NGD SX Telecaster

[Stoli]

I received my SX Ash Telecaster from Rondo on Thursday. I was at my cabin in the mountains but the wife brought it up to me yesterday. I ordered it last weekend and Rondo started processing the order first thing on Monday. I had a question about the shipping and got a very prompt response. Just based on buying two guitars from them I have to say that they are good at customer service and very reasonable on shipping charges.

So far as the guitar goes, I think it just looks cool. I like natural wood and would not think of painting something like this. I cannot find anything that looks like a cosmetic flaw anyplace on the guitar. The pictures on the Rondo site do not do it justice and neither does the one that I attached. I think you really have to see it in person. I am probably not as particular with that as some folks and may be missing something. To tell the truth, I was not expecting much as I guess I have played with too many messed up pawn shop copies of Fenders. The guitar has a heavy feel to it but that is fine with me. I would guess that it weighs almost as much as my Agile LP. The neck is pretty big but is fine for me. I do not have big hands but have fairly long fingers. I messed with it a while unplugged and had a little rattle on the low E. That seems to be going away as I expect it to take a few days to acclimate and once it has time I will put a new set of strings on it. The carve they do for the belly cut and the edge makes it a very comfortable guitar to play when sitting. The frets are fine with no sharp edges. They are not polished out like the ones on my Eastman or Agile but they are not rough like a file either. The intonation and setup on it seems pretty good to me. I tested up and down the neck and the notes seem close. The action is not as low as my Eastman but it is fine for me.

I was not expecting much with the pickups and electronics but I like how it sounds. You get a bite or snap when you hit a power chord that I do not get with my other humbucker guitars. I use a little Fender Mustang GT 40 amp that is basically a practice amp but I have downloaded patches over time and then tweaked them to get what I want to hear. I mostly play clean with probably too much reverb some times but it sounds great for 7s, 9s, 13s etc. for the jazz chords. If I set to a patch with heavy distortion then it just gets nasty in a good way. I have a surf sound patch and it sounds cool with it I think even though the Telecaster is not known for that genre to my knowledge. I would like to play it through a nice Fender tube amp and see how that works out. If my neighbor up the road is home I may see if he will let me plug into his.

I have one very minor complaint and a question.

My minor complaint is the plastic cap on the pickup switch. It sticks up too high for me and I sort of get tangled up with it. If you take the cap off then you just have a thin piece of metal that you could probably cut yourself with. If anybody has a good idea to replace that thing with then please let me know. Just a black tip like you see on Gibson styled stuff would be fine if I could find something to fit it. Otherwise, all I can think of is to just use a couple of wraps of black eletrical tape and then put the plastic cap back in the bag in the event I ever went to sell it.

Question-With the pickup switch, I think if you have it pushed back you get just the bridge pickup, the middle gets both, and the forward (toward the neck) is the neck pickup only and works basically like an LP switch. However, I had read some very confusing things that made me think that is not true for all telecasters. However it works, I think I like the middle position best for most things.

I am strictly a hobby player so take my review for what it is worth.

[ILuvTeles]

She's a looker, congrats!

Regarding the switch, if you went from the top hat to the barrel type, would that lower it enough?

[Stoli]

I suspect that it would in just looking at pictures. I am so dumb that I did not know that what I had was a tophat. After looking at it, I can see why that is what it is called. I had tried to search on the internet and did not know what to call it. I have never owned Fender style guitars before or given much thought to where the switch is. Thanks so much for the tip.

[bleys21]

I love the look of plain wood (or lightly stained wood grain) too, so that's a great looking guitar!

[ronnx]

Sometimes, with little imagination you can come up with something unique. This round ball was once a top for a lamp finial. As I recall, I had to file the flat switch handle down a bit and then just screwed the ball on and used it to cut its' own threads in the handle.

partscaster

[Stoli]

I think something like that would work well for me. Creative idea for sure.

[uwmcscott]

HNGD -looks like a winner to me. I am also a big fan of natural finishes on anything made out of wood, especially guitars and yours looks like a prime example. It's still quite remarkable to me that Rondo is able to deliver a very high quality, low cost guitar such as this one - even despite all the issues we've endured in the past 2 years ( supply chain, shutdowns, etc ).

I have a vision in my head of your wife hiking up a rocky mountain path with a triangular SX box strapped to her back along with other supplies. The fact that you have a cabin up in the mountains is pretty cool, and a spouse that will bring you a guitar on the last leg of it's journey is even cooler.

[jhull54]

HNGD!

Lots of folks reverse the switch plate. That is, unscrew it, swap the pot and volume control locations, and flip the switch around, and then put the control plate back on so the switch is at the "bridge end" of the guitar instead of the "neck end".

[honyock]

Very nice looker there.

