Before You Decide to Buy and Rebuild a Rondo Guitar, Check THIS!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Buck62
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Buck62

Buck62

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WARNING: This ain't gonna be pretty.

Some guy at HC bought an SX Tele to do a rebuild, and the neck cavity is splintering and falling apart on a brand new guitar!!! :eek:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1873736

It kinda looks like plywood in there.

The Rondo brands are all built in the same factory, so this could probably happen on their Douglas and Agile guitars, too.
 
Eh, who cares. If it plays/sounds nice it doesn't really matter what it's made out of.

P.S. The damage pictured is in the pickup cavity and was caused at the factory. This wasn't a spontaneous explosion of wood type deal, it was deliberate.
 
There is nothing inherently "wrong" with it. A bit sloppy maybe but it's a sub $200 guitar. They are not plywood, equally it is not top quality tonewood. What do some people expect for $150? A decent Alder body blank can be nearly as much as that on it's own. If he wanted to return it on the basis of a hidden cosmetic defect he will be lucky.
 
muttley600 said:
There is nothing inherently "wrong" with it. A bit sloppy maybe but it's a sub $200 guitar. They are not plywood, equally it is not top quality tonewood. What do some people expect for $150? A decent Alder body blank can be nearly as much as that on it's own. If he wanted to return it on the basis of a hidden cosmetic defect he will be lucky.
Click to expand...

Its not all that surprising for the cost, and from the pics, was the wood that holds the neck on cracked? Didn't look that way, but pictures rarely show every detail.

I do like that in replacing the body, one is essentially building a separate guitar. "Yea - I bought a Rondo, and replaced the neck and body, and now its a totally sweet guitar" :D
 
cusebassman said:
Its not all that surprising for the cost, and from the pics, was the wood that holds the neck on cracked? Didn't look that way, but pictures rarely show every detail.

I do like that in replacing the body, one is essentially building a separate guitar. "Yea - I bought a Rondo, and replaced the neck and body, and now its a totally sweet guitar" :D
Click to expand...
Thing is, when I select timber to build with I select on a very strict criteria. I've just got back from a trip part of which was wood buying. Of the thousands of board feet I was shown I selected maybe 1% and that was from sawmills used to dealing with instrument requirements. Even the best Chinese manufacturer can't select on that basis and wont pay what you'd have to. They buy unseen and sort when it arrives. They don't sift out defects or select for stiffness, even grain, no runout, free from checks, shakes, dead knots, the list goes on. What they do is take a truck load and sort for visually appealing stuff to put on their lacquered instruments and use the rest on solid colours. I have no problem with that as long as the timber is sound. I have a problem when people think they are getting top end timber on a $150 guitar, it just isn't going to happen. The likes of me have had first dibs and I lose out to a lot of the big top end shops that have far greater buying power than I ever will.

I'd suggest they take a look at some of the copies around 30 years ago if they want to see really bad stuff.

From the picture I can't see any cracking or splits anywhere. The mess in the pup cavity just looks like someone has removed a bit of wood after finishing to seat the pup correctly. Again on a $150 guitar they ain't going to pay someone to make it look nice.
 
Mine aren't plywood

I've got two solid alder, one solid mahogany, and one solid ash. They may not be the prettiest examples of their species, but they are solid and real.
 
That is not the neck cavity, it's the pickup route. It looks like the screws from the pups were too long and someone at the factory chipped out some wood so the screws would work. The pickguard covers all of this so who cares. I have taken many trips to Rondo and inspected their guitars first hand. Like someone else said, the bodies may not represent the finest example of wood species they are real and solid.
 
I've seen much worse on much more expensive instruments. I like what Rondo are doing, too.
 
Holy crap.. it's a neck pocket for crying out loud:rolleyes:
it will not effect the sound of the guitar and will not be seen when the pick guard is on the guitar.

what do people expect for a 120 dollar guitar?:confused:
 
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