Cheap-Ass Rondo Tele Clone (is tits)

[tuj]

just ordered mine, along with placing my order for some custom pickups and ordering new tuners.

[antennafarm]

WELCOME TO THE BENEFITS OF GLOBALIZATION

IT'S A NWO PLOT

STORMTROOPERS AT YOUR DOOR TO SEND YOU TO THE FEMA CAMPS IN 3...2...1......

[tuj]

[tuj]

I didn't get to plug into the amp last night as the guitar showed up too late to bother my neighbors with my noodlings, so I plugged into Amplitude3 and headphones to check out the guitar. First impressions: pretty good fit and finish. Not perfect, but not bad. I got the yellowish tele that I knew would show some of the wood grain underneath, and it does in the light. The guitar came with protective film over the pickguard and lipstick pickup and the strings wrapped. At first I thought they had forgot to put a knob on the selector switch, but then I found that they put the little knobbie inside the hard case that I ordered with the guitar for an extra $50.

The action is a little high, but perfectly playable. I didn't notice a ton of buzzing or anything else weird in terms of the fretwork. The selector switch actually feels pretty beefy and doesn't crackle like some of the 5-way switches on Chinese/Korean strats. Volume and tone pots didn't have any noise. The bridge pickup was installed a little weird, they really cranked up the height by the high-E string and its really low by the low-E string. Might have to change that. The tuners felt ok, but one thing I have experienced is that I hate guitars without good locking tuners so I ordered some. The neck pickup to my ears sounded a little dark and a little low on output. The bridge pickup was a little hotter, but nothing too hot, and actually sounded a lot like a strat neck sound rather than a twangy tele bridge sound.

New pickups and tuners are on their way!

[tuj]

Been playing this guitar for the past week and damn, its good! The tone from the neck is solid tele while the bridge is a little bit brittle for my tastes. I just got a new set of pickups so we'll see how that changes things, hopefully for the better. Also got a set of locking tuners but honestly the tuners have been very solid and the guitar has had no trouble staying in tune day-to-day and session to session.

These things really are tits.

[goroth]

Damn. Gas.

[Inconuucl]

Half of my wants to get this just for the neck.

[tuj]

update: Locking tuners from Schaller are 10mm and drop right in without any drama, even the screw holes are in the same place. So tuners done. Pickups I'm finding the tele lipstick cover used by Rondo is slightly smaller than Fender spec, so I'm going to have to Dremel the pick guard to get it through. Wish me luck.

There was nothing really wrong with the old tuners. They were holding tune well and the adjustment range was fine.

The new pickups I am really excited for. Onamac Windery '54 pickups are supposed to be DA BOMB in a tele, so we'll see. I actually quite like the sound of the stock pickups, its grown on me.

[culturejam]

I finally got some better tuners on my first one. Got 'em pretty cheap (but not too cheap) on Amazon. Vintage-style in looks, medium in terms of quality.

I also took off the metal cover on the neck pickup. It's now brighter than the bridge, which is very strange. So my previous decision to convert this one to an Esquire is a go. I've ordered a new pickguard and a blade humbucker from GFS (used the recent coupon code to save a few bucks). I will do the Series/Split/Parallel wiring setup instead of the traditional Esquire wiring.

Even with the new tuners, pickguard, and pickup, the total cost is still cheaper than a Squier Tele. And the flame maple neck on this thing is not something I've ever seen on a sub-$200 Squier.


New Tuners:





Uncovered neck pickup:

[Pizza]

Holy shit. Looks amazing.

[colossus]

I had one of these and you dudes are making me want another.

[hbombgraphics]

I have shopped rondo teles everyday this week.

Been trying to lighten my gear footprint a bit, but I miss having a tele.

Don't want to take on a project at this point though, how functional is this thing right out of the box?

[tuj]

Straight up 100% functional.

[hbombgraphics]

Straight up 100% functional.

Nice, thanks.

May have to jump on this, I use a Rondo board now and have for about 7 years and I love it

[tuj]

I plan to put in my new pickups this weekend after I dremel the pickguard neck pickup cutout to fit the Onamac Windery pickups I got. Supposedly these 54-vintage tele pickups are 'da bomb', so we'll see. I think they clock in around 7.7k or there abouts, so a little hot but not anything crazy.