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Does Not Compute: $139 SX Mahogany 6 String with Set Neck

#121
Got mine today. I've only played around with it for five minutes or so... It has stuff on it I would find unreasonable on a more expensive bass, with the finish sloppy near the neck pocket and the fingerboard looking pretty poor at some spots, but I'm thrilled with this given the context. I think it's awesome. I can't believe I got a 6-string for $155.
 
#122
I received mine yesterday. All I can say is that for the price, it is good. That said, mine is going back. This is my first SX bass. I have two Brice and a Douglas and like them. But the quality on this particular bass is really lacking.

The Good: The body is nicely shaped, comfortable, and light. The neck is really easy on the hands and the action was low with no fret buzz that I could find. Intonation was close but needed some work. This bass has a double action truss rod which is great at this price. The B string is very clear sounding which is nice on a 34" scale and at this price.

The Bad: The knobs feel really flimsy, even compared to the ones in my Brice basses. The nut is roughly shaped. The tuners are flimsy. The bridge pieces don't feel right either. The pots have that On/Off behavior when they are almost all the way up or down. What made me want to return it was a noticeable nick on the finish close to the nut, a very rough finishing of the fretboard, and a small gouge in the fretboard.

The bass sounds good though. Which is why is kind of hard to let it go. The pickups have strong output and the sound is clean and powerful. There is a slight hum from the neck pickup but I suspect this has to do more with the weak electronics (pots and preamp) than with the pickup itself. I guess that for me to keep it I would have to upgrade the preamp, tuners, nut, and bridge. And at that point I might as well get a different bass.

Kudos to Kurt and crew for taking it back with just a simple explanation of the problems I found.
 
#123
Old Joe said:
I received mine yesterday. All I can say is that for the price, it is good. That said, mine is going back. This is my first SX bass. I have two Brice and a Douglas and like them. But the quality on this particular bass is really lacking.

The Good: The body is nicely shaped, comfortable, and light. The neck is really easy on the hands and the action was low with no fret buzz that I could find. Intonation was close but needed some work. This bass has a double action truss rod which is great at this price. The B string is very clear sounding which is nice on a 34" scale and at this price.

The Bad: The knobs feel really flimsy, even compared to the ones in my Brice basses. The nut is roughly shaped. The tuners are flimsy. The bridge pieces don't feel right either. The pots have that On/Off behavior when they are almost all the way up or down. What made me want to return it was a noticeable nick on the finish close to the nut, a very rough finishing of the fretboard, and a small gouge in the fretboard.

The bass sounds good though. Which is why is kind of hard to let it go. The pickups have strong output and the sound is clean and powerful. There is a slight hum from the neck pickup but I suspect this has to do more with the weak electronics (pots and preamp) than with the pickup itself. I guess that for me to keep it I would have to upgrade the preamp, tuners, nut, and bridge. And at that point I might as well get a different bass.

Kudos to Kurt and crew for taking it back with just a simple explanation of the problems I found.
Click to expand...

I'm looking forward to purchasing your B-stock bass from Rondo. :D

I mod the hell out of most of my instruments anyway, so none of that bothers me in the slightest.
 
#125
Old Joe said:
I received mine yesterday. All I can say is that for the price, it is good. That said, mine is going back. This is my first SX bass. I have two Brice and a Douglas and like them. But the quality on this particular bass is really lacking.

The Good: The body is nicely shaped, comfortable, and light. The neck is really easy on the hands and the action was low with no fret buzz that I could find. Intonation was close but needed some work. This bass has a double action truss rod which is great at this price. The B string is very clear sounding which is nice on a 34" scale and at this price.

The Bad: The knobs feel really flimsy, even compared to the ones in my Brice basses. The nut is roughly shaped. The tuners are flimsy. The bridge pieces don't feel right either. The pots have that On/Off behavior when they are almost all the way up or down. What made me want to return it was a noticeable nick on the finish close to the nut, a very rough finishing of the fretboard, and a small gouge in the fretboard.

