Wow, after digging around on their site, they have what seems like some gems. This one is a single piece mahogany body with a set neck for less than $500. I may need to try one, must check return policy.
ETA: Dang, they make neck-thru guitars, too. Squeegee may have been on to something when he called them Hondo.
Well, best of luck with the new guitar, and congratulations in advance. Let us know how you like it!
Yeah, most guitars are made in other countries now. From what I can tell, the pricy models are still made in America, but that’s it. They’re making so many guitars, with enough companies buying them, that they’re bound to got reasonably good at it eventually. If they’re equipment is up to the tolerances, and they’re give-a-fuck is high enough, we should be able to get decent furniture, even if the hardware needs swapping.
I’m figuring on the nut and tuners being the first things replaced - I’m just hoping I can get a couple months out of it first.
Don’t have a delivery date yet, but already getting antsy. Guess I’ll set up the room, find a spot for the amp.
Well, today is my first day with EVERYTHING - it arrived in shifts. The Fender Mustang I (v1) amp first, then the Rondo SX Hawk next, then the Snark SN-2 tuner, 1/4" cord, strings, springs, and picks.
Guitar is as nice-looking and well-put together as I could expect for $129.99, probably much more. Of course I have no background to draw upon, but the neck seems tight and the finish nice, if you like it thick & glossy (works for me). Neck has a thick finish as well, and so I don’t think it would be what people characterize as “fast”. Certainly not a concern for me at this point, and that can be addressed later when I’m ready to cut heads with Vai. The skunk stripe does NOT appear to be paint as I thought it would be, but rather a darker wood. Probably the special “rosewood reinforcement” they alluded to on the website. One tiny imperfection on the fretboard binding, perhaps related to fret finishing. Frets aren’t noticeably sharp, nor do they protrude. There’s a chunk of finish missing on the very end of the headstock, about a 1/4" x 1/4" patch on the top front. Viewing the delivery log online, the guitar had about 5 different stops, so I guess that’s 5x in a truck, 5x out of a truck. Ouch. No other dents or dings of any sort, and the neck, headstock and where it joins the body seems fine - I was concerned as I thought the ding might have been caused by a drop on the head.
Had to tune it, and that little Snark gadget was slick. Very easy, verging on fun. Add pretty lights to spice up some drudgery and you’ve got a video game! Tuners didn’t give me an issue. I tuned it, farted around with it, stretched the strings and such, checked the tuning again, and all the strings were still in tune. Did some of Justin Sandercoe’s Youtube lessons, it was in tune afterwards. The tremolo arm is not attached, though I did put it in and try it out prior to tuning. I’ll leave it off until such time that I need it.
The amp will more than do for practice and screwing around. If I knew how to play, it would be a blast messing with the settings. For practice, I picked the cleanest preset and went with it. When I can hit the strings I want and miss the ones I don’t (or I have some free time and I’m bored, whichever comes first), I’ll see if there’s a cleaner preset I can DL so I can hear exactly everything I’m doing.
FAT FINGERS!
Sandercoe is showing his way to play an A chord, and I may ignore it and use another. My fingers don’t go that way - might have to do with a broken finger from my youth. One of the ways he said others do it seems to work, if I can keep from muting the high-E string. Basically, everything I’m doing is suffixed by “if I can keep from muting the high-E string.” I’ll try it his way some more, as I don’t want to give up on that too fast. Might find it’s easier to do when I fix my “if I can keep from muting the high-E string” issue. Hand position and whatnot. They make 3/4 scale guitars, they should make a 5/4th’s scale one.
So, my first day with all my crap was pretty cool. Thanks again to all who gave me a hand in this!
I have a strat named Mary Ann. WordMan knows why.
Still no closer to a name, but I’m just getting to know it. Not too many women from my past that I want to think of on a daily basis. Might go abstract or fantasy.
I’ll have to check out the link to those youtube lessons. I’ve been working from a book and have hit a bit of a plateau. (Or rut, if you prefer.)
“Print is dead.” - Dr. Egon Spengler
I think the audio/video approach offers a lot to the learning process. Hope you have some friends to practice with as well. I wouldn’t know from experience, but it seems like hanging out and jamming with friends would be a great way to learn new things and gain new perspectives.
Congrats on the new guitar, FILB!
Do you mean the finish on the fingerboard, or on the back of the neck? In either case, I don’t think that makes a neck fast or not, which is usually about the shape/width/etc - topology - of the neck, rather than the finish. Some folk do like a ‘satin’ finish on the back of the neck for grippiness, and use steel wool to satinize the back of glossy necks.
