Silvertone Rockit 21

I love the neck, and tuners. The body is like rock. The finish is pretty thick and very glossy. I have the wine red. I think the body is agathis.

The stock pickups sound muddy. I replaced both humbuckers right away. I had some spares that I slapped on. Yuo really need to ditch the stock ones.

The setup was spot on from the factory. I did upgrade the pots with some better quality ones. I didn't really need to, but since I swapped the pickups I figured I would just rewire the whole thing.

I think this is a pretty good guitar, but with a few upgrades it can be a great guitar. I would check it inside and out before playing it live. This guitar is solid and well built. It should last a long long time.

I have not dealt with Silvertone since I voided the warranty by doing some upgrades.

I like this guitar and if it were lost I'd try and find another. Of course I would mod it. It is a bit more narrow than a real SG, and the headstock is different. Overall I like the look and feel, but the stock pickups are lacking. It's a solid axe that you can make great.

Rich, full sound. Equals a Gibson SG.

The Rockit is a flawless guitar. The finish looks great, and everything else is wonderful.

Rockits are VERY durable. I'd use it in a gig any day.

Features already covered in previous reviews.

Using Peavey amp...sounds good, but treble is a little weak...Ok for country hobby band

I had to tune, set intonation or tried to...Set it at 12th fret ok, but that made other frets way off....solid body,if you call 2 pieces solid...certainly not pressed wood or sawdust as one reviewer suggested, looks like mahogany...Fit and finish is excellent for a $100.00 guitar...would have rated higher if all notes were in tune at respected frets....

Haven't owned it long enough to rate...Looks like it could stand a beating

I own seven other guitars, one electric bass and the others are acoustic.......I have owned other electrics, but this is the only electric I own now...If it were stolen, I might buy it again...I bought it strickly because it was what I thought a bargain for the money..This one or a Dean at the same price, I chose the rockit.

Recently produced. Previous listers have identified the features.

I got a variety of nice sounds out of this thing. When I plugged into my Behringer amp it sounded very close to my Gibsons. I can't believe all the trash talking about these new Silvertones, because if this is an indication, they're a nice bargain. Two pups and two tone controls allows me to dial in a number of sounds. I run through a tube preamp and it gets nice distortion sounds that way.

Guitar needs a setup, but that's nothing unusual. REally easy to play. Strings are right on top of fretboard, but no buzzes.

Finish has some dark spots on back, which is the wood showing through. Otherwise a nice wine red stain.

Tuners must be OK because guitar was shipped and arrived still in tune!

Guitar seems very sturdy, finish is decent (thats OK, I'll refinish it when the time comes). Strap buttons are fine.

Never dealt with them.

Playing 30 years. I own 36 guitars and I'm not going to list them!
Lost or stolen? Prob wouldn't replace because I've got so many choices already.

I love the sound. I don't hate anything. I wish it had a whammy.

This is the standard SG copy. Mine was made in Oct of 2004! In Indonesia. Contrary to the last poster, it is a solid bodied guitar, made of two pieces of "Mahogany". It is real wood. I am thinking that they use the term "mahogany" to refer to the type of wood, "Luan", known as "Philipine Mahogany", unlike the more expensive types such as Honduras. I inspected it carefully because of the previous post and I have to conclude that post is either bogus, or is not this model of guitar. It was posted by anonymous... go figure.

This guitar is cheap, don't get me wrong. It has a bolt on maple neck. 2 chromeplated humbuckers, 2 vol, 2 tone, with a 3 way selector switch. It has the stop bar tailpiece with tune-o-matic bridge. The knobs are the scalloped version of Gibson ice cubes rather than the knobs of a real SG, perhaps they do this for copywright? The tuners, like the pickups, are no name, but with the screw to adjust for slip tension.

Interestingly enough, the 22 frets are jumbo, but they are HIGH also! I am used to very low frets and these are like playing a guitar with scalloped fretboards. It was unusual for me, but it is OK. The fretboard is rosewood.

