Model Year: 2008
Price: $189.00 (new)
Where Obtained: www.rondomusic.com

A B-stock item. An alder body with a medium figured quilt top. Maple neck, one piece bolt-on with 6 bolts. 35" scale length with 24 frets. Rosewood fretboard. Black hardware. Guessing all materials made or from Korea. Finish is natural. 2 humbuckers. It contains a small preamp of unknown make. Volume, blend, hi cut/boost and low cut/boost controls. Strings feed through the body and the sustain is quite good.

After much tweaking and some modifications it plays pretty well and I like it a lot. Plan on doing a few things to this model if you get one. This particular one needed a new nut that was spaced correctly, the neck needed quite a shimming, the neck also needed to be sealed with tung oil (just a preference of mine), and longer screws to secure the bridge appropriately. Plan on putting new strings on it right off the bat. I use D'Addario super long scale on it with very good results. Yours may need to have the B string hole filed out a bit to allow the windings near the ball end to slip through completely.

I use it to record direct, and I am pleased with the tones I get for plucking and picking and slapping. It is not a high end instrument though, and has tonal limitations. It has a rather bright sound, and plays in a lively manner. Sound is with a slight bite overall. Slightly dark, but not too much. It does not play as well as Carvins or Alembics or other custom stuff, but, for 189.00 I am very pleased.

I would doubt it would hold up real well for roadwork. I have been into the control cavity to lengthen the battery terminal wires, and the wiring is very thin and preamp unsecured, so it flops around a bit. I will rate it based upon an assumption here.