's cheap - which didn't match my aural perception. The only specific example anyone offered was stripped threads on the trem bar. If that happens, I'll just replace the block and bar. So far so good with the tuners - no plans to upgrade. Everything else feels very solid. Everything about the guitar suggests that the people who made it really care about guitar.

My order confirmation got lost somewhere in the back alleys of Hotmail, so I called Rondo Music. Very helpful. I don't know whether I'd pick up the phone if I sold guitars in this price range - LOL. Oh, yeah - one gripe: the guitar came with a totally different headstock than the one pictured. You might ask about that in advance if you think you really need a specific look.

This is THE all time bang-for-the-buck low end guitar bargain in my book. It really sounds decent compared to anything - not just Squiers and the whole sea of Christmas Gift Lumber that fills the floors of general interest music stores. <BR><BR>Oh, yeah - tho I am currently between bands (except church) and I have a joe job, I'm not a high school kid with no frame of reference, overly impressed by the first guitar in my path that can be set up with acceptable action. My education is in music (BM, guitar performance), and I've been in a few *working* bands and I continue to add to my resume of a bazillion freelance gigs (I read and improvise okay). I've had my fair share of good, expensive guitars, including real-deal Fenders. <BR><BR>My SST 57 - with my own setup, remember - could stay in the pack with any random sample of expensive strats from a big factory. And in its own league, it just kicks so much ass for $99, it's unbelievable - surreal.

Made probably in 2003 in China. Has 22 frets and a laminated top. Has typical strat setup with one volume and two tone controls with a 5 way selector switch and 3 single coil pickups, which are quite good. Body is made of Alder, neck is maple, beautiful Dakota Red finish with white pickguard. Standard Strat tremelo, string through body. Tuners are vintage fender type tuners and they stay in tune very well. Neck is C shaped, with a maple fretboard and the skunk stripe down the back. Came with a cord, strap and gig bag. Really beats the shit out of the Squier Standard Strat I have and for half the price.

I play anything I'm in the mood for, classic rock, folk, blues, country, just depends on how I feel at the moment. I am using it with a Marshall MG15RCD and a ZOOM Fire 505II Pedal. Great combo. You can turn up the noise reduction on the pedal and you don't get that single coil hum and there is no hum in the 2d and 4th positions anyway. Bright twangy bridge pickup, gets darker as you move towards the neck. Very vintage 50's sounding Strat. Sounds just as good as the real thing. Very big variety in music but probably not for you metal heads.

Setup perfectly out of the box. Can't find a flaw anywhere.

I been bangin it around now for 9 months and it still does its thing. Tough guitar. Can't believe it was only $100.00.

Rondo Music is great. Kurt is the man. I've bought several SX guitars and a couple had to be returned and never had a problem.

Been playing 20 years, also have a Fender Standard Tele and a few acoustics. I'd get another one if I lost it or it were stolen. Best guitar out there for the money.

2004, maple neck with a very high graining, looks very vintage. Sunburst 3 pc. alder...you know the specs by now. I bought this guitar to go alongside of a Squier LE Strat to act as a backup. But the roles have switched. The Squier's pickups "crackle" in all but the neck position...and that sucks. The SX does not! The SX has more real Strat Tone than the Squier LE has, go figure... as it cost half the price. Not only that, but the SX rings out acoustically which the Squier does not. When I plugged in the SX I heard more Fenderesque tone coming from it than coming from the Squier.
The graining in the alder is rich and prominent unlike those horrible sunburst MIM Strat Stds. I locked down the trem as this is clearly the cheapest part of the guitar. If you must use trem...replace the unit with something other. But if a trem is not a necessity...just lock it down. In fact, SX would be well advised to make hardtail strats as an option. As nothing is perfect...it gets a 9...but that is higher than the Squier.

it sounds like a 50's Strat...with the aggressiveness and twang needed. It sounds more like a true strat then the Squier or any MIM Strat Std that I owned, and I have owned about 4 of those over the years....but they're all gone....and I think I will not only keep this SX but get some more....hell, in differing colors.

the neck plays like a Japanese 50's reissue Strat that I once owned. It is somewhere between a U and a V shaped neck?????? And the neck has just enough girth to wrap my smallish hands around for comfy chording.

It should last as well as anything else if you take care of it.

Kurt and Rondo are excellent.

I want a few more of these...just to match the colors of my moods. They should start making them in a greater variety of colors. I will buy more and use these as my main guitars...there is no reason why I shouldn't. And I have been playing since the mid-1960's.

Ich denke die Gitarre wurde in China gebaut - aber auf oder an der Gitarre ist kein Hinweis der dies bestatigt. Das Teil ist eine Kopie von einer 57er Statocaster mit den typischen Merkmalen. 3 Singlecoils
, 1 Volume, 2 Tone Potis, einlagiges weisses Pickguard, maple neck und fretboard mit einer sehr schonen vintage style amber Lackierung. Passive Elektronik. Der body ist aus alder in 3 Teilen und die Lackierung ist tobacco sunburst = 2-farbig. Die Mechaniken sind eine Kopie der bekannten Kluson-Mechaniken. Als Zubehor gab es 2 Inbusschlussel (1 mal fur den Hals und einmal fur die Saitenreiter). Bespannt war das Teil mit 009er d'addario strings.
Gekauft in Deutschland uber ebay fur 129EUR.
Super Optik nah am Original - schones Logo - wirk echt nicht billig...