When I originally bought the guitar from American Music Supply, it was only the Guitar for $149. They were out of stock, so I "upgraded" to the whole package thinking I could sell the amp for $50, then be ahead by a sling, tuner, 8Ft cord, 6 picks, extra strings, instruction video, gig bag, allen key, and extra cardboard. Big Mistake.

The amp, rated at "20 watts RMS peak" is a POS. It crackles on any setting above 2. I could sell it for maybe, $25 and that is only because it is new. Its sounds are limited to "sucks and sucks worse". When I played the guitar, I thought the guitar sucked until I played it throught other amps. Read about that later.

The "padded gig bag" that I thought I was going to be happy with, taught me that there is always something lost in translation. In this case, in Indonesia, padded refers to a thin layers (2 microns) of plastic coating affixed to the inside of the nylon fabric from which the bag is made. In English, this would be foam. Who knew? In Indonesia, gig probably means concert, but in this case, gig refers to the thing that hillbillies use to kill frogs, because this bag is suited only for the storage of rusty tridents, not even a cheapy guitar!

The tuner is kind of neat and the picks will work since these get lost all of the time. The sling is OK except the ends are made of plastic leather and will be tearing out shortly.

The strings are OK.

The instructional DVD is disappointing. It is generic and has sections for Bass, acoustic, and rock guitar. Because they try to do so much, they don't really teach any one subject well. For guitar, they teach a few chords, and a riff that looks a lot like "Crazy Train" with a few notes changed for copywright purposes. You could learn all of it in one sitting with a guitarist who knows all of the basic chords. If you were living in a cave for the past 70 years, then it would be an informative instructional video. They could have done a lot better, at least show all of the major and minor chords. They do have a link to a website, perhaps there you will get real instruction, but there is just that appearnace of "marketing tool" so I haven't investigated it.

If you stick to the $149.99 guitar, this is a good deal. Save the extra $50 and buy a real amp, tuner, and sling. In the end, you may spend more, but you will have real gear.

Well, this thing is OK. For the money, it has the same pickups that every other cheapy guitar has. Once I played it through an amplifier, rather than that POS that Silvertone laughingly refers to as an amplifier, it was good. THe front pickup produces warm tones, and the rear provides bite for leads. Granted, like my Epiphone Les Paul custom, they tend to wash out at overdrive settings beyond minimal and tend to get bassy. Certainly better than cheap guitars of the 60's, 70's and 80's, but not as good as Gibson or my new Epiphone Flying V, 67 Reissue. Good for all ACDC,Led Zep, or Guns and Roses training anyway. They don't hum, so it is soldered together well. A good begginer or intermediate guitar. The sustain is average, maybe even below average for a bolt on neck guitar. The luan "mahogany" is not very dense, and is like bolsa wood in its "bouyancy". I am sure the wood will hold up, but they really should use a denser wood for a musical instrument.

The guitar is good. finish on the body is outstanding. It is a candied wine red laquer job and is impecable. The maple neck, however, is clear coated with a finish that is thinner than Bill Clinton's character! The wood of the body, is not book matched and the seam is off center, so this detracts, but probably would have more if I had spent a grand on the thing. On the neck, the headstock is laminated to the neck, and they used 2 very distinct pieces of maple, one dark and burled, while the other is very light and straight grained. They match up really poorly, but doesn't affect function or serviceability so I guess that is why it made it past quality control. again, for $149...

The action was initially strange. The frets are as high as the Sears Tower, and they puts some finish on the rosewood, so it looks like ebony. For this reason, my fingers can slid over the strings like a greased snake! It was awkward at first, but I got used to it. I now have vibrato simply by increasing the pressure of my fingers, something I have never done before. I did have to lower it because the initial settings were giving me nosebleeds due to the lack of oxygen, and I suspected that the fret heights had to be all over the place, otherwise it wouldn't leave the factory that high, but after cranking down the posts, I was surprised to see that the neck was flat, and all the frets were at the uniform hieght.

The neck is misaligned by a few thousanths. If you look at it dead one, you can see it, but it doesn't affect playing. The neck has some machine marks that I guess they would have to charge $150.99 to make it worth their while to sand out, and there is also some rough spots at the end, requiring extra work not within the budget to fix. I have seen worse on guitars costing twice as much, therefore the higher rating.