The bass sounds good though. Which is why is kind of hard to let it go. The pickups have strong output and the sound is clean and powerful. There is a slight hum from the neck pickup but I suspect this has to do more with the weak electronics (pots and preamp) than with the pickup itself. I guess that for me to keep it I would have to upgrade the preamp, tuners, nut, and bridge. And at that point I might as well get a different bass.

Kudos to Kurt and crew for taking it back with just a simple explanation of the problems I found.
Click to expand...

OK, I'm sorta new to active basses and I'm stumped about about something you wrote. How can the pickups have a strong output with a weak preamp. I thought that on an active bass, using the preamp was the only way you're going to generate any output.

Please excuse my ignorance - I'm trying to learn.
 
#126
ack said:
OK, I'm sorta new to active basses and I'm stumped about about something you wrote. How can the pickups have a strong output with a weak preamp. I thought that on an active bass, using the preamp was the only way you're going to generate any output.

Please excuse my ignorance - I'm trying to learn.
Click to expand...

I didn't expressed that well. I meant weak as in not good. Treble, bass and mid knobs didn't seem to really boost or cut. Only when they are full up do they really boost. Or cut when completely down. The sweep seemed to have a big range which I am fine with. The pickups have a strong output regardless of the EQ settings. To me it sounded good with the EQ set flat. I can always change the sound at the amp. Maybe it is the one I got but, I've seen this before with cheap pots.
 
#128
Old Joe said:
I didn't expressed that well. I meant weak as in not good. Treble, bass and mid knobs didn't seem to really boost or cut. Only when they are full up do they really boost. Or cut when completely down. The sweep seemed to have a big range which I am fine with. The pickups have a strong output regardless of the EQ settings. To me it sounded good with the EQ set flat. I can always change the sound at the amp. Maybe it is the one I got but, I've seen this before with cheap pots.
Click to expand...


Thanks, Joe. I appreciate the clarification.
It's too bad you got a lemon. Other than a sticky Volume pot, mine only has a really minor cosmetic blemish. I'm sure that there are more issues there, but I can't care about that - especially after reading about yours. I'm more than happy with what I got.

Mine has full range of EQ, and with the exception of the Freq. Sweep knob, I can certainly tell a difference with the slightest of turns on each knob.

As for output, It's at least twice as loud as my passive basses and I had to move the amp's input cable over to the Active jack to settle it down.

I'm happy to hear that Kurt is taking yours back, although I never had a doubt that he would. He's a good guy, and provides good customer service on products that have some inherent flaws - not a good combination, but he pulls it off somehow.
 
#129
ack said:
I'm happy to hear that Kurt is taking yours back, although I never had a doubt that he would. He's a good guy, and provides good customer service on products that have some inherent flaws - not a good combination, but he pulls it off somehow.
Click to expand...

I have three other basses, a guitar, and cases from Rondo and they're all great. I guess it was bound to happen at some point considering the price point of these instruments. But 4 good ones out of 5 is not bad at all. As for service I can't really ask for more. Kurt and company have been great so far.
 
#131
Anybody have one they want to give up? PM me please.

Really, I emailed Kurt about these maybe a month ago.
HE say he was waiting on these for some time and I missed it.

Damn it!

I guess I'll have to wait for the next shipping container ( next year? )
or a B stock, or a high priced one on Evil Bay!
 
#132
Well finally got to play mine last night. I was waiting for delivery last Thursday, but my wife and I were leaving for Avila Beach for a long weekend. It was our 10th Anniversary and we had been planning this trip for 6 months. Well, like I was saying, I waited as long as I could. Thankfully I have some great neighbors and they signed for it and put it in the house and it was waiting for me last night when we got back. As a side note, I was also able to get the case I mentioned in an earlier post. $30.00. The SX fit nicely in it. It's a form fitted Squier case for J's and P's. What's even nicer is that my Yamaha TRB fretless 5 fits in the case even better, so now the SX lives in the old universal case I had for the Yammy. So with the SX at $135.00-$160.00 shipped and a case from CL for $30.00, so far I'm under $200.00 for a nice little 6er. I'm going to get straplocks and a strap this afternoon which will put me over the $200.00 mark but all in all I think I got a real good deal.