Ich spiele was mir gerade in den Sinn kommt....
fingerpicking, jazz, rock, metal ...all kind of music - makes fun!!!
...hauptsachlich uber ein zoom ps02 (geiles Teil) oder uber meinen
Fender Frontman 25. Die Pups brummen ein wenig (kann ich vielleicht wachsen), Sustain ist super, a lot of twangbang is possible und das mach richtig Laune! ich habe noch 2 Squiers eine standard in sunburst und eine 20th anniv. in butterscotch - eine epiphone LPII eine DElRay semi, eine stratacoustic.... alles nicht so teure Teile (man kann sich auch unter den gunstigen Spitzenexemplare raussuchen) die sind auch OK...
aber die sx ist echt Klasse!!!

Das setup war OK, Pickups OK, Trem lag auf - hab ich getestet...
nich so dolle - verstimmt sich dabei laufend trotz Dehnung der Saiten... lass es aufliegen und spiele das Teil ohne Trem...
bei den anderen funkts, what shell's?
Die Verarbeitung und die Holzer sind 1a - no doubt about it....
for that price - unbelieveable!! Die Knoppe sollte mann/frau entgraten und festpappen sonsinsewech! Keine Lacknasen, geringe Spaltma?e.. was will man mehr!

Scheint OK zu sein... dass ne Strat stabiler ist als ne Paula durfte wohl bekannt sein? ausserdem ist vieles ersetzbar - lohnt sich allemal.....................

Hatte nichts mit dem. Ging alles schnell und einwandfrei.
Habe die reviews vorher hier gelesen und auch mal bei rondo music
reingeschaut - die verschicken leider nicht nach good old germnay :-(
auf deren homepage haben die sx nun eine andere Kopfplatte - was nicht mehr so toll aussieht!

Ich spiele mit Unterbrechungen seit ich 14 bin. Mittlerweile bin ich 40. 20 Jahrelang hab ich die drums gedroschen und gestreichelt - nun bin ich "Sofagitarrist" und muss EUCH SAGEN DASS diese Gitarre echt in Ordnung ist!!! Great value for that blbalabla.. Einfach mal probieren - ich denke das Geld ist wirklich gut angelegt...
vielleicht so gut wie die 80er Strats Made in Japan ;-)
it's a great player for this nosewater..
keep on rockin!

Mi modelo es una SST 62 Vintage. La diferencia es que el fingertop esta hecho en palo de rosa y no en maple como la 57. Es una guitarra de fabricacion china, del a?o 2003. Con cuerpo solido,detalle importante a tener encuenta; en general las guitarras asiaticas o mexicanas estan hechas en maderal laminada, que reduce considerablemente la calidad y el sonido.

La guitarra tiene un buen sonido, la he usado con diversos equipos de guitarra, y no tiene nada que envidiarle a otras Stratocaster de mayor valor. Por el estilo de musica que hago uso mucho overdrive y wwah-wah y la guitarra logra un sonido con mucho brillo, con y sin efectos. Al momento de buscar acoples noisys no se queda atras a pesar de tener pick ups de bobina simple.

Tiene realmente buenas terminaciones, este modelo es color sunburst y esta muy bien logrado, incluso el mango tiene ese color vintage de las Fender originales y los apliques de acrilico son de color marfil que logran un acabado vintage y no dan esa impresion de plastico barato. el peso del instrumento es optimo, no es demasiado liviana pero tampoco es excesivamente pesada. El selector de microfonos tiene diferentes posiciones dentadas, que al poco tiempo de comprarla se desplazo, pero seguia funcionando sin problema. lo solucione facilmente sin recurrir a la garantia. Los tornillos son cromados y de calidad, que por lo general en una guitarra de este precio esos detalles no son cuidados. Los trastes son realmente un punto flojo, por ser demasiado altos e impedir sonidos prolongados, pero realemnte una sustitucion de todos duplicaria el valor de la guitarra. Las cuerdas d'addario que viene de fabrica son realmente buenas, y las clavijas a pesar de ser blindadas tiene, alguna, un poco de giro en falso que a veces complica la correcta afinacion.

Todo parece eindicar que es de gran durabilidad, la he usado en vivo alguna vez, y es la guitarra que llevo a todos los ensayos, puesto que ante cualquier inconveniente no perderia una guitarra de $ 1.000, sino solo $ 99. Esta sometida a todo tipo de manipulaciones por el transporte y con una funda de tela, parece mas que suficiente para su conservacion. Las cuerdas d'addario que viene de fabrica son realmente buenas.

Los importadores de SX en la Argentina no parecen ser los mas simpaticos, probablemente porque uno es un cliente de menos de $ 100, por el que no les cambia mucho su situacion economica, espero no necesitar de su colaboracion y de no tener que recurrir al uso de la garantia dentro de este a?o. La garantia es de un a?o y no se que calidad tendra porque nunca la he utilizado, pero no me inspira mucha confianza.

En estos cuatro meses que la he usado, me ha dado buenos resultados, considerando que yo solo la queria como un instrumento para llevar a los ensayos y que ante cualquier inconveniente no sufriera su perdida. No creo que la venda nunca, y es muy probable que en el futuro con le mejoramiento de la calidad de los productos chinos, pueda ser considerada una guitarra de segunda marca, a la altura de otras, jamas de una Fender original, pero sin nada que envidiarle.

I've got a 2004 SX SST57, made in China. It's got all the standard Stratocaster features, and the only way you can tell it's not Fender by looking at it is that the headstock has a somewhat different design to it. But besides that, it's your basic Stratocaster.

The guitar sounds very nice acoustically (which is always a good sign), and it is surprisingly loud. Plugged in, it sounds like a real Stratocaster. I compared this to a Fender American '57 Reissue Stratocaster, and the only difference was that the Fender had a little more "definition" in its tone. However, the SX will get you 75% of the way there, tonally.