It is built better than guitars that I have had for over 20 years. The neck finish will be bare in 6 months to a year of hard use, but I bought it as a backup to plink around on. I imagine this is about as good as any of this genre of guitar and will do fantastic, relative to the cost. I do want to add that the strap buttons on this are perfect, with good balance. They will hold long after this guitar is busted over some intruders head. I would never play without a bakup, and I would gig with it, but this would be the backup, primarily, but if I did play some ACDC, Cream, or Who song, I might break this out.

I haven't used it, but I imagine it is as good as any. That POS amp is just going into a box to be a Christmas gift for a poor person.

Let's be realistic. This is a copy of a known excellent guitar. For what it does, allow the begginer or intermediate guitarist to advance through the rock and roll hall of fame, it is excellent. Nothing more. I would buy another in a heartbeat. It is fun and easy to play. It duplicates within its capabilities, guitars that cost a lot more. I want to emphasize that the guitar on its own, and not the package deal, is an awesome deal. If you want to play blues or heavy metal rock, this would be a good first or second choice. If you already have the strat copy, this is a good step up to another style and sound. You will ahve to pay a lot more to get a noticably better guitar.

El Cheapo junk! Not worth $50. Body is made of PARTICLE BOARD, Yes, that's right, particle board (glued sawdust) with thin veneer over it. Its not mahogany like all the websites advertise. I'm not kidding. Pull out the tail piece posts and you'll see that I'm telling the truth. This makes this thing even worse than the all $75 bargain basement guitars that use alder plywood.

Everybody has listed the features, so I won't go through them again.

Sound is ok for a cheap guitar. One of the pick-ups was microphonic.

Set-up poor, but then anyone who knows anything will have to set-up any new guitar to suit their playing style.

Neck isn't bad. Tuners were ok. Nut was misaligned and too high.

Finish is good - It better be in order to hide the fact that this thing isn't made of real wood.

Didn't keep it long enough to really test the reliability. Worked as long as I had it.

The store I purchased this from took it back when I found out that it wasn't made of mahogany like they advertised.

Steer clear of this piece of shit. No reason to spend good money on such a shoddy guitar. There are better guitars out there for the same price that are actually made of REAL WOOD.

Same as other reviews except this is a factory second refurb that was pro set up by the shop where I bought it. It has "used" stamped on the back of the headstock but it is just like brand new. I will give it a 9 because of the bolt on neck.

This has 2 PAF copies, that are just as good as the pick ups in my Ephiphone Les Paul standard. The only problem is that at high gain levels some unwanted feedback, that probably could be fixed by double potting, but, this is not a problem unless you play high gain metal. Sounds great for rock, jazz, and country.

This guitar was set up at the store where I bought it which makes all the difference in the world. Being a factory second they took care of all problems that it may have had and if you have any luthiering ability you could set this guitar up anyway you like it. I have seen $2000 Gibsons that needed set up just as bad. The neck is sweet action is as low as my Ephiphone as are the frets.

This guitar is a tank. The only thing I would like to make it stronger is a set neck, but of course, if you broke the head stock you could change the neck much easier and there really isn't that much difference in sustain and sound in the 2 necks.

N/A

This is where I start my tirade. I didn't start NAFTA and I'm not unpatriotic but I will not pay these outrageous prices for US guitars. All production guitars are made on machines nowadays. It doesn't matter where the machine is- in US or ASIA. This is why the quality of all guitars have come up in the last 10 years. Sure you get great guitars from their custom shops which are handmade but then you will even pay more for US labor. I have playing guitar for 30 years and the last 10 years semi-pro and have only used import guitars so I know that they are gig worthy to the max. I have 7 guitars that I have set up to the max specs and if you played them without looking at the neck or name you would not know the diffence between them and US guitars. This is not just my opinion, this is everyone's comment when they play my guitars. I know that GRETCH makes most of their guitars in Japan which they do not talk about or advertise. Alot of people think they are U.S. I have an Oscar Schmidt Delta King that I payed $150 for that plays comparable to the Tenn. Rose by Gretch that costs thousands. If U.S. prices were to come down I would buy American but like I said, I didn't start NAFTA and most of us are against loosing jobs overseas, which is the reason I cannot afford American guitars in the first place. In other words, buying imports is just common sense.

