SX Guitars

flatfourfan

I have to admit that I scoffed at them. I played a really budget one and thought that it wasn't bad for the money. (2nd hand as new they are still a bit high priced). But I wouldn't like to own one.

But after buying a SX LP copy from ET yesterday, I have to say that I'm really surprised with the guitar. Build quality is pretty damn fine. Some things I will change like the tuners as they do feel a tad plastic for my liking and the selector switch seems a tad budget, but that's all I can fault, this is honestly the first budget guitar that I have bought from someone where I took it home and beat the crap out of it and it sounded amazing. I'm not even going to change the pups on this guitar.

This sounds on par with my Ibby ARX300 and in some cases the feel of the guitar is better. I would honestly consider this guitar over a gio, squire or whatnot.

R1200..............how can you fault this thing?

giggsy

Also bought an SX from ET last week - same views as you - the pickups are incredible for a 'cheapie' and the tuners arent that great, but a fantastic guitar for the price. Also got an SX bass a few weeks ago and great build quality and playability. Now I am eyeing a thinline tele from rondomusic.com...

flatfourfan

Giggsy wrote: Also bought an SX from ET last week - same views as you - the pickups are incredible for a 'cheapie' and the tuners arent that great, but a fantastic guitar for the price. Also got an SX bass a few weeks ago and great build quality and playability. Now I am eyeing a thinline tele from rondomusic.com...

Yup, when ET said that the pups aren't really for metal, It still didn't stop me from throwing some priest at it last night and playing through my guv'nor, it loved it. I may lift up the pups a bit and do some truss adjustment as there is a bit of an annoying buzz on the lower frets, (still dont' hear it when playing though), but honestly, that's about it. I had plans to drop in some 2nd hand high end gear and do this and that, and yet now I'm thinking, why bother, with the exception of the tuners and the switch, I'm gonna leave it.

I saw the SX that you bought and was thinking of buying that one too...........I really have to learn to start saying no....lol.

giggsy

flatfourfan wrote: I had plans to drop in some 2nd hand high end gear and do this and that, and yet now I'm thinking, why bother, with the exception of the tuners and the switch, I'm gonna leave it.

I love it when that happens ?

flatfourfan wrote: I saw the SX that you bought and was thinking of buying that one too...........I really have to learn to start saying no....lol.

Thanks for leaving that one for me! And I know what you mean... in the last two weeks I have bought one bass and three guitars. ???

flatfourfan

Giggsy wrote:
Thanks for leaving that one for me! And I know what you mean... in the last two weeks I have bought one bass and three guitars. ???

I couldn't take another guitar from you...........lol.

giggsy

Yeah, I'm struggling to get by with just the 12 now.

flatfourfan

Giggsy wrote: Yeah, I'm struggling to get by with just the 12 now.

I've decided no more until the room is built. I can only hide so many from the wife in the cupboard at this stage.

[deleted]

Nothing wrong with SX Strats either. Played quite a few...
All they need are wax potted pups and they splendid...

Keira-WitherKay

i have read some amazing reviews on these $100 guitars..........and most seem happy to say if you just swop out some of the hardware and plastic nut you can have a real player on your hands....... and of course i been interested in tele's almost exclusively so concentrating on reading those reviews.......and again complaints re plastic nut and tuners/pots ect .but most say they even happy with stock PUPS yet again i have read some reviews of the sx strat that says they go outa tune very easily ..prob the tremelo ........ but that is not a prob on hardtails like tele's or LP's

just watch the video below and ask yourself does that sound like a tele you can buy for cheap ( not sure of the thinline price but i seen the regular vintage sx tele's marked at retail of R1700 before discount .... on the forums online they seem to have the opinion that the sx's even at their cheap prices fit somewhere between being better than a a squire but not quite as good as a MIM tele ( this is not my view ...just what i read) but wow this thinlines tone and look is amazing in the vid....... definitely impresses me and for that money

VellaJ

Keira WitherKay wrote: i have read some amazing reviews on these $100 guitars..........and most seem happy to say if you just swop out some of the hardware and plastic nut you can have a real player on your hands....... and of course i been interested in tele's almost exclusively so concentrating on reading those reviews.......and again complaints re plastic nut and tuners/pots ect .but most say they even happy with stock PUPS yet again i have read some reviews of the sx strat that says they go outa tune very easily ..prob the tremelo ........ but that is not a prob on hardtails like tele's or LP's

just watch the video below and ask yourself does that sound like a tele you can buy for cheap ( not sure of the thinline price but i seen the regular vintage sx tele's marked at retail of R1700 before discount .... on the forums online they seem to have the opinion that the sx's even at their cheap prices fit somewhere between being better than a a squire but not quite as good as a MIM tele ( this is not my view ...just what i read) but wow this thinlines tone and look is amazing in the vid....... definitely impresses me and for that money

That's very impressive, I didn't know they made teles like that... I'm actually seriously almost considering it ?

flatfourfan

Nice vid. I think that these guitars are real gems in the rough. They have a lot going for them for the money if you're prepared to look past the name. That tele sounded damn fine and I think that the tuners are a definate weak point. But I'm still yet to have an issue with mine and as Keira said the trem is probably to blame for this. My only qualm with them is that the tuners feel cheap and nasty, I probably won't change them until they give me issues as they are yet to go out of tune after beating on this guitar for 2 days now. I'll see how they survive a jam session this weekend.