I like how the SX has the forearm relief, my older ash series does as well.

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[howardlo65]

Nice looking guitar.

BTW, that is the normal way for Tele switches to operate. Back (toward bridge) is bridge, middle is both and forward is neck.

Some people put in a four way switch with the extra position putting the two pickups in series which give a sort of humbucker sound.

[Stoli]

HNGD -looks like a winner to me. I am also a big fan of natural finishes on anything made out of wood, especially guitars and yours looks like a prime example. It's still quite remarkable to me that Rondo is able to deliver a very high quality, low cost guitar such as this one - even despite all the issues we've endured in the past 2 years ( supply chain, shutdowns, etc ).

I have a vision in my head of your wife hiking up a rocky mountain path with a triangular SX box strapped to her back along with other supplies. The fact that you have a cabin up in the mountains is pretty cool, and a spouse that will bring you a guitar on the last leg of it's journey is even cooler.

Oh yeah, I was very surprised and when I saw it and played it I was thinking the same as you. I broke the high e string on it a few minutes ago but I could see the dark spots on the strings here and there. I was going to change them anyhow and put the new ones on tomorrow probably. Not sure what the weights were on it but they felt light. I will put the same 10s on it that I use with my other guitars.

I am on the outskirts of the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. You have to deal with some narrow curvy roads and some steep hills but she brought it up in her Subaru. She was coming up for the weekend anyhow. I work remotely most of the time and this little crib is nice for that.

[Stoli]

HNGD!

Lots of folks reverse the switch plate. That is, unscrew it, swap the pot and volume control locations, and flip the switch around, and then put the control plate back on so the switch is at the "bridge end" of the guitar instead of the "neck end".

switch.jpg

I had not thought of that and could see that working. The knob is lower for sure and probably low enough that I would get tangled up with it. Would have to see how that fits with the pickguard and so on. Like the look of your telecasters.

[Stoli]

Nice looking guitar.

BTW, that is the normal way for Tele switches to operate. Back (toward bridge) is bridge, middle is both and forward is neck.

Some people put in a four way switch with the extra position putting the two pickups in series which give a sort of humbucker sound.

Thank you and I was thinking that was the case but not sure.

[jhull54]

Like the look of your telecasters.

Thanks, but those are for illustration only.

Here's mine...



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[Stoli]

Like the look of your telecasters.

Thanks, but those are for illustration only.

Here's mine...



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I love the look of your Tele and the strap as well..

[jhull54]

Thanks Stoli!

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[nomadh]

HNGD -looks like a winner to me. I am also a big fan of natural finishes on anything made out of wood, especially guitars and yours looks like a prime example. It's still quite remarkable to me that Rondo is able to deliver a very high quality, low cost guitar such as this one - even despite all the issues we've endured in the past 2 years ( supply chain, shutdowns, etc ).

I have a vision in my head of your wife hiking up a rocky mountain path with a triangular SX box strapped to her back along with other supplies. The fact that you have a cabin up in the mountains is pretty cool, and a spouse that will bring you a guitar on the last leg of it's journey is even cooler.

Lol

[nomadh]

Beautiful guitars. I have the 2tsb body with the maple neck. I was set on the nat body but I'm real glad I got the burst. It's the only finish like it I have and I got the natural ash on 2 strats already so it worked out.

[nomadh]

So tell me about the tone on your sx'. I had the douglas and this sx and both seemed to have the same pickups. They were decent sounding pickups but to me no tele twang at all. I have 2 others that are 2 very different twangs but not the rondo. The sx is more tame and neutral or generic to me. What do you other owners think?

[Stoli]

So tell me about the tone on your sx'. I had the douglas and this sx and both seemed to have the same pickups. They were decent sounding pickups but to me no tele twang at all. I have 2 others that are 2 very different twangs but not the rondo. The sx is more tame and neutral or generic to me. What do you other owners think?

To tell the truth I have never messed with enough telecasters for an informed opinion or really much in terms of expectations. Overall, the guitar is just a better guitar than I expected. It is not as twangy as I expected. I think it resonates against my body better than any of my guitars. I have a friend who has an American made telecaster with the "B-Bender" custom hardware installed by one of the high end shops in Nashville and it does not sound like it but that is probably not a fair comparison. However, this is the only single coil guitar that I own so it sounds quite different than the humbucker guitars with more of what I would call a bite to it and the notes seem to separate a little more. I do not really know how to describe it. For mostly clean playing I think it sounds similar to humbuckers if you have the switch in the middle and turn the bass up. I like it with distortion and overdrive cranked up. I think your description of tame, neutral, or generic, is probably fair. I also think it has a unique sound compared to my Les Paul, 335 style humbucker guitars. Had I known about these I would have probably bought one of these as my first guitar.

