SX SJM62 Sound

This guitar well suits my favorite playing styles, those being mostly blues & 70's ‘throwback’ rock. Its having single-coil pickups means that there is some inherent 60 Hz hum. Perhaps some added shielding will help there. It's just what you put up with to have that good ol’ P-90 tone, and it's not really very bad at all.

I can get tones ranging from a Tele-ish bridge-pickup twangy ‘bark’ to a wailing Strat-ish neck-pickup tone (great for electric blues), and everything in between. And backing off the tone control yields some nice darker tones, as well. A very wide variety of tones is available with this guitar, from mellow/jazzy, to in-your-face punk snarl. A big plus for me is that I can totally nail the tone of the Who’s ‘Won’t Be Fooled Again’ intro. Sweet!

SX SJM62 Action, Fit, & Finish

The factory setup was not quite to my liking, but it wasn’t too far off. It took only a few minutes to get it there. The pickups weren’t adjusted for output balance, but again, after only a few minutes, I had them set up just right. The neck pocket fit is very close and precise; very nice job on that. Everything seems to fit very well with no visible 'oopsies' anywhere.

The finish on this SX SJM-62 Guitar is truly gorgeous. It’s a three-color sunburst, very well applied and buffed out to near-perfection. I spent some time looking it over very carefully, and found not one visible flaw in the finish. It's really very good, if a bit thick. I also really like the 'aged/yellowed' look of the finish on the neck, too. All the controls seem to be properly tightened up, there’s no pickguard buckling up anywhere, and the frets appear to be very well dressed-out with no sharp fret ends sticking out of the edge of the fingerboard. It's all fitted-up remarkably well and looks outstandingly cool with its unique ‘retro’ body shape and fittings.

SX SJM62 Reliability/Durability

I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to play out with this guitar! The hardware seems quite stout, and the finish is definitely sturdy if maybe a tiny bit thick. The strap buttons seem plenty solid to me, as well. This is a perfectly solid and dependable guitar.

SX SJM62 Customer Support

I've heard great things about the customer support from Rondo Music (Please visit the site). Almost every review I’ve read on products sold by Rondo Music have raved about how great their customer service is, though I personally haven’t yet had to call upon it. I do know that they’ll answer your emailed questions in a timely and very friendly manner.

SX SJM62 Overall Rating

If my SX SJM62 guitar were stolen, I'd buy another one without any qualms. I like it that much. In fact, I'm absolutely thrilled with this instrument, and I won't even add the qualifier 'for the price’, because it's really a nice guitar, price notwithstanding. My favorite feature is the P-90-style pickups. Maybe they're not quite what you'd get with genuine Gibson P-90s, but they're as close as any non-Gibson P-90 copies as I've ever heard to the 'real deal'. Playing this guitar is somewhat like playing a Fender, but with Gibson P-90 tone. Overall, I’m really impressed with this guitar's tones and its playability.

There are only a couple of tiny things about this guitar that I would like to see different. The pickup switch would have been better placed somewhere other than right below the ‘heel’ of the neck, in my opinion. I've hit it on several occasions while strumming chords. I’d suggest that it be moved back near the tone & volume controls, or even between them. And I'm not really all that fond of the aesthetics of the cream-colored pickups and knobs against the white pickguard, but I can change any of that easily enough.

So, here’s where the ‘price qualifier’ comes into this play in this review…

At this price point, this guitar gets a very solid ‘10’ from me. I find it head & shoulders above anything else I’ve seen & played in this price range…and then some. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that, in my opinion, this SX SJM62 guitar compares very favorably to ‘name-brand’ guitars at perhaps up to three times the price this one sells for.

For more information please visit Agile Guitars