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Can someone explain SX basses to me?
- Thread starter Dbt25677
- Start date
Well, that's the expensive line - the Ursas start at, what, these days, $109? $260 puts the Andromedas in competition with VM Squiers. Just the result of Chinese mass production. There are a lot of $100 basses in the world. SX just seems to do it better than most.
Yeah. Cheap Chinese labor is all I can say. And that Andromeda was a REAL steal at the $169 price they were at when I got mine!!
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/nbd-sx-andromeda-content-1027955/
To be sure, EVERY SX bass ( or guitar) that I have bought has been better than cost would lead one to expect.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/nbd-sx-andromeda-content-1027955/
To be sure, EVERY SX bass ( or guitar) that I have bought has been better than cost would lead one to expect.
Agreed. I just purchased the above bass in the initial post (the Andromeda). It arrived over a week ago and I have to say, as my first experience with SX it very much exceeded my expectation (Plus it was on sale so I got it for $188.00, as did others on TB). It's not going to replace my L2000 as my main bass anytime soon, but the bang for buck on these basses for all I can tell is ridiculous.
I own five of them. They are that good. The body and neck wood is the same as you get on a fender -- no fooling. Solid alder or ash bodies, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.
Three of the four basses I purchased had some kind of flaw, however. One had a kind of a little hole in the edge of fingerboard. Nothing major, but I noticed it. One had a red smudge on the rear of the neck, but barely noticeable (I never think of anymore). The other one had pots that needed to be replaced.
I also replaced the pickups on one of them (to Dimarzzio Ultra Jazz pickups). This made a huge difference in the sound. I am a regular gigging musician and I use my SX bass for everything.
The key, for me, is the authentic looking Fender wood, hardware, and finishes. The pickups are not great.
I am still loyal to SX because I have special needs -- small hands -- and SX has the best selection of decent quality short scale basses (30"). All of my SX basses are short scale.
I am not thrilled with the new Ursa headstock. All of my basses have the old SX headstock which looks like a Fender.
Three of the four basses I purchased had some kind of flaw, however. One had a kind of a little hole in the edge of fingerboard. Nothing major, but I noticed it. One had a red smudge on the rear of the neck, but barely noticeable (I never think of anymore). The other one had pots that needed to be replaced.
I also replaced the pickups on one of them (to Dimarzzio Ultra Jazz pickups). This made a huge difference in the sound. I am a regular gigging musician and I use my SX bass for everything.
The key, for me, is the authentic looking Fender wood, hardware, and finishes. The pickups are not great.
I am still loyal to SX because I have special needs -- small hands -- and SX has the best selection of decent quality short scale basses (30"). All of my SX basses are short scale.
I am not thrilled with the new Ursa headstock. All of my basses have the old SX headstock which looks like a Fender.
They aren't farming their work out to another company, they own their own factory. That lowers their asking price a bit right off the bat.
When you pay your workers $40 a WEEK, no benefits, no insurance, no OSHA, no EPA, you can price things very competitively.
I've always been tempted to buy one as a project bass to play with. I love to tinker, but don't want to mess with my Fender or Laklands.
I have a different view on the Jazz pickups , I think they sound great .I've had at least 7 of the Jazz 5 strings and they all sounded very good , nice clear tone and good even volume string to string . I agree on the good wood and cheap labor deal though but all the big boys are having basses made overseas now including Fender so I wouldn't single out SX as a bad deal based on that . The basses won't be perfect out of the box every time but if you can do a basic setup they can be very good .
SX basses a great for this , I learned all my setup and upgrade skills from the SX basses I had . Fret leveling , shielding , electronics including series-parallel wiring and new pots and preamps , different bridges tuners string tees and just about everything else you could do to a bass . Didn't have to worry about messing up an expensive bass .
I'd prefer a USA Fender over an SX just about everytime...
But I'd much rather buy the SX due to the price difference.
Pretty much yes.
They're decent basses, in my opinion, to use as upgrade platforms. I have three currently... my "poor man's workhorses" that sound and play great for the price. Of course, I changed all of the pickups / electronics (for me was necessary), string nuts and trees (also felt was necessary), and bridges (wasn't necessary, just my preference)....
(*** EDIT actually I find the Gotoh 201 bridges give better string spacing over the pickup than the stock bridge (though I doubt that there's any difference in sound due to mass ***)
Fortunately I received two necks with good fret work, only one needed to be remounted after cleaning the neck pocket. The third was replaced outright with a MightyMite.
When the day comes that I can afford some Warmoth or Custom Shop basses, I'll still be using my SX's in the bar gigs. With proper setup and preferred upgrades you can have yourself a fine SX.
The brand is made by a Chinese company called Team International. They have a one-distributor-per-country policy and Rondo is it for the US. Rondo no longer has even a walk-in store, sells exclusively over the internet, and as near as I can tell spends next to nothing on marketing. They list their instruments on ebay and amazon as well as their own website, and as near as I can tell the rest is word of mouth through guys like us. Kurt, Rondo's owner, answers all the emails himself, so as far as I can tell it's him and maybe one or two other people running a warehouse (here in NH, btw) and that's about it.
Seems to me part of the secret is running such a lean operation; I suspect that with all the logistics of distributing to brick-and-mortar retailers, and marketing, that you get from other companies, your $109 SX Ursas would probably be priced more like a $179 Squier Affinity or Yamaha RBX170 (and the $225 Agile AL-2000 more like a $400 Epiphone Les Paul).
I bought one for $109 to experiment with. Repaired the minor flaws, replaced the tuners, bridge, pickups, all electronics and wires, and put a custom surf green paint job on it . . . hours of work and mega hundreds of dollars. When I was done, I had a bass that was worth, well, uh . . . $109. BTW, the necked warped four months into ownership!
Lets add to that
60+ hour work week
No
workman's comp
Paid vacations
401K
Continuing education
Life insurance
Company vehicle
Holiday turkey or ham
Company Christmas party
Guess what I gust got for the holidays
$25 honey ham gift certificate and a lay off slip
Im so glad my Birdsong order is payed off
