:D
2 questions
Is there room to rout for a humbucker?
Is it worth US$170? That's customs and shipping to Canada.
I wish he would use USPS instead of UPS. :(
"Things may get a whole lot worse/ Before suddenly falling apart"
Steely Dan
"Look at me coyote, don't let a little road dust put you off" Knopfler
Yes, I think you could rout it out for a humbucker or a P-90.
Worth $170? Probably. I likely wouldn't've jumped and ordered it within a few minutes of finding out about it like I did at $113.26 shipped. I'd be pickier about things like finish and pickup placement at that price. But you're going to redo the pickup setup, sounds like.
Mine came FedEx.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Worth $170? Probably.
Not many alternatives at that price anyway, you'll be pretty lucky to find a used lap steel in working condition on eBay for that these days. 3-4 years ago you could find 50s Valco made lap steels at around $150-200, but it's a long time since I last saw one at that price.
Sounds like it's a better choice than the Artisans and its various spin-offs, just the scale length alone is reason enough to pay the extra dollars IMO..
Steinar
I've just pulled the ashtray off and found that the wraparound bridge was off-centered a bit to one side on its mounting posts. I loosened the strings, shoved it over to the other side, tuned it back up, and now the strings are over the pole pieces if still a bit off centered. Holding finger pressure on the side of the pickup centers it, so a bit more work would do it.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Cool.
Hey, you should email Kurt at rondo and let him know about the bridge/pickup thing. He's very open to suggestions and ideas about improvements.
Yeah, I suppose I ought.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
DemoEtc., I just did E-mail Kurt. Told him about that, gave him a general review of the guitar and my thoughts about it and thanked him. Thanks for the idea!
I do think that when the word gets around about these, they're going to snatch up a huge share of the market for low cost lap steels. Sure is a bargain!
I do like the case this thing shipped in, BTW. That's a really nice touch, to include a good quality hard case at this price! I really don't see how they can do it. I'm not going to fuss about that piddly misalignment thing, which is likely startup "teething troubles." I passed along the requests a couple of guys here and on Big Road Blues made about routing one for a humbucker or P-90, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see that offered a few months down the road. I remember E-mailing Kurt several years ago and telling him that if he'd offer a semihollowbody with P-90s, I'd have a hard time not buying one. Not long after, I happened to browse back over Rondo's site and saw "Back By Request! AS-820 With P-90s!" I bought one, and it's my favorite electric guitar by far. (I didn't know they'd made them before.) At any rate, Rondo tries to give people what they want, and you just can't beat their service.
:D
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
FYI, if you want one of these lap steels, go for it quick! Kurt just told me he expects the limited supply he has will sell out next week, and there won't be any more till after the summer.
He says at least 50% of the SX guitars he gets have pole pieces misaligned with the strings. He complains, but when the products are quickly selling out, it's hard to convince them they need to change.
I do think that's mainly a cosmetic issue that brings out the OCD in us, anyway, not something that really has much effect when the strings are considerably higher above the pole pieces than they're displaced laterally.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
