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Topic: New ash SX - blond on blond w/p90 |
Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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David Eastwood
From:
Minnesota, USA
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Posted 28 Mar 2011 4:34 pm |
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That's a sweet looking guitar, especially for the price...
Maybe I'm just stupid, though, but how on earth do you find these things on Rondo's website? The search function doesn't produce results for any obvious word like 'lap', or 'steel'... |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 28 Mar 2011 6:50 pm
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| I get their e-lerts about once a week, plenty of new stuff all the time, plus B stock, and if you sign up for them then you're in. |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 29 Mar 2011 7:06 am
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They are out of stock again. A good deal, but not available currently.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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David Eastwood
From:
Minnesota, USA
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Posted 29 Mar 2011 8:16 am
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| Ron Whitfield wrote: |
| I get their e-lerts about once a week, plenty of new stuff all the time, plus B stock, and if you sign up for them then you're in. |
Aah, so that's the secret. Thanks! |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 1 Apr 2011 9:33 am
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| There are 3 in stock as on 4-1-11. |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 1 Apr 2011 5:38 pm
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| Wow, 10 hours later, there is only one in stock! |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 1 Apr 2011 5:50 pm
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What'd ya do, buy 2?  |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 1 Apr 2011 8:20 pm
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| Nah,just have the one SX lap steel, but I did just buy my 10th guitar from Rondo, a nice big jazz box! |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 2 Apr 2011 1:06 pm
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| Ron, yep, that's the one. It will be exchanged for another one as the one I received has a few defects. At 17 inches wide, it is a handful. |
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Andy Grimwood
From:
London, UK
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Posted 10 Sep 2011 4:30 pm
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Hi all.
First post on the forum.
I picked up one of these early this week...selling as the SX LG2 here in UK & thought I'd share some info as I couldn't find one review of, or any other comments on this particular model.
First I should say I am really a beginner on lap steel. I did buy a cheap Artisan about 5 years ago but I really struggled with keeping it in tune, it's thin sound, lack of sustain etc & it lost it's appeal quickly!
So to the SX & first the bad points.
The tuners seemed poor at first but actually the heads were completely loose & just needed tightening. Now the strings are a little stretched it seems to be holding tuning pretty well.
The vol/tone don't work as I would expect...either of them will turn the guitar to silence. I'd imagine this is a fault but I can live with it for now & maybe consider changing the electrics later.
The pickup as received is a long way from the strings & the sound was thin & quiet. Adjusting the screws I managed to get the pickup to a good distance from the strings but only by having the pickup completely out of the body! There is some more adjustment on the bridge so going to drop that right down when I change strings & then the pickup can sit so the bottom of it is just below body level.
I will also attempt to flip 3 of the saddles as the 3 & 3 setup seems pointless in this use when they only need to be lined up straight.
As the bridge is a wraparound the entry point for the strings is totally covered by the pickup which is very close to the bridge. As far as I can tell any string changing will require removing the bridge completely to thread the strings through...which is ok for a full change but would be a real pain if needing to replace a single string.
It also seems to hum a fair bit...though I've had worse guitars.
Despite the niggles, I really, really like this guitar.
It is a great solid (very heavy) piece of wood & sounds way better than I expected. The hardware is adequate once adjusted.
The case is also very nicely made & is a perfect fit.
It sounds really sweet to me when played clean...the Artisan sounds really thin & brittle in comparison.
Overdriven it's definitely got some P90 attitude, raunchy & full.
So that's about it, hope it's useful to someone...would love to hear anyone else's opinions on this guitar if they managed to get hold of one. |
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Steve Ahola
From:
Concord, California
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Posted 10 Sep 2011 11:19 pm
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Andy:
Thanks for your report on your new Rondo- I believe it was formerly known as the "Labradoodle", probably the worst product name in I have ever heard. 
It looks like they are using the same old tune-a-matic bridge. I would not recommend trying to flip the saddles around as the bridge is made very cheaply (I bought 2 last year and the second one had a defective bridge- one of the adjustment screws didn't.  )
I set the saddles all in a line and then filled all of the air space in the bridge with carpenter's white glue (it keeps the bridge parts from rattling and I believe it increases sustain). Actually I could have used a hard epoxy since it will never be adjusted (as would be the case on a regular guitar). I have been doing that trick with all of the Epiphone electric guitars I have bought since their bridges were pretty crappy.
I don't like the bridge to rock at all so I lowered it until the front edge of the bridge touched the wood top (with it set like that there was at least a 1/2" gap between the back of bridge and the body). Perhaps the bridge on yours fits on the threaded studs better. Adding set screws to secure the bridge might be a better idea, turning it into a wannabe Tone-Lock.
You might try shimming up the P-90 with a piece of wood to bring it closer to the strings. The adjustment are more for balancing all of the strings.
As for both controls killing the sound when turned all of the way down, that is not the way it is supposed to be. During assembly they may have inadvertently shorted some wires together. (Make sure that your amp is turned up enough to hear the full bass sound with the tone control set to 0.)
