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I personally think that its not where you get the instrument but the quality of the instrument and how it sounds. I personally like Jupiter.

Hey Mr.Dave, thanks for that post... very informative and I will refer back to it when I am setting up my guitars.

I actually just bought a $99 Rondo music strat knock off to practice (setting up) on.

thanks man, nice deal on the rondo too, let me know if it feels much better than a squire hehe. but there's nothing wrong with having a good test subject. breaking a $100 guitar shouldn't exactly make you cry hehe

exactly... for my 30th birthday my family and friends are all chipping in to get me a top of the line Strat :tramp:

anyway, I'll let you know how the Rondo plays... should be here any day now.

nice. now i'm really interested to know how the rondo will compare hehe. i've read more than a few comments about how their guitars are better than gibsons and stuff. i'm not denying that people have said it, just wondering how many of them actually had the option of properly comparing both. picking up a gibson or a fender in the store and playing it for 10 minutes hardly counts as knowing the instrument hehe.

The man that mixes my music has over 30 years experience as a guitar tech/audio engineer and he already bought 2 of the Rondo Strats as well as this guy which he told me totally sounds the part of a quality Gibson (I may be buying this one in the near future as well). I trust this guys judgment which is why I went ahead and bought the Rondo Strat. I played one of his in his studio (for a few minutes) and I was impressed with how it played for such a cheap guitar. He said the only thing to avoid with the Rondo Strats was the ones with a "stop" tail piece and the ones that say "short scale" and always get them with a maple neck as Rondo hasn't gotten the Rosewood necks down as well.

that's a really nice looking hollow body but i can't shake the feeling that something is amiss for the price they're asking. the no name pickups are kind of a concern as well. hollow bodies are notorious for feedback. but if you dig by all means get it. the name on the headstock becomes irrelevant if the sound produced is good. and at rondo's prices you can fill a room full of guitars pretty quickly.

personally i'm hoping to score one of these as my next guitar somehow. Surfcaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

looks sweet... the price ain't too bad either. Get a sam ash card and do the 15 months no interest financing on it, that's a great way to own expensive gear. Some sites allow you to pay in increments without paying interest over 3-5 months... I know American Musical Supply does this, unfortunately they don't have the guitar you want.

it's because they stopped making surfcasters a few years ago hehe :p:

i also never finance anything, especially not guitars. i'd rather save up over a few months or year or whatever and using that time to do research / check other models etc and make sure i'm getting exactly what i want. it's really easy to get trapped in huge debt when you're financing stuff without having to start paying right away. i'd much rather pay cash and own the product 100% outright as soon as i walk out of the store instead of having the guitar in my hands and the cost hanging over me.

at this point i've been eyeballing those surfcasters since last fall hehe. i saw an ibanez talman at a local pawn shop that was remarkably similar, even had the semi-hollow body action but i just couldn't drop the cash at the time (kind of need a job before another guitar...)

Understandable... and smart.

so here is a guitar I am looking at getting.

and here is the guitar being played.

here is a comparison to its Les Paul counterpart

Doesn't sound like $1800 worth of difference to me.