What happened to SX?

[MultiScaleMale]

The page for dealers links to nothing anywhere. I suspect the whole operation is belly up.

Yeah and the pages are copyright 2014, but why is the site still alive? Maybe in case they want to try it again? Dunno.

 

[elderdawg]

Can you click on "Order" anywhere?

Doesn't appear you can. The contact phone and address are in China, and the page has a 2014 date on it. So it must be a dead site.

 

[GTHintz]

All im going to say is that Im going to miss the spector clones they make. I thought they were cool and was thinking about finding one to mod.

 

[iTzPrime]

Sadly they couldnt keep up against Harley Benton, Bacchus, Vintage and those type of brands

100%. Also the quality of Harley Benton and Bacchus is quite a lot over SX.

If your business model is sell the cheapest thing, once someone else comes along that's even a tiny bit cheaper, you're done. It's not a sustainable business model, unless you have control of something (distribution, manufacturing, etc) that is a barrier to entry for competition. Rondo didn't have any of that - they just bought stuff from a manufacturer and sold it.

Yeah and you get the deathstab when someone cheaper comes along, that also has better quality (harley benton).

 

[B-Mac]

From my experience, Glarry is nowhere near the quality that SX instruments…. …owned both and SX were far superior to Glarry…

I think Harley Benton is the real SX killer.

^
^
^
Ditto this.

SX hands down better than Glarry.

 

[Nightsprinter]

I keep seeing comparisons to Bacchus but when I look up Bacchus, I mostly see basses you have to buy from Japan for 700 bucks-ish. There's a few universe series in the used section of guitar center for 350 but weren't SX basses just 2 or 300 bucks?

 

[B-Mac]

I keep seeing comparisons to Bacchus but when I look up Bacchus, I mostly see basses you have to buy from Japan for 700 bucks-ish. There's a few universe series in the used section of guitar center for 350 but weren't SX basses just 2 or 300 bucks?

Bacchus has 3 different tiers. The one to compare is the lowest tier.

Japan, Philippines & China IIRC?

 

[B-Mac]

I keep seeing comparisons to Bacchus but when I look up Bacchus, I mostly see basses you have to buy from Japan for 700 bucks-ish. There's a few universe series in the used section of guitar center for 350 but weren't SX basses just 2 or 300 bucks?

SX were often less than $200 but more than $150 when Rondo would have them on sale. That's how I bought my Ursa P/J short scale. Great bass.

 

[Heiwa]

I keep seeing comparisons to Bacchus but when I look up Bacchus, I mostly see basses you have to buy from Japan for 700 bucks-ish. There's a few universe series in the used section of guitar center for 350 but weren't SX basses just 2 or 300 bucks?

The Universe series are cheap like the SX were

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[Marc DLarosa]

TB'ers bought 'em all up, and modded them.

 

[Nightsprinter]

The Universe series are cheap like the SX were

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So you still have to translate the website and buy direct from Asia and deal with customs? Unless I'm misunderstanding. Seems way less convenient than ordering from New Hampshire.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

The Race To Zero has no winners.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

SX & Jay Turser. Two brands that were pretty solid and really cheap that I never see anymore. JT is still around, but they have way fewer offerings than they used to. Their scpb was a pretty good thumper.

The HB offerings look awesome, but I've yet to get my hands on one to try.

 

[Heiwa]

So you still have to translate the website and buy direct from Asia and deal with customs? Unless I'm misunderstanding. Seems way less convenient than ordering from New Hampshire.

I've seen these basses in stores and they are still cheaper than the Squiers, which was the point of SX as a brand.. Still, SX sadly died, I had 3 and I miss my white 57 P..

I know Harley Benton is great too but I like Bacchus more.

 

[Nightsprinter]

I've seen these basses in stores and they are still cheaper than the Squiers, which was the point of SX as a brand.. Still, SX sadly died, I had 3 and I miss my white 57 P..

I know Harley Benton is great too but I like Bacchus more.

There's a bacchus at my local GC and they want $699 for it. Price hasn't budged in 6 months and it's still on the wall. Best playing bass in the store. I believe it's one of the better iterations of bacchus- not the basement level.

As for HB, I tried one of their guitars and one of their basses. Neck profile was too thick for me.

 

[Paul New]

Still have my $89 XS Jazz (including shipping), my XS 6 string jazz, my photo-phlame fretless SX jazz, and a SX telecaster. All four were less than one of my fender american standard P basses, and just as usable after a little setup.

 

[Yahboy]

An alternative ....

Vintage brand
Bass Guitars

Bacchus
Bacchus Guitars

and, of cause ~ Harley Benton.

 

[ashtray]

Rondo had a music store in NJ. I went to visit, and bought a couple Agile guitars - maybe 20 years ago? The shop had mostly Agile, SX, etc house brands. They were popular though bc of price, and the fact you were buying from a dealer in the US, and the instruments were inspected and shipped from the US dealer.

I think the store closed a while back. It's a lot to handle buying pallets of guitars to spec, unpacking, setting them up, and then managing ebay listings and shipping the instruments out. And since then, more brands have "popped up" doing a similar business of buying pallets of guitars to spec, and shipping them out from a shop or warehouse. And increased shipping costs have made budget brands less affordable.

 

[iTzPrime]

So you still have to translate the website and buy direct from Asia and deal with customs? Unless I'm misunderstanding. Seems way less convenient than ordering from New Hampshire.

Well the thing is that Bacchus took SX market in Japan/Asia.
Harley Benton took in in Europe and everywhere else where customs are not too high.

 

[mcnach]

So Rondo just distributed the brand. It appears SX is alive and well in Europe, or maybe this is just a leftover zombie site.

SX Guitars Official Website (sx-guitar.com)

The Chinese SX site has always been a bit out of date.

But SX as a brand still exists, of course. In fact, it's a lot easier to find SX instruments now than 10 years ago.

In the UK PMT seem to stock them:
Sx Electric Bass Modern Series Pb Blue | PMT Online

There were a couple of shops in Scotland too, and a larger one in Ireland that carried mostly guitars but tended to have a nice selection of basses. I know of a couple of shops in Madrid that are selling them too.

It just looks like Rondo was the main seller in the US, and now they don't carry them anymore.