So did your steel come with the hardshell case shown on the webpage? I didn't think that they included those anymore...
Steve
P.S. I think the Rondo SX is a great little steel for the price if you are willing to put a little work into it, and maybe upgrade the pickup and/or bridge. It is not going to work that well right out of the box so people expecting that would be better off buying the Rogue Jersey Lightning. But I do think if you dropped both of them 6 feet onto a concrete floor the Rondo would live to see another day... BTW the Natural finish is much better than what came with mine which was more of a dark mahogany color.
_________________
www.blueguitar.org
Recordings on electric guitar:
http://www.box.net/blue-diamonds
http://www.box.net/the-culprits |
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Andy Grimwood
From:
London, UK
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Posted 11 Sep 2011 5:29 am
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Hi Steve.
Thanks for the comments/suggestions.
I think you're right about the bridge. Looks exactly like the one on the LG1 single coil model.
Fitting locking posts seems a good idea. Maybe combined with a bar bridge.
One thing that puzzles me is how you would find a replacement bridge that doesn't have any radius?
The saddles on this are completely flat.
I checked the controls for shorting wires already but couldn't see anything obvious....not that there's a lot of space in there. I can live with this till I get round to replacing the pots.
Re: the pickup. I am something of a fan of P90's with 7 of them in various guitars including Lollar & Fralin's alongside those factory fitted to some budget guitars & I would say this stands up well against the latter. A replacement would be nice but is certainly not essential.
I did get the hard case. Quite possibly this is old stock that's been with the retailer for some time.
I don't think these are selling as fast in UK as they do in the US!
The Rogue doesn't appear to be available in the UK at all. I had this or the Recording King to choose between. |
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Steve Ahola
From:
Concord, California
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Posted 11 Sep 2011 6:19 pm
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| Andy Grimwood wrote: |
Fitting locking posts seems a good idea. Maybe combined with a bar bridge.
One thing that puzzles me is how you would find a replacement bridge that doesn't have any radius?
The saddles on this are completely flat. |
My idea was to use their stock (junk) bridge, but drill and tap holes in it to fasten it securely to the existing mounting studs with set screws. (It would be a good idea to do that with some of my regular guitars as well- much cheaper than coughing up $125 for the Tone-Locks.)
As for replacing the bridge, I know that some people have ordered lap steel bridges from one of the builders here. Or you could fabricate one from angle iron and run the strings through the body using ferrules from Stew-Mac on the top and bottom.
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| I checked the controls for shorting wires already but couldn't see anything obvious....not that there's a lot of space in there. |
You can say that again! On my first SX I decided to use a push-pull tone pot so that I could switch between series and parallel linkages on the Hot Rails pickup I put in. With the output jack right between the two pots it was a real bear to get everything to fit in without shorting one of the wires out to ground (I had shielded the control cavity with copper foil tape, too). As you might imagine I skipped all of that on my second SX, which was upgraded with a SD Li'l '59 wired up in series- the heck with trying to fit some sort of switching mechanism in there!
Steve Ahola
P.S. I have been upgrading the stock P-90's my PRS and Epiphone guitars from Korea by replacing the magnets. Usually they are too harsh for me so I replace the pair of Alnico 5 pickups with Alnico 2. If you do that you must remember that the like poles of the magnets face each other (the screws and optional keeper bar become the opposite pole, which is what holds the "sandwich" together).
I suspect that the sound of a P-90 is largely determined by the magnetic field created by that "sandwich" which is quite different from the magnetic field of a strat or PAF pickup. My theory is that the magnetic force of both magnets is concentrated on those 6 screws so the flux field is projected up and out very strongly. In any case, I have been very pleased with my "magnet transplants" and have felt no need to get the boutique ones.
_________________
www.blueguitar.org
Recordings on electric guitar:
http://www.box.net/blue-diamonds
http://www.box.net/the-culprits |
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Andy Grimwood
From:
London, UK
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Posted 13 Sep 2011 4:37 am
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Thanks for some interesting info Steve.
I know what you mean about the budget pickups though I was pleasantly surprised by the P90s fitted in my Epi Wildkat. These are easily the smoothest stock pickups I own...don't seem to have the brittle spikiness the other budget guitars have.
Magnet transplanting sounds a little too advanced for me....at least without a full step by step photo guide 
BTW I changed strings on the SX which was even more hassle than I expected...needed to take the bridge off to thread strings. Then I adjusted the posts right down to minimise slant/movement & tried to put the bridge back on...it wouldn't fit between the posts now they were tight to the body.
Took a lot of fiddling loosening the screws, putting the bridge on, tightening the screws...hammering the bridge in to line. Tightening the screws, hammering, etc etc.
Definitely this bridge needs to go. I do have some old wraparounds sitting about....wonder if I could just file off the intonation steps & camber from one. |
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