Neck position gives you the classic Strat blues sound, and if you roll down the tone knob, you can do a somewhat convincing jazz impression.

Neck and middle position gives a somewhat 'heavier' version of the Strat's famous quack.

Middle position is a great mid-point between bridge and neck pickup, and it incorporates the best of both.

Middle and bridge position gives you the famous Strat 'quack'. Listen to anything by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits or Eric Clapton to hear this. It's perfect for funk.

Bridge position gives you a really crisp, bright, and twangy sound. If you want to play surf music, this is where it's at. Hendrix also seemed to use this position a lot. However, when you go into heavy distortion, it sounds more like a dog bark or tearing paper more than anything else. I'm pretty sure the reason you don't hear this on Hendrix records is because he used lots of fuzz pedals and things to thicken up his tone.

The guitar wasn't set up too well from the factory. But everyone should get their guitar set up when they get it, because you can't expect it to get set up perfectly. After a setup that almost costed half of this guitar, it played beautifully.

There's nothing wrong with the finish, it's great, the only thing I can think of here is that the pickguard isn't quite cut correctly around the neck. But that's just a really small thing.

One big problem I have with this guitar is that my 13th fret is too big, so I always get a buzz when I play on the 12th fret, especially on the B string. In order to fix this I would have to get the frets dressed, which would probably cost as much as this guitar! I don't think that this is a problem with every guitar, just mine.

Another problem is that the metal used on the bridge and the saddles is low-quality. From screwing my tremelo in and out just a few times, I've already stripped the threads on it, so I can barely screw it in anymore! Also, I've stripped a few of the saddle screws so I can't really adjust the action too well, which is a bad thing.

The electronics are OK. The pots are kind of scratchy, and need to be cleaned, but overall it isn't bad. I noticed that the controls are a lot more stiff than they were on the Fender American '57 Reissue Stratocaster I compared it with. The tuners are also OK, nothing special. I had some tuning problems, but that's more of a nut problem than a tuner problem.

This is a very tough guitar, and the Fender design is extremely durable. Compared to Gibsons, these guitars are indestructible. If you were to drop this guitar, I doubt anything would happen with it. I would gig with a backup though because of Murphy's law, and because no matter how tough a guitar is, you can still break your high E string during a solo!

Great customer support. Hands down the best I've dealt with. Email kurt, and he'll get back to you within 5 or 10 minutes. Rondo is all about customer support and they'll definitely give it to you. I've heard nothing but good things about their customer support.

This is a good guitar. For the money, it's an EXCELLENT guitar. You can't go wrong. I've played other budget guitars, and this one just blows them out of the water. I've heard, however, that the new Squires are getting pretty good, so you may want to check those out too. Also check out the Yamaha Pacifica, that's a guitar that really gives this one a run for its money.

The reason I give this a relatively low rating is because of the reasons I outlined in Action, Fit, and Finish. The cheap metal for the bridge and the uneven fret. If only this came with sturdier metal and more even frets, I would give this a ten. Because of those two things though, I am having some troubles with this guitar. I'm going to suggest to Kurt that they use sturdier metal in the future and they watch out for their frets.

I bought two of them... 2003 models probably, most of the specs have been mentioned. Standard Stratocaster copy. Three-piece alder body with maple neck and maple-cap fretboard. Three single coils with the middle RWRP, 5-way switch, yada yada yada....

I play all styles from old classic pop/jazz to modern European metal and the like. This guitar holds up well to almost every style, though it lacks some of the fatness needed for deep metal (it IS a Stratocaster, not an Ibanez...) and lends itself to blues/rock beautifully. It's got a great bite on the bridge pickup and a food warmth to the neck pickup. I recently sold a Fender Made-in-Mexi Strat that wasn't half this good in my honest opinion. I've played it through digital, solid-state, and tube amps recently and they were great through all of them.

The action, fit and finish were amazing out of the box. There's a tiny bit of buzziness to one string on one guitar, but I can easily correct that with the provided tools. The pickups were set perfectly, and the magnets being equal height makes it easy to modify your sound by adjusting the pickup angle. The finishes (one lake placid blue, one black) were both great, but the blue was absolutely gorgeous. Everyone who's seen it has remarked on it (including the members of my new band who all play much more expensive instruments from Fender and Ibanez). I haven't notice any flaws save for a few little marks on the pickguard... but it's the pickguard and it's gonna get marked anyway. The electronics are quiet and efficient, and the controls are great. The neck's vintage lacquer cover is astonishingly beautiful, and it plays like a dream. Just as good if not better than the Fender I sold.

The most surprising thing about the factory setup was the strings. The guitar was strung with D'addario strings in .09 I believe, and the strings were wrapped in paper taped together for the packaging, protecting them. After properly stretching the strings for a while and then tuning, then tuners held very well and better than most of the other guitars I've owned.

I think this guitar will hold up to gigging just fine, but you never know... so I bought two of them. The hardware is great for now, but only time will tell as to whether it goes downhill or not. The finish is great, no problems foreseen here. Strap buttons are actually more solid than that old Fender I keep talking about because the Fender's buttons still spun some even after using superglue on the screw more than once. I can and will depend on this guitar.

Rondomusic is fantastic. Emails are answered within a day or two at most and questions are answered politely and honestly. Kurt is a wonderful businessman and I'd rely on him any day of the week. This is not my first experience with them either. Guitars came within 4 business days of order, and came well packaged in double-boxed cardboard with wrapping over the guitars as well. Great service!

Overall amazing value. If you're going to buy a Stratocaster, buy 3 of these and save yourself some money (Fender MIM's are $350).