This wood inlay is also seen on genuine Fender necks, and I think it’s there from when they installed the truss rod. Someone had to route out the core of the neck to install the truss rod, then repair that route with something, so they used a contrasting wood inlay. My guess is that this contrasting wood was picked for esthetics more than strength, but I’m not a luthier so who knows?
Don’t sweat the A chord high-e for now; you’ll get there. Try to learn all the open chords (E, A, D, G, C, F) and when you have them all, practice switching from one to the other. There’s a bunch of songs that are available when you can do that. (Back in Black: open E/D/A - yada - E/D/A, etc).
How does the guitar sound through your new amp?
In my years (more than I care to admit) as a guitar player and as an intermittent teacher, there’s a couple things I’ve learned about teaching/learning to play guitar. The meta-lesson is this: There are 3 kinds of people in the world. 1) Those who’ve never picked up a guitar. 2) Those who “used to take lessons”, and 3) those who play the guitar. And what puts most people in category 2 are two things… trying to learn on a cheap nylon string acoustic and the basic F major chord.
So, what I generally do is try to put off teaching the F chord and build up their chord vocabulary with E,A,D,G,C and some minor and 7th versions before I lay the F on them. I figure once they’ve invested the time and effort on learning those chords, they won’t get discouraged when the F doesn’t come easily. And yes, the muted high E in the A major chord is bothersome. Stick with it and you’ll get it. Learn the 3 finger version. Take enough time and you’ll get it.
Thanks! Both actually, but I meant the back. I’ve been reading a ton of guitar message boards, which are often as entertaining as informative. 
As you said, people sometimes complain about the finish grabbing their hands as they slide up and down. I’ve read where some go so far as to sand down to the wood. I’m not really worried about such things, but felt I should describe it. It’s really quite a thick finish, but not in a lumpy or runny way. It’s very smooth & polished.
Yup. I wouldn’t have thought to use rosewood to reinforce a maple neck. Never thought of it as particularly strong, just hard and attractive. High crushing and high bending strength, though, so I guess it’s pretty well-suited to that job.
Some of the low-end models I’ve been looking at, like the Squier Bullet(some of them, it varies with manufacturing locale), had no skunk stripe (probably put the truss rod in from above and hid the work under the fretboard) while other makes had a fake, painted stripe. Kind of weird that they didn’t just go in from above on mine - it has a separate maple top and binding, even though (minus the rosewood) it’s an all-maple neck. Like you said, they probably think it looks cooler with the rosewood. It does 
Oh geez, I’m no judge of this, but it sounds great to me. If I don’t like it, I switch pickups, play with the tone knobs, try a different preset. Sounds like a hundred freakin’ different guitars! I like the relatively clean setting I used today, and the amp’s more than loud enough for what I need. I can’t wait to learn something so I can have some fun with it. Crank it, string some chords together and irritate the neighbors for a bit 
BTW, they just remodeled a Hastings store nearby and they had a grand re-re-reopening. I’ve lost track of how many times they’ve done that. I went in to poke around, as they used to carry strings and such, and I figured I’d get a local source lined up in advance. They had strings and a bunch of other things: electronic tuners, capos, picks, stands, straps, etc. I picked up a cheap strap, and saw they had a single Bullet there: an HSS Bullet - my precioussssss. Assuming nothing very bad pops up in the near future, I’m glad I got the Rondo instead. Looks better, seems more substantial. I think it’s the extra inch of finish they layered on. Gives it that heavy, stately ‘encased in Lucite’ look.
Thanks for the encouragement. I had a very limited budget, but I THINK I’ve got good enough gear that it won’t discourage me. That was a concern of mine: I didn’t want to totally half-ass it, get dirt-cheap crap that was “good enough, because, I might not stick with it.” Going in that way was just going to increase the odds of failure. I’ll remember your warning about the F major chord, and I’m surprised to learn that the high-E muting on the A chord was a thing. Thought that was just me being me.
Well, my education continues apace!
Yes I do! Love it. One man’s Ginger is another man’s Mary Ann, as I always way 
FILB - congrats, I stumbled across Justin Sandercoe’s vid’s yesterday for the first time - funny. I am looking at his jazz chord voicings and II-V-I changes - he’s very good; I am going to give it a week and figure out how much to donate - he does a great job.
As for the rest - all good. The other posters have most of it covered. Polyurethane finish can be thick and sticky. Play it for a couple of weeks and see how your hands affect it. Folks can have dry hands or acidic sweat - as you play it, you will get a sense for whether the feel gets better or worse/grippy.
My intro tips are: do whatever keeps you feeling good about playing. Also, I recommend that you pick up a few “circular riffs” - e.g., What I Like About You which is E A D A, and La Bamba, which is D G A G. Play your guitar UNPLUGGED while watching a sporting event or something like it on TV. Play the riff and try to feel the GROOVE - do NOT worry about precise fingering - no one can hear you or cares. Heck, play the groove on one string for a while and feel the groove of the riff that way…
Best of luck!
