NGD SX Thinline Strat/ Alder

[Partscaster]

SX Thinlne strat has arrived.

The body looks beautiful. Looks same size and finish quality as my Squire CV60’s bodies. Looks like real Alder. Had the US Flag sticker as proof.

Has the standard strat body contours front and back. Is 1-3/4” thick. The hollow rout is only about 2.25” by 7”. That seems smaller than I had expected/hoped? I want the semi-hollow to warm the highs a bit for a specific set of beautiful but bright pickups. If the SX thinline's effect is to tame some brightness, I will be satisfied.

It is a 2 piece body with the seam near the F-clef. In the body rout walls I can see the continuous swoop of the grain within the other 2/3rds of the body. It looks like alder grain similar to my cv60’s. I recently spent time tapping on 3 CVstrat bodies, and to my memory, this one sounds very similar. Everything about this body seems as good as my CV50&60’s.

The neck is a maple cap neck. Even with a skunk stripe, it is still a separate maple fretboard glued on top of the maple neck. I consider this a pleasant oddity as they are a rarer style of maple neck construction common from the few years of later 60's Fender offerings and coinciding with Hendrix’s use of maple necks. (I like most things Hendrixy) The maple neck grain at both ends is straight up and down, like quarter sawn. The maple cap is pretty much flat sawn. I will use another neck w/ RW fretboard for this project, but this stock neck is a good deal for an inexpensive import guitar, IMO.

Tuners seem okay. Probably 14/1. I like vintage tuners cause they’re easy for me to take strings off, and put back on for guitar work.

Stock Pickups seem strong and bright. They are ceramic, with bar magnet and steel pole pieces.

Strings are thick, not rusty. Came out of box close to in-tune, Intonation seemed good but I didn’t check with a tuner.
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So, I bought this SX Thinline to take a chance to give a set of Klein 59 pickups a better sound in a new body, as the pickups are really open, punchy, beautiful, but just too bright in the current body and I dont like just turning down the tone very much, as I think I hear a loss of openness when I do. I use .1uf caps in most Strats. Still this set of pups would be nice to hear with all its open glory in a warmer voice.

I spent some of last night, and all day today, working with this project. Stripped Thinline all into parts in a bag for re-assembly and sale should I not want to keep it.
Put an Allparts 70's headstock 7.25 rosewood neck on it. Did end up needing a neck shim in pocket to tilt neck back, to make sense with saddle heights. Pocket was a hair deep. Also used a side shim on bass side as deep pocket was also a hair wider than fender spec and I needed to balance my fretboard side to side spacing as the 2-7/32 bridge I'm using would need it to be perfect to avoid string slip-off. So I made it perfect.

I did have to Dremel out some of the trem cavity back-underside of top, where full sized block hit. General cavity was large enough, but back rim contact prevented full swing within cavity. Took a few minutes with dremel. Good opportunity to f-up the guitar bridge area, though. I did OK.

Switching bridge to Fender 2-7/32 meant plugging and re-drilling 2 outside-most of the 6 screw holes.
Also had an old KGC brass trem block for vintage size, and put it in, as that should help warm/darken the tone.
Turns out, it was too much. It was as "warm' as I'ld ever want, but also had a nasally aspect,..Was it the thin line body? Was it the brass block?

So I dug it all apart again and put stock vintage Fender bridges' full size zinc block back on. I assume its zinc as its silvery and not magnetic. I will say, though, that ever since I bought a Callaham steel block years ago, I have opted for zinc over steel.The Callaham was just too bright for my guitars. Anyhow, the stock block went back in.


And, so,....... Im back to everything from the old guitar's bright set up, transferred onto the Thinline body.
The pups are only 5.8-5.9 -ish, A5, formvar, scatter wound by Klein.

Turns out, the thinline body tone is warmer than in the other alder body, more mids, less bright highs, nicely defined lows. Its got good hair. It had some before. Now its got more. I love it. Good big sound, hairy, still with open chime but in a warmer voice. This was a successful project.

[Tonray's Ghost]

It's approved by your cat so it's good enough for me.