I've been playing about 4 years, but like with anything I take up I've been absorbed in it and have been in a handful of small bands already including a punk band, hardcore band, and classic rock-ish band. I own/have owned a Takamine G-240 acoustic, SX Acoustic/Electric model, a Kramer Focus VT111 strat copy, an Epiphone G-310 SG, an Epiphone Les Paul Special II, a Kramer Baretta 404-S/D, a Fender Made-in-Mexi Stratocaster, and now these two SX SST-57s. I've played through a Kramer KR-15 practice amp, a Line 6 Spider 210, a Peavey Classic amp, and a Crate GT-200 tube/ss switchable amp. I consider these two guitars probably the best guitars I've owned out of those I've owned and that's through any amp, and most of those were much more expensive when I bought them.

I would definitely buy these gutiars again, and I may buy more later just for alternate tunings. I think, however, I'll get a tele copy by SX first.

I love everything about this guitar and hate nothing. Favorite feature is the tonality and the resonance the wood gives. I can play these guitars unplugged in my bedroom and have a nice clean twang you'd expect from a high end USA Strat.

I've compared it to many guitars... for its price it's the best quality instrument you can own and it's so affordable that a backup is easily affordable.

I wish there was a fat model with the same controls/layout much like the Tex-Mex Strat model from Fender.

if you want a Stratocaster... buy this guitar!

Eine fast perfekte handgefertigte Gitarre die seinesgleichen sucht.
Obwohl sie aus China kommt, stimmt die Qualitat, liegt wunderbar in der Hand und veleiht ein gutes Gefuhl.

Ich war vom Sound so positiv uberrascht, dass ich gleich 2 andere Strats in Sunburst und in candy apple red nachgekauft habe. Ich bin ein Stratfanatiker und besitze mehrere teure Strats. Ich kann nur versichern, da? SX Strat besser klingt als die meisten die ich besitze. Sie klingt in allen Tonlagen wunderbar ausgeglichen, keinesfalls matschig. Es ist nicht notig die original Pickups gegen andere zu tauschen, denn sie sounden wirklich mit viel Twang und Transparenz, so richtig in Richtung der teuren 60 er Vintage Strats.
Ich nehme an, dass die Hersteller sich bei der ersten Serie viel Muhe gegeben haben, was auch gelungen ist.

Alle meine drei SX Strats konnten in jeder Hinsicht in der Preisklasse
um die 1000,- Euro konkurieren. Meine erste Strat habe ich total auseinander geschraubt, um zu sehen, wo der Haken ist. Siehe da es gibt keinen. Ein wunderbar verarbeiteter Hals mit sehr gut geschlifenen Bunden (sogar die teuren USA Strats kratzen oft an der Kante), einwandfreier Lack, gute Klusontype Mechaniken, sehr gut funktionierendes Tremolo System. Pickguard auf der Unterseite abgeschirmt, Pickups mit Alnico Magneten versehen. Zu meiner Uberraschung mu?te ich feststellen, dass der Hals meiner nachgekauften Strat in weiss, aus traumhaften Birdseye - Holz gefertigt war. Kurzum eine fast perfekte Gitarre.

Ich spiele seit 35 Jahren Gitarre. Wahren dieser Laufbahn sind unzahlige Gitarren durch meine Hand gegangen. Die SX Strat gibt vom ersten Moment an ein gutes Gefuhl, man will sie nicht mehr aus der Hand geben. Am Anfang habe ich das Gefuhl gehabt, als ob die Klusonnachbau Mechaniken Spiel hatten. Prompt habe ich sie gegen originale ersetz, mu?te ich aber feststellen, dass zwischen original und Nachbauten uberhaupt kein Unterschied ist.
Die Knopfe funktionieren einwandfrei, Tonepotis dosieren gut, Volume Potis schneiden bei leiser Stellung die Tonnuance nich ab. Die Gitarre klingt in allen Lagen ausgeglichen mit reichem Oberton und Mitten. "Nun aufgepasst die Hank Marvin Fans". Die SX twangt Faktor X besser als meine Hank - Marvin - Signature. Ich glaube das reicht.

Da die Gitarren relariv neu auf dem Markt sind, kann ich zu diesem Thema keine Angaben Machen. Aber Sie scheint unkaputbar.

Spiele seit 35 Jahren Gitarre. Besitze mehrere Strats, auch Customshop Modelle. Nun Habe ich 3 von SX Strats, und weitere Modelle werden folgen, wenn ich welche erwerben kann.

Pretty basic strat setup - two tone, one volume knob, five-way switch, pretty nice chrome tuners, a vintage fulcrum tremolo bridge, and an oh-so-beautiful color - vintage white. The body is supposedly a solid three-piece alder, with a really nice tinted maple neck. Just a basic vintage strat. Oh, the brand-name printing on the headstock as well as the headstock shape is quite impressive.

This guitar sounded pretty great right out of the box. True, I had to adjust the saddles a bit and there is still some ring in the G, but the stock pickups were beautiful. I had to change out the bridge pickup, but that's just because I don't like the strat bridge pickup sound in any strat. The neck and middle pickups are incredibly lush sounding for a $99 guitar. The shielding is pretty thorough, too, and they installed a RW/RP middle pickup at the factory, and that's a big surprise for me...I love it.

The action is nice and low, the finish is decent, and all the parts are in the right place. However, the G string rings, the vintage string trees stick (but they do on any guitar) and the pickguard looks a little hastily cut at the neck. The volume pot is a little loose, and the tuners jiggle in their sockets...nothing that can't be fixed with a little spanner. The frets are great, and the neck feels awesome. The nut is pretty bad, though - it is poorly cut and filed; I may need to replace it. The neck pocket is a little bigger than I like, too. While the tuners are a little loose, the tuning is fairly solid - basically, everything holds much better than my Squier which cost twice as much. Except the nut.

