SX SST Floyd
I have been looking at this for awhile now after reading some good reviews. I also noticed that the fret net's own tremoloman had done a nice review a couple of years ago on a Vintage White SX SST Floyd. I sent him PM to see if he still had the SX and what he thought about it now. He said he still had it and told me to "go for it"!
I got this a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.rondomusic.com/sstftowl.html
Right out of the box, I noticed that the overall fit and finish were excellent. There were no finish runs and the neck had a nice vintage tint to it with no sharp fret ends. It had a nice 3-ply pick guard and the switch and knobs felt sturdy. However, it did need some TLC as the rosewood fretboard was DRY, DRY, DRY, and the frets and strings were tarnished. After some care, adjusting the truss rod, changing the strings, and setting up the floyd....this thing is awesome
It sounds great unplugged as the whole body resonates when I play it......I can feel it like an acoustic. Plugged in, the pickups are great. The bridge pup is louder than the singles as expected and it sort of sounds like the bridge pup on the Squire '51 but not quite as bright. I'm sure other pickups would sound better, but the stock ones are fine. You can hear a difference in the sound in each of the 5 positions.
This is my first Floyd, so I have nothing to compare it to. The Floyd that came with it is a "speedloader" type so the ball end of the strings are not cut off, but threaded through a tube at the bridge up to the locking nut and through the tuning pegs. Once I had the right tension between the strings and springs it worked fine. I did have to put some clear finger nail polish on the threads of the trem arm because it kept coming unscrewed. It has been fine since then. Also, the trem arm does have some play in it. It probably would not stand too much abuse. Once the strings stretched out, it stays in tune and the intonation is fine.
The frets are a nice size...not "huge" speed bumps and I was able to get the action to 2/32 on the bass with no fret buzz. It has a flat radius which I like. The neck itself is "chunky", which I knew that about SX necks. It did feel a little different at first, but nothing that I noticed after a few minutes of playing.
Overall, it is definitely worth the $$ :
Now it's time for what you are all really waiting for:
Guitars: Washburn D10S, Washburn J28SDL, Washburn D56SW, Washburn F52SW, Washburn WI67PRO, Squire Standard Strat, Squire Tele Custom II, Squire '51, Agile AL-3100, Switch Wild IV Signature, Squire Classic Vibe 50's Tele
Amps: Vox AD30VT, Epiphone VJ Combo, Crate Palomino V8, Vox DA5
Pedals: Digitech Bad Monkey, Boss Blues Driver, Danelectro: PB&J Delay, Tuna Melt Tremolo, Chicken Salad Vibrato