I like to play it on a surf patch that tries to emulate the old surf sound from the 60s (like say the Ventures). I dunno that it sounds like surf per se but I just like that tone that you get out of it. Of course my amp is more or less a practice amp with quite a bit of modeling capability. Would love to play it through a nice tube amp but have not had the opportunity to do so yet. I have not tried to do swells with it and need to look up a video on that. Not sure if I can get that with a practice amp or not but figure it is worth a try.

I am on vacation this week and bring a guitar with me if driving and I brought the SX with me. It seems to deal with humidity changes pretty good and I have been playing it outside in the evenings on a deck/porch and it does fine. The house is isolated enough that I can play plugged without bothering anyone here.

I am not too picky and like most any guitar that is reasonably comfortable to play and has at least a decent sound but am not as experienced as most of you all.

[nomadh]

@Stoli Thanks so much for the review. We don't get so many here anymore. I could see this being your first single coil you would notice the general difference. I can also understand liking it as I do too. As your only single coil SC this might be a good basic tone. Later you may want to have a second SC guitar. Maybe a strat as that tone is different still. I also suggest playing some other teles. Play the squier affinity and see how different and twangy that tone is. Then maybe a classic vibe or fender tele to hear that classic tone. If you like that then you can swap the pup on the sx. I wonder if you only have a single SC guitar if the current pickup isn't perfect as a jack of all trades SC.

[Stoli]

The guitar with SCs is different enough to keep me entertained for a good while I think. All of the guitars that I have sound different I guess through some combination of design, materials, and electronics. I think my Eastman is the most versatile guitar that I have and some of that is the wider nut. Not sure how much being semi-hollow and pickups contribute to it. The Agile that I have seems to have hotter pick ups on it. I have a Jay Turser that sort of looks like a Les Paul but I think the other guitars sound better. It sounds very different from the Eastman and Agile even though they all have some sort of humbucker pickups.

For the time being I think the only thing that I will change is order the hardware to be able to use Schaller strap locks with it. I have the hardware on two of my other guitars and would like to be able to use the strap on all three. I will probably buy some sort of strat someday.

I love seeing pictures and reviews that people write.

[Stoli]

She's a looker, congrats!

Regarding the switch, if you went from the top hat to the barrel type, would that lower it enough?

Thanks for the suggestion. I ordered a barrel type switch cover and that is much better. I ordered on line and bought barrels branded as "True Custom Shop." These have two slots cut in them that look like a philips screw head. One slot would work with a wide switch end but the other on seems to work fit well on the SX. So far I think is going to work well. I just put the top hat in the gig bag in the event that I ever decided to trade or sell the guitar and someone preferred the top hat. The top hat looks cool but it just gets in my way. For whatever reason, the company apparently only sells them in pairs so I have an extra I guess in case this one broke or if ever bought another guitar where I needed to replace a top hat.

[Stoli]

I got the parts in this week to change the top hat to a barrel switch cover and also the Schaller buttons so I can use the same strap for three different different guitars. The screw heads that the SX use are too big in circumference to accommodate the Schaller knobs but the screws that came with the buttons work fine so it was an easy fix. I will watch it closely the next few weeks to make sure everything seems snug. I ordered both the barrels and the Schaller knobs from truecustomshop on Ebay. Time will tell as to the quality of the parts but I think I had ordered the other set of buttons for the Eastman and those have worked fine. I am guessing that this outfit probably just specs out parts specs overseas but I could not find where the parts were manufactured with the packaging.

Oddly enough, with the strap on the SX does not feel as heavy as the Agile or Eastman. The SX feels heavy sitting but I am guessing the weight is just distributed differently to make the guitar feel lighter standing with the strap.

I have snapped the high e string twice (once with the originals and a fresh set of strings). The string snapped both times in the picking area so maybe I was just digging in too much. I have been using a pretty heavy pick but have not seen this issue with my other guitars. I was also wondering if is something with just how the guitar is made with the bridge, nut, etc. made these guitars more prone to string breaks. I have the same nickel D'addario 10s on my other guitars and they eventually corrode a little or get very dull but are hard to break.

I do not expect to do any other modifications to the guitar in the near future but I think the body and neck are nice enough to do that sort of thing with if I ever wanted to. I would guess that either the bridge, nut, or neck could use some tweaking but it is not a huge issue so I am just going to leave that alone for a while.

[LancerTheGreat]

I swear some of the wood grain I see on here has no right to look as killer as it does.
But HNGD!

About the string breakage, is there maybe a burr or snag on the bridge near where the string sits? I dig in pretty hard on both of my teles (one's from TWANG and the other is a Firefly semi-hollow) when I play em and strings breaking isn't terribly common.