Kley De Jong | 1 decade ago
So I've been really missing having a telecaster in the stable. I wanted to build my own - but then I heard about these SX guitars. From what I have gathered on the internet they make a great modding platform. I got this bad boy used locally, but they're like $125 shipped brand new to your door.
This is a used guitar and I literally bought it, came home, plugged in, and started filming. The strings are a bit old and it is need of a setup, but I plan on doing a number of mods before I'm ready to do a setup.
I got excited about this guitar because I heard good things about the body, neck, frets, and finish. Those are things I can't do. I can't sunburst a body or refret a neck. I also heard the neck is decently sized, and that is true. It is bigger than the Fender 'modern C' for sure, but it's not a Nocaster 1" baseball either, very nice. The radius is VERY flat, and the frets are jumbo. Initially it felt a little weird to have such a modern feeling neck with some meat to it on a tele, but I definitely prefer this neck feel to the Highway One tele I had.
Basically I'm getting a finished body and neck for $100 - If I were to build my own I'd have a hard time staying under $250 for average quality unfinished body/neck.
The pickups were interesting. The neck pickup was very dark, but I'd attribute some of that to dull strings. It wasn't horrible and lifeless though, just very very dark. The bridge pickup was actually pretty nice. Very tele-ish. I foresee an esquire in this guitar's future. The middle position was actually quite disapointing, little quack and spanky sparke
Cons: the hardware is mostly cheap metal that doesn't function very well. After the video I tried to raise the saddles to get the action up a little. Two of the saddles stripped immediately. The tuners work - although I was having major tuning issues. I'd attribute most of those issues to the crappy nut, which will definitely be replaced. The tone knob spun and spun and spun. The volume pot was very stiff, swells would be impossible. The 3 way switch was functional, but it was a little loose with switching. I opened the control panel to find a B500K volume pot and an A500K tone pot. Not ideal either.
One final mention - the neck is quite orange tinted. I think it works fairly well with the sunburst, but it may be weird with other body colors.
The Plan: I feel a great need to swap both the saddles and nut. As the point of contact for the strings they're essential - and they are major weak points on the guitar. I am hoping swapping the nut stabilizes the tuning problems, but if not I'll then swap the tuners. Next would be electronics. As one who likes to use all 3 pickups positions as well as shades of volume and tone, I'd consider this an essential mod as well.
Secondary mods - I'll be swapping out the pickups for some GFS stuff some day. Probably a few months from now at least. The neck pickup was crazy dark, and the bridge pickup could be better - although it wasn't as harsh as I expected it to be.
I also plan on doing some light relicing. :)
One thing to be aware of, these SX's have staggered string ferrules (the little holes where the strings enter in the rear of the body) and the spacing is a little weird, so putting on a whole new bridge plate would require some routing.
For the demo I'm plugged straight into my Frenzel 5E3 deluxe plus head running into my Weber mass attenuator - line out into my interface with Guitar Rig 4's Tweed 2x12 cab with a little reverb.