This guitar is no less durable than any other I've seen. I mean, some parts are a little loose, but it seems pretty solid. Everything is pretty solid and I would have no problems taking this out without a backup, which is more than I can say about that Squier I mentioned.

The company I bought this from, Rondo Music, has possibly the greatest customer service in the world. They are very halpful, answer any questions you may have, and respond to your emails quickly. However, I don't know if they do repairs, but that's not a problem for me. The warranty is pretty short, I think between 90 days and 1 year, but I've already voided it.

I've been playing guitar for almost six years, but I'm more of a tech than a player. I have a Squier strat, and this blows it away. I also have an assortment of acoustics, but that's not an issue here. All I can say is that I am very satisfied with this purchase. This is the absolute best I've seen for this price. If it were stolen, I might buy a similar-priced guitar from another company, find the thief, bash him over the head with it, and take my SX back. Honestly, if you're looking for a good, cheap guitar to start out on or even to use regularly, this is your best buy.

SX 57 Vintage Strat. Made in China. 21 frets. 3 piece solid alder body, 3 single coil pups, maple neck, maple fretboard, adjustable neck, rosewood reinforced neck, 1 volume, 2 tone controls, 5 position pickup selector switch, came with D?Addario strings, vintage fulcrum with six adjustable saddles. I have 2: one turquoise, one white (well, yellow).

This is a follow up to a review I left on 1/20/04.

The turquoise one needed a setup, and I don't know how to do those. I found a guy who is a Fender authorized shop, and gave him both the yellow & the turquoise to do. He was *very* impressed with the guitars. I guess it's not totally ok to quote somebody else, but this isn't a court room. He felt that both needed to be setup to match the kinds of strings he put on (d'Addario 9 for the daughter and 10 for me), and he needed to tighten a screw on the knob of the tuners so they'd hold tune, and adjust the height of the pickups. He filed the edges of the frets. There were rough. That was it. He said the finish was outstanding. He was *very* impressed with the Bird's eye maple on the yellow one. The neck on the turquoise is nice, it's just "plain" maple. He said the bridge was a lighter guage metal than a Fender would be. He said it made no difference in tone or anything, they were just lighter. He said that if I changed out the pups to Fender, EMG, diMarzio, or Seymour-Duncan, it'd be comparable to any American made Fender. He said the tuners (SX brand) were as good as any general replacement ones I'd buy. He said they'd be made the same. He said mainly the saddles/bridge needed to be adjusted. He said that if I went into Guitar Center, I'd have to pay $400 to get a guitar as good as this one, and then even at that I'd have to just play the various ones. He said some that cost much more than $400 wouldn't be any better. He was very impressed with the fit and finish, and again, he was really complimentary about the Bird's eye maple on the yellow one.

So the setup work cost about $65 for each guitar, so I've got about $165 in each. Not bad. If you know how to setup a guitar, you're ahead.

Sorry I haven't gotten the pictures up on the web yet. I had lost my digi camera usb cable, but have another one now. Will have up soon.

Damn it plays good. I've had it now about a month, and I still say between my 57 reissue Fender and my Carruther's custom and Rickenbacker, I'd rather play this one. That's the truth.

$99. or $165. Beats the hell out of $800, and I don't see how anyone could not give it a 10. I think it's ridiculous not to.

I'm a left handed guitar player and anytime you get a chance to try a lefty guitar go for it! The SST57 is an alder wood stratocaster copy but I believe after comparing it to my friend's strat that this is no copy! I took it out of the box and it was extremely well wrapped and I couldn't wait to see the vintage cream color. I was not disappointed! What a beautiful finish! The 21 fret maple neck is unbelievable with jumbo frets. The details to the headstock with gold lettering is a bonus. The tuners look very nice with the SX logos on them but still not sure if they hold the tuning.

I mostly play a left handed Gibson Les Paul Standard. I wanted that Strat sound for a little crisper blues. This SST57 does the job! I play through a 1966 Fender Vibro Champ and early Fender Frontman with a Digitech RP50, MXR, phase 90, DOD FX10 preamp boost pedal, and MXR Noisegate line drive pedal. Hardly need the noisegate pedal. This guitar does not hum! The pickup combinations are well done and the sound is full. There is nothing I dislike with the sound.

Out of the box I played with it one night dreaming it was set up correctly! Action was high and pickups were close. I spent the next 2 days setting it up to Fender Stratocaster specifications and it now plays fantastic! This guitar is left handed and I can't remember when playing one this good felt so good! Everything is stiff right now, knobs and 5 way switch, but with use it will probably smooth out. Cream finish flawless and amber colored maple neck so cool! Saddles were adjusted, truss rod adjusted, and added new D'addario XL 10-46. The sustain is there. The tone is there.

I will play out with this guitar. Only play a few electric blues tunes during our jobs so will not need a backup. Would use it without anyway! It looks like a very expensive vintage Stratocaster. Knobs and tuners stiff but look very durable.
3-ply pickguard extremely nice. Strap buttons very reliable so far.
The finish on the maple neck is fabulous! So fast unlike my Les Paul's rosewood fingerboard. I've had no trouble doing string bends with this guitar.

The company I bought it from is Rondo Music. They have a whole line of copy guitars and if this guitar is anything like their others you should buy some more! They were very nice to deal with and even E-mailed me! Try that in a music store even if you lay down $100's for a guitar! Don't think there is a warranty. Don't really need one for this price. This is the best $100 I've spent for my musical hobby!