I haven't had much time playing it yet, but right out of the box the setup was excellent. No buzz and nice low action. I tuned it up and plugged it in to my practice amp and it sounded pretty good. I can't wait to hear it through my big rig. As others mentioned, the controls are a little confusing, and I also noticed, as was mentioned before, the pots have a weird sweep on them, and don't seem to do much until you turn them all the way in one direction or the other. I like the pre in my TRB much better. It's a simple 3-band with a volume knob and a blend knob for the pickups. The first mod I will do on the SX is a different pre with the simpler control layout, and it already has the right number of holes so should be an easy swap. The knobs feel cheap too, so they will get swapped at the same time I do the pre. Recommendations on a pre would be much appreciated. The pickups seem fine so I will leave those alone for now.

Every thing else looks pretty good. The fit and finish are good for a guitar at this price point, and the bridge and tuners are OK, but I think I will eventually swap those out as well. The bridge especially seems a little light, and cheaply made. Something with a little more mass to it would be a good thing, and I might end up changing all the hardware to black anyway.

So, for the price I paid for this bass, it's a keeper. The playability is good so it will be a good guitar I can do some modding on while I get used to playing a six. Just wish it had a narrower neck and closer string spacing, but it is what it is.
 
#134
If you open the control cavity and look at the preamp board, you will see a manufacturer name. Google that and you will find the control layout.

SX basses typically use preamps from Artec Sound, a Korean company. But as this is a new model I can't say.
 
#135
ian_s said:
If you open the control cavity and look at the preamp board, you will see a manufacturer name. Google that and you will find the control layout.

SX basses typically use preamps from Artec Sound, a Korean company. But as this is a new model I can't say.
Click to expand...

WELCOME TO ARTECSOUND

OK, did that and came up with this. Click on "Guitar Electronics" and then the "SE3P" link on the right by the bass guitars. The top diagram is the one I think they used in these basses. Sent an e-mail to confirm and am waiting for a reply. Thanks ian_s.
 
#137
Used the SX for the first time on a gig Saturday. It was the backup bass and I used my workhorse BB5000 for most of the gig, but I was quite happy with it on the few songs I used it on, and I got many compliments on my new toy.

I'm getting used to it's voice, so maybe I won't be quite so hasty to swap out the pre for a different one. I was never crazy about the sound of MM basses, but when I mix the sound of the MM pup with the J I'm liking it, and can get some quite usable sounds out it. I guess I'm getting more comfortable with the control layout now.

One flaw I've fixed, I had to round off the corner of the nut on the treble side. It was not sharp, but was quite square and my hand would sort of get hooked on it when I played anything down at the end of the neck. Now it's a lot more comfortable and my hand slides right off when I brush up against it.

Ordered a set of roto 66's for it. Can't wait to hear it with the new strings.
 
#138
Bassmanmike1 said:
Used the SX for the first time on a gig Saturday. It was the backup bass and I used my workhorse BB5000 for most of the gig, but I was quite happy with it on the few songs I used it on, and I got many compliments on my new toy.

I'm getting used to it's voice, so maybe I won't be quite so hasty to swap out the pre for a different one. I was never crazy about the sound of MM basses, but when I mix the sound of the MM pup with the J I'm liking it, and can get some quite usable sounds out it. I guess I'm getting more comfortable with the control layout now.

One flaw I've fixed, I had to round off the corner of the nut on the treble side. It was not sharp, but was quite square and my hand would sort of get hooked on it when I played anything down at the end of the neck. Now it's a lot more comfortable and my hand slides right off when I brush up against it.

Ordered a set of roto 66's for it. Can't wait to hear it with the new strings.
Click to expand...

I will be using mine for a gig tonight. Of course I will have a backup but since I am not bringing keys tonight I need the extra range of this bass to comp some of the key parts in there. For example the flute part in Can't You See will be done on the bass.

Ken
 
#140
If anyone is interested to hear what the new SX 6'er sounds like live, my oldest son used it on stage last night. My 13 year old is on drums and his classmate friend plays some killer lead.
I give my little drummer (Nick) a lot of credit, he broke his other crash cymbal during the previous song, and had to resort to a tiny splash for NIB...

Betwixt @ HSCC - 18-Nov-2011 - N.I.B. - YouTube
 

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