Personally, I couldn’t make a proper F major chord until I bought my current steel string acoustic after playing electric for at least 15 years. Previous to that, I had learned a barre (E major form) chord really well, and would just slide that down to the first fret. I still do that chord unless for some reason I want a finger free.
For A major, my first finger bends just right, and I can lay it across the D,G and B strings while still lifting my knuckle over the E. I have small hands, but stubby fingertips. Laying the finger across those three strings is way easier for me than trying to cram three fingertips on adjacent strings all on one fret. I do it with my ring finger too, in an A major barre chord.
Now, I was a bass player before I was really a guitarist, and doing a barre chord requires some strength for a new player. Also, my problem is fat fingertips, not big hands. YMMV.
And I’m glad you like it! After becoming aware of them, I couldn’t resist getting one myself, I picked a Furrian (tele copy) with a p-90 copy in the bridge. It’s out for delivery today! I plan to plug it in and play it as soon as I get some heavier strings on it. If I get the chance and the courage, I’ll post a recording of it this afternoon :).
I refer to the index-finger-only fingering for A to be “Cheater’s A” - who cares about whether the High E sounds 
The way to get started with that chord is to play that chord and only focus on the A, D and G strings - heck, only the A and D strings at the beginning. If your index finger can fret the D, you are fine. Play the Open A and the fretted D - then reach with your middle finger and fret the E string on the 3rd string - that’s the note G. Then either lift off your middle finger and play the Open E string - or, if you are feeling sassy ;), use your middle finger to do a pull off - fret at the 3rd fret and as you release, do so adding a little pluck with your middle finger so the open E sounds when you pull the finger way.
That progression - Cheater’s A, to G to E should sound very, very familiar as part of a ton of rock and blues.
Most guitar work focuses on groups of strings - strumming all 6 is merely one approach. Playing partial chords like Cheater’s A - and learning cool riffs that use it, like Hootchie Coochie Man, Sweet Emotion and so many others is a lot better than worrying about whether the high E string sounds…
Hope this helps.
FILB, I don’t criticize your choice of starter instrument at all. You need something playable and not all starters are very playable. But as much fun as all the accessories and potential modifications can be, I recommend you try to ignore that for the next long while and learn to play the thing. I strongly recommend you get a chord book. Yes, you can find chord charts online, but you can carry a book around in your guitar case.
The challenge with the starter F chord is that it’s the first of the Barre chords (you’re holding more than 1 string down with 1 finger). Gm is another one. Avoid them for now. But the thing is, if you’re going to advance from someone who took lessons to a player, eventually you’ll want to master the single barre chord (off an E position) and the double barre (off the A). But don’t rush into them. Start with the 3 major chords in a given key (key of A: A, D, E or key of G: G, C, D) and practice them individually and changing chords. A simple exercise is just start tapping your foot on a nice moderate 4/4 tempo, strum down on each down beat, and change chords each measure.
Oh, be prepared, your fingers are going to hurt in places they’ve never hurt before. You’ll develop calluses on the tips, and the muscles in your fingers will get used to being used as they haven’t before. Every now and then I still get a cramp in my thumb from playing barre chords.
I think what you mean here is barre chords in general, not F particularly. And if so, I agree: barre chords are a tough nut to crack for most players, and some never get past it. And a barred F is asolutely the toughest barre to play. I think Face would be well advised to steer clear of them for now.
That said, you can play a cheater version of that chord by dropping the bass note, and it’s not that difficult to finger. It’s very similar to an open C.
Here’s the barred version: 133211 - oh the pain!
And the cheater F: x33211 - ok, a bit complex, but doable.
Which fingers similar to open C: x32010
No, I was talking about the beginner’s F, xx3211. That’s the one that stops a lot of beginners. And they should learn that way before they start on single barres (133211, which is much easier to play on the 5th fret or so) and the double barres (113331) using just the index and ring fingers.
By the way, that’s an interesting nomenclature I’ve never seen before. But it communicated your thought to me, so no complaints from me.
That’s the thing about necks – they’re as personal as your toothbrush. As your girlfriend. People obsess about them – the proper shape, the width at the nut, the fingerboard material, and yes, the finish. Ignore it all for now; none of these things will hinder your learning, and if you keep going at some point you’ll try other guitars and find what your proper neck preference is.
Huh, really? Color me surprised – it’s 3 fingers! Maybe it’s been too long since I learned for me to grasp the difficulty.
It’s used a lot on the tab sites, example. It’s easier than drawing grid boxed chords in a monospaced font, which you can do like this:
A
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or this:
A
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but it’s a PITA, IMO.