This is the Silvertone Rockit 21 which is also called SSG-21. It has two volume and two tone knobs and two humbucking pickups. It has the stop bar, enclosed no name tuners etc. It is actually made in Indonesia by Samick in 2004. Afterall, Sivertone is just a name that Sears used to sell guitars made by various manufacturers such as Kay and Harmony. Now the name has been revived for name recognition I guess. I have an old Silvertone from 1972 that was made by Harmony. The Rockit 21 or SSG-21 is basically a copy of the Gibson SG 1962 version which Gibson sells as the G400 in their Epiphone line made in the orient. Some of the reviewers here make this guitar sound great. For 150 bucks it isn't bad but it is no Gibson. The pickups sound OK for cheap two wire humbuckers. The impeadance is two low to add a Black Ice distortion module. I tried but it didn't work. With only two wires you can't add coil cut curcuit. I have decided to replace the pickups after owning it one day so don't be fooled by thinking these are great pickups. The sound is generic humbucker at normal volumes but the overdrive distortion sound is real nice. It has a real nice nasty snarl to it when distorted on a tube amp. The are a little heavy on the bass side to match the SG sound. Other pickups I have tried so far don't have the same bass response so it is the pickup not the wood. The wood is Nato, a kind of straight grain tropical wood similar to Mahogany but cheaper to buy. My son has a Nato acoustic and it has no bass response at all so it is obvious that the pickups were tuned for heavy bass response. One thing that I found very cheap is that the body is finished nicely but the neck is just clear coated and has no color coat. The neck is a simple bolt on. If you want sustain there is no beating a set in neck so sustain is not great. The real SG has a set in neck and quality humbuckers so there is no real comparison. But the fact is you get what you pay for and since it was only 150 bucks you can buy several Rockit 21 for the price of a real SG. Or you can do what I am doing, but the Rockit 21 and put in better pickups and hardware.

The sound is generic humbucker at normal volumes with a slight leaning toward the bass side. When distorted it has a real nice growl. It doen't have the depth or harmonics and overtones of a real SG, but for the price the sound is nice. The sound in normal volume is like an Ibanez GAX70 with a little more bass and costs 50 bucks less.

The fret leveling was real nice and neck straight with very well set up action. The intonation was good matching the open note and 12th fret harmonic perfectly on my tuner. The fret leveling was actually better than my PRS Santana SE for which I had to make a few slight corrections. The wine red finish is real nice and pretty. It seems to be holding up well as I tear apart the electronics to replace them. A screw was missing from a pickup plate and I find that a sign of poor craftmanship but Samick is known for doing poor workmanship. The back of the neck as a slight mark in it from imperfect machining and not correcting the error. The woods are obviously very cheap but by not painting the neck they expose the flaws. The grain pattern is not even so the cut wasn't standard along the grain or it could just be because it is cheap wood. I once made my own guitar from a Martin kit so I am very aware of the work that goes into the finish. While the body is finished nicely the neck should have been paid a little more attention to. There is such a big difference in the various parts of the quality control over the various parts I expect that some examples of the guitar will be flawless and others subject to warping and problems.

The neck joint seems sturdy and body finish durable. When I first plugged it in it wouldn't made any sound so I tried a better plug than the cheap cable that came with it. No go there either, but playing with the plug made sound so I had to remove the back plate and bend the connector to make a better connection to make it play consistantly. So obviously the hardware is super cheap. Alo the missing screw from the pickup cover makes me wonder where it went. There was a hole, just a missing screw. I expect to replace most of the hardware soon in order to make the guitar more durable. Since the neck is not cut on a straight grain it may be subject to warping. That is something to watch for. I would definitely need a backup for this guitar. It is a nice project to play with but not something I would depend on until I get the thing where I want it.

