Recording King RPS-7-TS

Looks:
From afar it's a great looking instrument. The paint job on mine is almost flawless, but on a closer look the painted fretboard markings is not very well done. Some light scratches above the 12th fret on the fretboard.

Playability/materials/parts quality:
Bad factory setup. Very high string action. required tross rod adjustment. Intonation is fully playable. The neck feels good with the satin finish. The fretboard was very dry and rough and not pleasant to play at all. I buffed it up with 1200 sand paper and oiled it up with linseed oil and that made a huge difference. Unfortunately this made the fretboard markings look even worse, but it is worth it in my opinion. No sharp fret edges which is unusual on a cheaper guitar. Factory strings were poor. I put on coated 11-52 with good result. As usual with cheaper instruments the quality of the tuners is not very good. Four of them were flimsy and two were stiff, but it got better after some lubrication. It stays in tune pretty well but I need to tune it at least once a day which is not the case with some of my other guitars.

Sound:
Sounds boxy in a good way. Great for Johnson-style blues and fingerpicking á la Mississippi John Hurt. Big and loud for its size. I chose this one over the solid top model because I wanted something cheap and not having to worry about cracking during the dryer months (I live up north). The solid top model may sound better.

Conclusion: I think that Recording King should have put less effort in appearance and "vibe" and more into playability and parts quality . You can make this a great playing instrument if you don't mind doing your own guitar work. The only thing you might need to replace are the tuners.

This guitar might appeal to new players because of the price and looks, but I would not recommend it as a first instrument since you need some experience to make in enjoyable to play. There are better affordable options that comes properly manufactured and set up and right out of the box.

Köpte denna då jag ville ha en gitarr i parlorformat för att spela i soffan och i trädgården. Denna Single O punktar framförallt med sitt utseende då den är mycket vackrare i verkligheten än vad den är på bilderna.
Efter jag packade upp gitarren märkte jag dock direkt att det kommer att krävas en del jobb innan jag skulle bli nöjd med den.

Mycket vassa bandstavar - behövde slipas
Halsen hade väääldigt mycket back-bow - behövde justeras
Greppbrädan och bryggan var snustorra - behövde oljas in

Efter allt detta gjordes installerade jag även en pickup och bytte strängar.
Nu måste jag säga att jag är väldigt nöjd överlag. Bra "boxy" bluesljud och riktigt trevligt att spela på. Kommer dock garanterat behöver finjusteras ytterligare när gitarren har vant sig lite vid rummets klimat.
Utöver detta har jag inget att klaga på med tanke på priset.

Har du lite erfarenhet av justering och bandslipning så kan jag absolut rekommendera gitarren. Behöver du gå till en luthier för detta kan dert bli dyrt.

Pros
Playable straight out of the box (after tuning) though i would recommend a setup for those who prefer the lowest action possible. This is a lovely bright sounding guitar, especially after changing the strings to elixirs. intonation was spot on all but one string which was slightly out (nothing you'd hear). Really comfortable to play and is surprisingly loud, much louder than my ibanez slim body. Comes with a bone nut and bone compensated saddle. Buy some ebony bridge pins and you have an awesome sounding guitar for a great price.

cons
Tuners are on the cheap side, 2 being stiff but the guitar does stay in tune, i retune mine every 2 days, playing a couple of hours a day. These could be replaced for decent seymors for like 15 bucks. after the 12th fret, the unplayable frets look a bit topsy turvy, nothing a fret rocker and some patience couldn't fix, doesnt cause any fret buzz so maybe im being a bit picky here. a couple of those frets also had a couple of light scratches, you have to really look to find them.

Conclusion
If you're a beginner or you want an inexpensive travel/beater/daily driver, this is a good choice. If it weren't for those minor imperfections I would have rated 5 stars. It really is a great instrument for the price.

The guitar is definitely very good at this price range. It's a small guitar, so don't expect a huge sound, but it's great for just playing on the couch, for taking along in your car when you just want to go and play somewhere and don't want to be afraid of damaging an expensive guitar. It's great for blues style and fingerstyle playing, less so for (hard) strumming. A very good beginner guitar as well.