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Rondo SX Short 30” scale Precision-style bass
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Reviews
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Date product posted
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0
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3958
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Wed January 14, 2009
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Description:
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Rondo instruments have received many positive reviews. But what do you actually get? Here’s the story on my out-of-the-box experience.
The bass was obtained direct from Rondo Music via the web site, $110.
It was carefully packaged and shipped via UPS from New Hampshire. Fed Ex shipping was an option at extra cost.
Neck width measured 1 ½” and thickness .845” at nut. The width is actually that of a Jazz bass rather than a Precision bass. The neck is C-shaped, one-piece maple, adjustable at the headstock. Radius looks to be 9 ½”. The body is 12” wide at the bridge, 17 ¾” long at the long horn, and slightly over 1 ½” thick. Instument is 42” in overall length. The body is light. It’s supposed to be made of alder. The entire instrument feels to be the same weight as the Telecasters I own. Because the body is light, the bass is a little bit headstock heavy.
Paint, fit and finish: Plastic nut is properly shaped and strings nicely seated. The neck pocket tight at all points and will not admit a piece of paper. The provided strings are light-guage round wound, properly installed. A protective polyethylene sheet came on the pickguard There are small stickers on the back of the head stock bearing a serial number and the words “Made in China”.
The finish is Lake Placid Blue metal-flake, and the neck vintage amber polyurethane. The amber color is a bit more orange-toned than the tint seen on vintage-colored Fender necks, but it is attractive and is actually rather rich looking. The clear coating on the body shows very slight rippling in a couple of places. Neck coating also showed several ripples on the fingerboard, and there was one superficial abrasion about 15 mm long at one spot on the finger board. I had to look from about twelve inches away to see these blemishes. The sheet-metal hardware is thinly chrome-plated and the metal a bit thin, perhaps 1.5 mm.. The hardware is about equal to what you might obtain from Stewart-MacDonald, i.e., nothing fine, but certainly functional. The knobs are push-on, not set screw type. The beveled pick guard is vinyl three-ply white/black/white, is smoothly cut, and is installed flat with no warps. I didn’t look under the pick guard. The pots and jack work fine.
The neck appears straight except for very slight back bow at first fret and very slightly uneven fret heights near the heel. Once tuned with the light gauge strings, the neck shows very slight relief and has no string buzzes. Intonation was required. Fret ends are nicely rounded over but are not polished. Pickup string heights were consistently 3/32” on all strings. In summary, not perfectly set up, but not just thrown together either.
Out-of-the-box with a quick set up, playing on the provided round wound strings, this SX P bass yielded a very pleasant, snarly and responsive bass sound, with nice harmonics and sustain. This indicates the woods and pickup are fine as they are. The action was fast enough, and since I'm not really a bassist, I guess that's good.
Upgrades? Aside of some thicker strings and a pro to dress the frets a little, I don’t think I’ll shell out.
I’ve played guitar forty years, but this is my first bass. I figured the 30” scale would let me lay down bass loops with a minimum of practice, plus be less likely to ding furniture and knock over beer bottles. This bass succeeds on all counts. At the price, there’s plenty to like, and nothing really to complain about.
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Posts: 61
Registered: January 2007
Location: West Chester, PA
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