SX SST 57 Vintage: Full review

[tremoloman***]

SX SST 57 Review

Pros & Cons

Pro: Neck
This is one fast neck! The neck is absolutely gorgeous and is effortless to play. Action is great right out of the box. With its jumbo frets, frictionless neck, and nice contours, the SX has a very high end vibe to it. The neck alone is worth the price of admission and easily surpasses any Squier or MIM Fender I’ve ever played. The frets were a tad rough so I gave them a quick rub of super fine steel wool cleaning them up to a frictionless shine in minutes.

Pro: Body
The alder body is light, solid, and comfortable. The finish is top notch and should hold up well under abuse. As stated previously in regards to the neck, the body is also a cut above any Squier I’ve owned or played. I validated the 6-screw spacing pattern is identical as Fender’s MIM standard series, giving you the option to upgrading the bridge to a Fender MIM bridge plate and Callaham block in the future if you see fit to do so.

Pro: Pickups
These were the biggest surprise to me. From the moment I plugged the SX SST 57 into my Fender Hot Rod DeVille I become conscious I had stumbled upon something extraordinary. These pickups sound magnificent! Yes - I said magnificent! Playing clean, you have “THE” classic Strat sound in all 5 switch positions. If you close your eyes and just listen to its sound you’ll swear this was an American Strat. With all 3 distortions I tried (DOD Death Metal, Digitech Hot Rod, and built-in overdrive) I was able to generate a wide variety of blues and classic rock tones. This is one economy guitar you do not have to upgrade the pickups on! As with most single coils, they do suffer from typical hum but nothing out of the ordinary.

Pro: Electronics
The volume and tone controls have a nice solid feel and failed to crackle or pop no matter how feverishly I tried to do so. I did not remove the pickguard but I’m assuming they are tiny pots similar to those in a previous SX I owned. The 5-way pickup selector is adequate and on par with a MIM Strat. Until any of these parts cause a fuss they are staying put.

Con: Nut
If you utilize bending or use the tremolo in your playing you will have to replace the nut. It is the weakest link in an otherwise satisfying package. I played the guitar for an hour and was unable to keep it in tune due to the stickiness of the nut. Removing the strings revealed just how poorly the nut had been performing. Every string I slid through its groove stuck like glue! After close to an hour of filing and polishing I came to the conclusion that nothing in the world can save it. I had a spare pre-cut Graph Tech Nut lying around and installed it along with a new set of Elixir .010 strings. Tuning stability and sound were vastly improved for the cost of a $10 nut.

Con: Tuners
As one may suspect, the tuners are crap. The chrome has already begun peeling off of one of knobs and I almost suffered a stab wound while tuning the guitar. These will do the trick for the casual strummer, but if you play the snot out of your axe as I do you may need to replace them. The string trees are the large “T” style and are also a source of string friction. I suggest upgrading the string trees to modern Fender style trees to reduce resistance and will surely assist in improving tuning stability. They only cost $6 for a pair and would be well worth the investment.

Con: Bridge
The bridge is astonishingly durable as is the tremolo arm itself. As setup in stock trim, the guitar has the bridge set flush to the body. If you are a hardtail fan, you’re all set! However, if you use the tremolo as much as I do you will notice the springs rub against the body cavity using minimal force. It can be used as is but you will hear audible spring sounds similar to a squeaky old bed unless you file down the bridge cavity a bit. 10 minutes with a file should correct this minor hindrance. I will be performing this modification shortly and add my results to this review in the near future.

Other notes
The tremolo block appears to be made of zinc similar to pre-2006 MIM Strats but a bit thicker in comparison. I put each block side by side and confirmed the SX block is shorter in length than Fender’s version, thus being the obvious culprit to the spring binding. It’s nothing major but I thought I should mention it. I upgraded my 6 bridge screws to Callaham hardened steel models while I had the bridge off which resulted in improved bridge movement and a slightly thicker tone due to the additional length and mass of the new screws. The new screws slightly poked through the spring cavity but not enough to cause any problems or concerns.

My Overall rating: 9.5 / 10

For the insanely low price of $99.99 @ Rondo's Music, the SX SST 57 is without doubt the deal of the century! The SX provides an equal and arguably higher quality than a Squier yet possesses the true Fender Stratocaster sound. Even left in stock trim the guitar is playable for most people – just don’t plan on using the tremolo or performing big bends unless you plan on addressing the nut and possibly the spring cavity as mentioned above. These minor concerns are the only thing holding back a perfect “10” score.

I plan on purchasing 2 more SST 57’s for practicing and to use as backups for live performances. I’d rather bring two $99 guitars to a gig as backups rather than a $1000 Strat. The SST 57 would also make a great guitar for modders, so put down those Squier ‘51s and give this puppy a try! You could easily utilize the body, neck, or pickups to upgrade another guitar – but once you try the SST 57 and appreciate how tremendous it is on its own merits I’m sure you will opt not to part out this great axe.

Tremoloman
6/28/2006


NOTE:
The new nut solved all the tuning issues so newer string trees aren't really necessary. The binding with the springs also has been resolved by filing for just a couple of minutes.