I'm loving mine..........longtime.

Keira-WitherKay

look i know i gave a glowing recommendation to these guitars ,

BUT remember that recommendation is given with a lot of emphasis going to value for money .........

.cos really they dirt cheap and for that minimal money you can't even buy anything that can compete

and yes they can sound awesome that video and some i have already heard proves it ( again i only know or have personal knowledge of the tele range by sx ) BUT don't think they a substitute for a descent fender...... cos they aint ,

as flatfourfan mentioned they can feel a bit cheap if you are used to better guitars.....

and everyone i have read about online has replaced especially the plastic nut ( which can hassle tuning cos the strings don't slide evenly over it and the tuners and pots ect ...in other words..all the hardware....and as i said as for the PUPs the tele sx players seem to leave them be.......... but i have read the strat ones again they would say pop in toneriders or the equivilant and have awesome results

yes they great .BUT great for the money ..not better or even as good as a mim fender or anything above that level ..

and don't buy one to keep it stock if you want to play it as a main guitar cos everyone says if you spend the extra on nut /tuners/pots and maybe pups it can be a player for sure but stock they are renown for cheap hardware

so they guitars with huge potential for minimal money and someone mentioned "about looking past the name" well for under 2K or lets say even closer to 1K one will never buy anything with a respected name brand....... for a name if that what you want you need to spend at least 5K up and for a real "respected name" we mean 8 - 10 K

flatfourfan

Keira WitherKay wrote: look i know i gave a glowing recommendation to these guitars ,

BUT remember that recommendation is given with a lot of emphasis going to value for money .........

.cos really they dirt cheap and for that minimal money you can't even buy anything that can compete

and yes they can sound awesome that video and some i have already heard proves it ( again i only know or have personal knowledge of the tele range by sx ) BUT don't think they a substitute for a descent fender...... cos they aint ,

as flatfourfan mentioned they can feel a bit cheap if you are used to better guitars.....

and everyone i have read about online has replaced especially the plastic nut ( which can hassle tuning cos the strings don't slide evenly over it and the tuners and pots ect ...in other words..all the hardware....and as i said as for the PUPs the tele sx players seem to leave them be.......... but i have read the strat ones again they would say pop in toneriders or the equivilant and have awesome results

yes they great .BUT great for the money ..not better or even as good as a mim fender or anything above that level ..

and don't buy one to keep it stock if you want to play it as a main guitar cos everyone says if you spend the extra on nut /tuners/pots and maybe pups it can be a player for sure but stock they are renown for cheap hardware

so they guitars with huge potential for minimal money and someone mentioned "about looking past the name" well for under 2K or lets say even closer to 1K one will never buy anything with a respected name brand....... for a name if that what you want you need to spend at least 5K up and for a real "respected name" we mean 8 - 10 K

spot on........

Aleks

for a real "respected name" we mean 8 - 10 K

I got an Ibanez RG370DX for like 3k when it came out.
There are also some guitars I've seen with names I can't bother remembering for over 20k

Averatu

I have a SX active bass, not the best looking guitar, but in the price range nothing compared even close in sound and build quality.

makepeace

just out of interest.. where can you find these SX guitars? is there a local dealership or something?

BluJu

I got mine off gumtree really cheap. If you look around you can find them at pawn shops and such places for under a grand.

StephenG

makepeace wrote: just out of interest.. where can you find these SX guitars? is there a local dealership or something?

Thundercloud Music in Sun valley Mall had quite a large range of SX'es..

giggsy

@ Makepeace - here's one I saw on Gumtree - http://capetown.gumtree.co.za/c-Stuff-for-Sale-musical-instruments-Selling-the-prefect-starter-kit-For-any-inspiring-musician-W0QQAdIdZ296733787 He wants 2500 for the lot so sure you can get the SX for pretty cheap

flatfourfan

That's actually a nice looking SX. I'd never buy one of these guitars new because they do need a bit of tweaking, but the 2nd hand market always has a few for sale for under a grand for a fair one.

Well after a weekend of playing the sx pretty much on it's own, this is what I reckon.......an uneducated guess by the way.

1) I was playing this most of saterday afternoon and it played everything that I threw at it. It's comfortable, nice fat neck is surpisingly comfy.

2) The guitar stayed in tune even after playing the rythmn for *for whom the bells toll* (HARD), breaking the law and paranoid. It didn't budge, I did a few checks with the tuner and it was pretty much spot on. The tuners appear to be pretty budget, but they didn't go out of tune at all. The neck nut didn't even give any issues. (budget plastic unit)

3) The pick ups are the surprise here, they sound nice and meaty and actually handle rock and metal really well. I set them up a bit and now they're even better.

4) I did have some damn awful feedback at some stage that I couldn't figure out, but it turned out to be the amp that was so close to the computer speakers. No further issues after that.

5) The input jack is going to be replaced. It's seems to have a worn out feel and it doesn't take much to pull the input jack out. This will be the first thing to go as it's about R20.

6) Pots.............I'm actually pretty happy with them at this stage, there's no cracking or noise coming from them, but who knows?

7) Selector switch........it had a loose solder on the back, so this is something that I won't have to replace afterall.

8) I really need some truss rod adjustment. I might just replace the neck nut at the same time and do the strings as well, even though they are still pretty ok.

For R1200 I can't fault it enough to warrant not recommending a second hand unit for someone.