The product is very cheap to begin with. Since Samick built it but their name isn't on it I doubt they will care. Since I plan to redo the electonics to make a decent guitar out of it I wouldn't bother them anyway.

Overall this is a good beginners guitar. Buy one for your kid. If you have any playing experience at all don't expect to buy this guitar for your main axe and be happy with it. Or if you have the know how it is a good project guitar that can be made into something decent with new electronics. If the neck warps it is a simple bolt on so that is easily replaced also. My purpose for it is a cheap project guitar to try various pickups on and see what kind of sounds I can get. The body is well finished and looks real nice. The setup is well done and the overdriven sound is nice. So it makes a good platform for a project.

I have been playing for 37 years and still play weekly. My electric guitars include a Gibson Les Paul Firebrand, PRS Santana SE, Ibanez GAX70, Gretsch 3136 Thinline Synchromatic hollowbody, Washburn J6 and Rickenbacker 330-12. All of them are far better than the Silvertone Rockit 21. I put better pickups in the Santana SE and GAX 70 so the Rockit 21 is not alone in that category. Would I buy another? Not likely. I would probably save up for the real Gibson SG. Still it is fun project and the basic wood and setup make it a good basis for such a project guitar. Since it is pretty to start with when I am finished it will be much more reliable, good to look at and to listen to as well.

The good things are the Gibson SG62 shape and size, light weight, four knobs and two humbuckers, complete stop bar tail piece, decent tuners, nice straight well setup neck.

The bad things are the misssing pickup plate screw, cheapness of the electronics and flaws in the neck.

I compared it to the Gibson faded SG, Epiphone G400 and SG special. For the same price of the Epiphone SG special you get four knobs instead of two. The G400 has real mahogany and better electronics, but the neck is still bolt on. The price of the real Gibson was too high. The G400 may be a much better guitar than the Silvertone but then I wouldn't have the fun of having a project. The lower price of the Silvertone also gives less reason for my wife to complain. The SG Special didn't have the pickguard and I always preferred the shape of the SG62 pickguard. If the faded Gibson had the SG62 pickguard I would have saved up for it since it has a set in neck. Or if the Epiphone SG special had the pickguard and two more pickups for the same price I would have chosen it.

Hasic asian made sg copy, mohogany boy, rosewood fretboard, 2 tone 2 volume controls

this guitar has awesome tone thats pretyt close to a real sg sound. It s great for classic rock, and some metal. It has a nice clear clean tone thats bright on the neck pickup and dark and bluesy on the bridge pickup. Also this thing can reall scream on solos. It sounds greta ith ernie ball super sliky's.

the pickups, truss rod and action needed a little tweaking, becasue i like the action really low but, not too much. The finish is a transparent dark red that you can see the grain through. Mine came pefectly assembled and nothing has broken so far.

well made, very sturdy, i think this one will last a long time

havent dealt with them

this is a great guitar for a great price

Made in Indonesia. 22 frets, Nato body and neck,( Nato is a low to medium grade mahogany.) Rosewood fretboard. SG copy, so it had the traditional bridge and stop tailpices set up. 2 Humbucking pick-ups, 2 volume and 2 tome controls, 3-way pick-up selector.

Didn't plug it in.

Here's the problem: the guitar had what appears to be cracks or split in the wood near the neck pocket...on BOTH sides. The finish was applied over the cracks and was smooth, but you could see the dark lines extending from the neck pocket area. I'd guess the cracks were filled in with glue or something, since the finish over them was smooth. Also, the bottom of the neck pocket was exposed...eith the neck was too small or the pocket slightly wide.

The finish had some other problems that looked like small round spots, but again were flat and smooth.

I didn't play the guitar, but the fretwork looked decent...the ends were beveled and smooth, which is a good sign

Well, I've been playing for over 30 years, but just wanted an inexpensive guitar that I could leave out on a stand without feeling guilty about it. I didn't expect great quality at this price. But since I can set up a guitar and deal with any electrical or hardware problems, I bought it. Had It not been for the cracks in the neck pocket area, I would probably have kept it. I wonder if manufacturer's sell theses guitars, knowing that a beginner won't pick up on some of the defects.