I've been playing off and on more on the last 30 years. My 1991 Gibson Les Paul Standard has been my primary guitar lately.I've owned a 1971 left handed Fender Telecaster,right handed 1960's Gibson ES 330, a 1959 right handed Strocaster I should have kept, and a right handed 1974 Fender Stratocaster. I've been through a ton of Fender Amps, 1961 cream colored Fender Twin Amp I should have kept, 1959 Tweed Champ, 1969 Deluxe Reverb, 1967 bassman, 1972 Vibro Champ Amp, and presently a 1967 Vibro Champ Amp and early Frontman 25 reverb amp. I've also had a 1972 Marshall Super lead 1/2 stack. This left handed SST57 fits well into my collection over the years. If it were lost, broken, or stolen I would definitely get another one! I love the cream colored finish and vintage colored amber maple neck. I tried many other Fender Stratocasters from Mexico and U.S.A. and this guitar was the best by far. It is an exceptional value. I like the look of the tuning keys but I wish they were better. I was going to replace the pick ups with Fender pick ups but I like what I hear right now! If you want a Fender twang sound with an unbelievable finish and look get one of these guitars.

SX 57 Vintage Strat. Made in China. 21 frets. 3 piece solid alder body, 3 single coil pups, maple neck, maple fretboard, adjustable neck, rosewood reinforced neck, 1 volume, 2 tone controls, 5 position pickup selector switch, came with D?Addario strings, vintage fulcrum with six adjustable saddles. I have 2: one turquoise, one white (well, yellow). I gave it a 9 because the pickguard has a ding in it, very superficial, but there. No one would notice it but me or you. The finish is perfect and gorgeous. The neck is UNBELIEVABLE. And I'm shouting this at you: it is unbelievable. Let me backup. I bought 1 (turquoise) of these a few weeks ago for my 11 year old daughter. I've been playing it a lot, and liked it so much I figured I buy myself one. I got the white (yellow) one. Hers was just perfect, absolutely totally perfect and gorgeous. We were stunned when we opened the box. I loved the maple neck on it. Very fast, very smooth. The frets were MUCH nicer than I thought they were going to be. So I bought one for myself. I have never seen a maple neck on a guitar like the one that came on mine. I guess I got lucky - really lucky. It is beautiful, perfect, smooth, fast. I know this sounds stupid and I don't expect you to believe me and no I don't work for the company, whoever they are, but I think I like playing this guitar more than my other guitars: a Fender 57 reissue (black) ($800 new), a Rickenbacker (cherry) with the fretboard completely restored ($1100), and a custom guitar I bought in Venice, CA ($1100). I had already bought some Schaller locking tuners figuring I'd replace the stocks ones, but I'm not sure that's going to be necessary. I probably will anyway, just for the hell of it.

I had already bought a DiMarzio pup to replace the neck pup, and I will replace it, but frankly I don't think I need to. It really sounds quite good to me. Now, I'm not a pro. I'm 53 and I've been playing off and on since I was 15, but I just play for fun. I like to finger pick, and play stuff you'd ordinarily play on an acoustic, and some jazz and some rock. I think it sound great. I honestly can't complain about it on any of the settings. I do get a lot of hum on certain positions, but that's with the volume set on 10. I'm not sure why, but I like mine (the white) much more than my daughter's, and my daughter's is very nice. It might be that I had read these reviews and everyone said the strings were crap, so I replaced her stock strings with Elixirs. Mine came with D?Addario strings, which are really, really, really nice on this guitar. I'm glad I didn't buy any replacements. I'm trying not to sound like an idiot and rave about this, but it really does sound great - I'm astonished, so I gave it the 10.

The guitar (mine) was set up perfectly. My daughter's wasn't, and still needs some set up, which I haven't gotten done yet. The pups on both of ours seem good, mine seem perfect. The bridge, etc seems fine. My daughter's had a loose plug for the cord, and I had to tighten that. Big deal. Everything else was fine. Her guitar's finish is stunning. Mine is, well, white (yellow), but very very nice for that color. I just wanted yellow. But God both of the necks on mine and hers are just beautiful. I have never seen such nice maple necks. (I used to own a cabinet shop and I've done a fair amount of work with wood, including maple, which I love.) I rate this a 10 for "Fabulous". The necks really are fabulous. The neck plays very fast and smooth. I know this sounds stupid but I'd rather play this SX than my Fender strat. That's the truth. The SX is faster and smoother and easier to play. I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to put pictures of this up on my web site. If you look for it after 2/20/04, it should be up about then. www.LoveLightSeminars.com/guitar

I have no idea how reliable it will be, or how durable it will be, because the future hasn't come yet. But there's nothing anywhere that I can see that looks like it'd be a problem. Everything is solid. I'd personally depend on it, but that's me. I gave it a 9, but probably should give it a 10, but as I said, time hasn't passed yet. Everything seems solid. As I said, I had to tighten the cord plug on the turquoise one, that's it. I tightened the tuners - some of the nuts were a bit loose. That's it. The finish seems fine, but I'm not going to rub on it to see what I have to do to take it off.

Haven't needed any.

Hell, I'd buy another of these in a heartbeat. I'd really like to buy one of their tele's and see how they play. But I'd buy another of these if anything happened to it. Love about it? the neck and the finish. Hate about it? nothing, really. Favorite feature? Guess. Have I mentioned the neck enough? Compare to other guitars? I like it as well as anything I've ever played and it cost about 1/10 what they did. Anything I wish it had? I wish the turquoise one had come properly set up, but you can't really expect that. I truly think that this is a fantastic value. I was going to have lots of fun replacing everything on it - the tuners, the pups, and having the hardware nickel plated or something - maybe I'll just save my $ and buy a tele or something. It doesn't really look like I'll need to replace anything, but I might. For heaven's sake I figured I'd at least have to buy new strings. Not for the yellow one. The D?Addario strings are, literally, perfect for this guitar. I like to play it just to see how smooth it is.