[nomadh]

Outstanding! I've also been interested in these thinlines strats. I'd be looking at the more grainy ash ones but the spec I was really interested in was how chambered are they? I'm a little disappointed as I was really hoping for a mostly hollow strat. I had the same problem with the douglas burl top thinline tele I had. It was quite a decent guitar but it was to me really a solid body in almost every way. Plus it irked me that it was both hollow and heavy. I guess if I run into a nice ash for 120 maybe I'd get it as an oddity but for $200+ I think I'll pass

[uwmcscott]

Very nice project and a nice ending too. To this day I still say it's pretty hard to beat the SX line from Rondo for a good quality Strat/Tele for the $$

[Partscaster]

Outstanding! I've also been interested in these thinlines strats. I'd be looking at the more grainy ash ones but the spec I was really interested in was how chambered are they? I'm a little disappointed as I was really hoping for a mostly hollow strat. I had the same problem with the douglas burl top thinline tele I had. It was quite a decent guitar but it was to me really a solid body in almost every way. Plus it irked me that it was both hollow and heavy. I guess if I run into a nice ash for 120 maybe I'd get it as an oddity but for $200+ I think I'll pass

I was hoping for a bigger rout, too. The EJ Fender Thinline has maybe a 5" block down the center leaving a bigger f-clef chamber, But, I think even this smaller semi-hollow rout is responsible for adding more mids and growl. I think that's made the difference between my two guitar assemblies, rather than the alder piece, itself. I can hear sound echoing out/in the hole when I approach my ear to it. Its different then listening to the control cavity through the pickguard too. At any rate, the pickups and strings now have an additional echo chamber just off their bass side, rather than just the trebly control cavity side.

[Partscaster]

Playing unplugged on couch for a few hours, and it has a nice little acoustic sound contributing from the chamber.
If I lower my head it sounds like an elf playing acoustic in there. It actually has noticeable reverb going on.
He hopefully doesn't spill any beer, or piss in the corners.

[Stoli]

How do the pickups, electronics, and hardware stack up to the Classic Vibes?

[mindwave]

thanks for the review, I have been wanting a thinline strat for a few years and because of a move havent taken the time to build one.. BUT looking at kurts inventory is NOT really encouraging.\\I know the beer bug has a lot of folks up in he air, but the folks at gfs dont seem to be short, matter of faxct Ive seen some stuff intended for Rondo end up in his clearence section.

[mindwave]

Partscaster: Dont mean to be so direct but is that the 3TS for $169? listed as alder?

Ive always wondered about his pricing, I mean truly if the only difference between $20 is the color, and the solid color is more?

Than there is the ASH that looks like the F. Knotty Pine I get from Home Depot, I get some folks prefer the natural look, but I'm just curious, I mean I get that not EVERYONE will strip it bear and rebuild it (but thats kind of my target as well)

Your reveiw is great and your phots really show the colors off much better than the web site!

[Partscaster]

How do the pickups, electronics, and hardware stack up to the Classic Vibes?

The stock ceramic pickups were ok, clear and loud, I personally didn't like them. they weren't as good as the CV alnico "Surfari or aka Tonerider Blues" on the CV 50's and 60's.
Electronics were silent, no flaws..tiny pots, green chicklet, import switch,...all worked fine. Pots were smooth.
Trem/bridge is small import block w/ vintage style saddles and similar to CV line. Tuners similar.

[Partscaster]

Partscaster: Dont mean to be so direct but is that the 3TS for $169? listed as alder?

Ive always wondered about his pricing, I mean truly if the only difference between $20 is the color, and the solid color is more?

Than there is the ASH that looks like the F. Knotty Pine I get from Home Depot, I get some folks prefer the natural look, but I'm just curious, I mean I get that not EVERYONE will strip it bear and rebuild it (but thats kind of my target as well)

Your reveiw is great and your phots really show the colors off much better than the web site!

Yes, 3TS, 169$.
I guess that the factory uses best looking planks in transparent finishes, and that solid colors are more pieces.

This Thinline chamber is half the size of the few other options on Ebay for strat thin line body, and also the Fender EJ Thinline from what I've read about it. That said, I think it added a nice mellower less shrill voice with a bit more hair/growl on higher volume for the vintage pups I used. A slightly hollow solid body strat sound, is how I'ld call it...based on only one body, though.

Its a great body. Looks fantastic, full size spec. Sounds wonderful with good vintage style pups. Much cheaper than the few other thin line strat body options I found..plus you get a good maple neck to fiddle with.

[Mr. Leyvatone]

Great new guitar write-up!

My SX Liquid with maple fretboard is also a capped neck, even though it has a skunk stripe. I’m assuming they use the exact same build approach, regardless of fb type.

[dabbler]

Great new guitar write-up!

My SX Liquid with maple fretboard is also a capped neck, even though it has a skunk stripe. I’m assuming they use the exact same build approach, regardless of fb type.

True. However the Leo, I believe, was a true one piece neck (body too) with a heel truss rod nut.