Nice grain on the alder body. Fat maple neck with "skunk" stripe. This is the '57 vintage model "strat". The tobacco burst finish is real nice. Three single coil pups, five way selector switch and tremelo bar.

Sound is impressively nice. This thing sounds like a strat. It has that distinctive Fender twang that we all love so much!
The whammy bar is stiff as hell, not real useable, knocks the thing out of tune real fast.

Action out of the box was awful. It needed a truss rod adjustment and string saddles lowered. This was done easily as the wrenches are supplied with the guitar. Now the action is sweet.
Fit and finish for a $100 guitar is outstanding . .

Haven't had it long enough to rate durability, but it is solid and well made.

Excellent customer support from Rondo. This is the third guitar I have bought from them in the past year. The SX Les Paul I bought last winter wasn't up to par, but Rondo took it back, no problem.

Been playin' since the 60's. Have owned and still own all kinds of gear. I can remember when a cheap guitar was shit. There has been a marked improvement in the overseas quality level in recent years. This is NOT an American Fender, but hey, the alder body with the sunburst finish by itself is worth $100 . . .This is an excellent value for the money, great for a back-up or a knock around guitar for the kids.

Guitar was purchased 2003, made in China. Has an Alder body, 5 way selector,2 tone and one volume. Neck is maple with jumbo frets. Not being an expert and for only paying $99.00 for the guitar, the only flaw I saw before using it, based on the other reviews I formed an opinion the the tuners was not the best. Well in time they will be change out but these tuners are different than the earlier built guitars and appear to be much more solid and staying in tune.

I think the sound is great for the price of the guitar. I just wanted something to play again it is the first time in 35 years I've touched a guitar, so I think it sounds fine. Prior to buying it I did test out some Fender Strats and Tele's and I did not think there is much different sound than the Squier, in fact it sounds better.

When I took this out of the carton I was amazed at the finish first. I plugged it in and was shocked how close it was in tune. Had it about a week now and take it to work at night and fool around during the day, very minor tuning was required. The action was good, the only flaw was the frets on the edge were a little sharp. Didn't take long to fix that, just a little filing. The neck feels fine.

Durability depends on the person using the guitar. What I'm saying if you lean up against a wall or amp and it falls its going to get dinged up. But looking at the finish and constuction it looks solid. As for withstanding live playing, I know in my time in the late 60'S I would not hesitate in using this guitar as a primary or backup.

I purchased this guitar from Rondo off of Ebay. I Emailed Kurt several times and he responded back very quickly. A guitar like this has more exposure because of it being on Ebay, and I think if it wasn't too reliable Kurt wouldn't be selling them on EBay. And from the several comments about people having problems Rondo music will stand behind what they sell to make the customer satisfied.

I think for the money this is a great guitar for the beginner, or even the experienced player for just a spare. As for comparison to other Strat copies and Fender, all copies are made overseas and the majority of Fenders are made overseas and Mexico, by the same peole who put this guitar together. Don't get me wrong I have owend 60'S Fenders and I love the guitar and I swear by them, but they were built in the US then and now the price is high for a guitar that doesn't have much more features.qualities and playability than this guitar. SX just came out with a Tele clone and the order was placed prior to this reveiw. If this guitar is treated right I think it will last and asked if I would by again, in a heartbeat.

Made in China. Looks lie a laquar finish. 5 way selector S/S/S Looks like Alder, with a beautiful maple neck. Strat copy. Nica hardware.

I run through a Marshall TSL 122 Combo, with monster cables, and ernie ball strings. 46/11 Not much on effects, but single coils always seem to complemet effects to the extrme. I do have a Rotovibe I accasionally plug in, but for the most part I play pure straight Marshall Distortion! I love the bridge PU. I has that cut through tone. Kinda like another review I saw here. It has that Tele tone, which I was really looking for in the bridge PU. I will be replacing the neck pickup with a humbucker. And getting coil taps for it. I might replce the middlke position as well. But I will keep the bridge PU for sure. I mainly will use this guitar for punk stuff, and crunchy crunch stuff. It can hit a wide range of tones. It can get that STP Tiny Music tone when over driven. It sound good clean with any pickup combo, but my amps clean channel just straight rocks with any guitar. The pickups really are crape and the tone knobs fall off, and the switch slector is lost in oe day. "hehe" But really planned on replacing all the electronics. Turns out I will be keeping the bridge pickup, so I can't really complain.

The action was ok, but I got this really low. I cut into the nut to get all the strings down alittle, except the bottom E string. I raised the bridge sattle down too. Now this thing plays like my Les Pauls. So smooth, but with a maple neck. I mainy purchased this guitar for the maple neck, and the 2 reviews already here. "hehe" It is hard to take what anyone sdays to the bank. I have heard so manny bogus reviews here. I have nice equipment and I can be honest about my reviews. I have never recived a guitar that I didn't have to tune the stup to my prefernces. This guitar lived up to all my exspectations.

It feels solid as any strat. Can't say enough about the beautiful maple neck, and the action, is great.It looks like a laquar finish, and it is very well done.The structure of a start is far more solid that any Les Paul. You would pretty much have to want to destroy it to do this, and sence any guitar is bottom heavy your safe with a strat for the most part. The Les Pauls have that tone chanber right on the but of the guitar which scares me. I am a Les Paul guy myself, but like said earlier their is no such thing as a one trick pony.

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Sence it really cirpassed my exspectations I have got to give it a 10. The tone can be then at times, but that will easily be fixed, and a good amp will flatter this guitar well. Again I got this guitar mainly for the neck, as their is nothing like a soft maple neck, it is like a vacation. And the guiatr is over all a bright sounding instrument, which is so unlike my other humbucker equipments guitars. Got love that open, single coil tone.

a very attractive 3 tone sunburst strat copy with a maple neck capped maple fingerboard. Madee in China. Most people that see it really comment on how beutiful it looks. Very nice job with the finish. Good defined sunburst (very authentic). The neck is somewhat figured with some birdseye and fire. The maple cap is a + . The bond between the board and the neck creates better stability than a one piece thus better tone. I know Brad Paisely uses maple capped neck Teles for this reason. Standard Strat setup 3 sc pickups, Neck volume, mid volume, and master tone. 5 way switch, 6 screw vintage trem with 90s style bridge pieces. The pickups are not ceramic like on some squires but copper wire wound over magnetic pole pieces. The pole pieces protrude about 3/32 above the cover and are even in height. Tuners are reliable but would replace if I gigged with it. Frets are med jumbo, 2 string retainers. Flush mounted jack. The body thickness is 1.71. A standard strat is 1.75 and a squire is 1.64. The gloss finish on the neck is smooth with a nice tint very 70s'ish with skunk stripe. The knobs and pickup covers are aged white in coloe, with black numbers on the knobs. white 3 plt pick guard. The logo is nice with black letters with gold trim says SX custom hand made vintageseries?
(I wonder)It has all the features of a standard strat. As far a how good they are I give it an 8

I like to play blues, rockabilly,surf,jazz, and rock. This guitar can cover all these styles. I originally bought this guitar as a replacement for a tex-mex strat that I sold I like this better. I planned to replace the pickups, but decided not to once I played it. this guitar sings true, great tone and sustain in all positions. I get my pickups free for work I do for a local pickup manufactuer, so maybe some day the pups might be replaced, but not now. I do most of my playing on the neck pickup and mid-neck selection. The bridge pickup really nails that James Bond tone, very tele like. All are very usable, real stratty. The hum level is low considering the single coils. The 2 position has a great jazz tone with the tone lowered. The volume and tone knobs are smooth and responsive and will not have to be replaced unless they fail. I play it thru a fender blues jr. A good tube amp can bring an average guitar to life but I don't know if its the case here. I can't wait to plug it in to my Reverend hellhound when I get it out of the shop.

Remember where talking $99.95 here. This guitar needed some ajustments when I first got it and with most strats this is an ongoing process. Just part of the fun of oning a strat. First off it had high action,and threm was mounted flush to the body. The selector knob was loose and I had to jb weld it.The grounding wire attached to the spring claw was soldered to the vacant spring hook on the claw, so this would have to be relocated for usage.
The neck joint is tight. Neck backing plate has an embossed logo stamped on it. I needed to file the nut a little to get rid of binding and chinks. The skunk stripe was set a little rough but is of know problem. It has a soft V neck that feels great, I really like it. Nothing really to bad that a good setup job will cure.

Seems solid enough, time will tell. Not much you could break on a strat. New tuners for gigging purposes.

rondo has a great return policy. Shipped double wraped. Arived in 10 days. They give you the tracking number. what warranty.

I own 4 other guitars that cost more but since it came I have been playing it exclusivly. Better than a squire as good as a Mexican strat. Strats fender or otherwise are qurkey beasts and you have to play many to get one that has that sound. This SX had that sound and I got it online. Good luck with yours.

this is a 2003 brand new SX stratocaster copy of a 1957 model. It was made in China. 21 frets. solid alder wood body. It has Vol/tone/tone controls with a 5 way sel switch and s/s/s pickups. The pickups are a disapointment in that they are very cheap in design and materials. The neck is solid maple with a beautiful figured maple fingerboard. It has a deep honey colored laqured finish on the neck and very vintage in feel and appearence.The body has top notch finishing on it and the wood grain is excellent in looks and weight. Very light for a strat. It has the standard fulcrum strat bridge with a tremelo arm. The tuners are excellent for this price range instrument. It came with all the adjustment tools.I'll give it a 9 just because they cheated on the pickups and pots only.

It suits my style and that being blues/jazz and rock. I use it with a Roland blues cube 60 and a Fender 88 amp. I only use a Marshall bluesbreaker distortion pedal and a Boss dd2 delay pedal only. Never anything else. The sound suffers because of the pickups and pots BUT they are being replaced with Fender vintage series npickups and CTS pots so the sound will be awesome once this is done. It will cover all the tonal ranges that any Fender strat can. I LOVE this guitar except for the stock pickups as mentioned.

the set up was awesome right out of the box, PERIOD! The pickups have been previously covered. EXcluding them it gets a 10 in this catagory.

no doubt it will stand the rigors of live use. Hardware is top drawer.
Finish is outstanding. Strap buttons are just fine. standard size as on any factory Fender strat. I will absoultely depend on it.

Rondo music is an A++++++++ company to deal with. Kurt and Jeremy are top drawer people to deal with. First class. www.rondomusic.com
there is a 5 year warranty.

playing for 40 years. I would defintely replace it but I hope I don't have to. I love everything but the pickups and they are going to be changed very shortly. I whish it came with better pickups but Hey for 99.00 what can you expect, everything. I have a really nice Fender strat and it compares very well with it.