The fretboard does look like Indian rosewood. TBH, I don’t have a very high opinion of the stuff. Not very interesting grain, very ‘dry’ and open pored. Nowhere near as nice as Brazilian rosewood, as used on earlier guitars. This one’s a candidate for a bit of lemon oil. That “whiteness” you can see on the 1st fret is not a flash or other camera effect; it’s really that dry.

The body cavities have been thoroughly sprayed, but I think it’s ply (or else really badly machine-routed alder). If it had been alder or even poplar, I’d have been ecstatic for this price. Ply was what I was realistically expecting. It just shows, though; guitars like “Shine” and Stagg are easily under £100 (better still, Rondo’s “SX” guitars under $100) and have a much better body wood. I like that ’70s/’80s glossy neck, though – and Fender’s headstock trademarking has since muddied the clone waters.

http://i12.ebayimg.com/01/i/04/62/68/96_1_b.JPG

Confound you, Lee 😀 . I’ve seen them black, white, etc, but you know my ‘other’ s/n and could do a little legwork before posting a smartarse response. Or am I being Waspish and crediting you too much?

If I took offence, Lee, we’d never have made this # of posts without open warfare 😀 . Glad you did chop in; that previous sale was swaying me with a ‘free’ Dod pedal that, from reading another thread, is a POS anyway.

These Sunns come up all the time so I waited for an earlier one with a proper headstock, and local. An unexpected bonus was that it was in the hands of a guitar teacher (probably a student trading up that he was offloading) so it was decently setup. Action, intonation etc all very nice (which, with a 6-string, is something less to bother me about). At this price level, no postage and a setup is worth having.

Must say, it’s playing through the WEM Dominator III (all Mullards). OK, I’m sniffing at the cork of the Bollinger ’28, but that thing makes even the Hondo bass sound acceptable (can’t stop it playing like perphooey, though). The SunnStrat has one useless selector position and a vol knob that’ll fall off if you sneeze but that’s OK for under £50. So far, he’s plugged in and switched on 3 times in 2 days (good sign). His ‘song’ is a bit… Stockhausen? but that’s seven-year-olds. Shut all doors! 😀

Well, I have now bought one for Jr. £46, local collect. You’re right, Lee, it sounds NOTHING like a Strat, especially on the “bridge only” select. HST, it’s very playable with a decent action and a nice neck. Some of the parts (tuners and pot-knobs) really are funny, though. Maybe I have a thing for yellowed, glossy maple, but I still think it’s a nicer start than the current Indonesian Squier. We’ve made a start on gorillaz’ “Feel Good Inc” riff. If he keeps it up, then I’ll get him an improvement.

Well, it’s been picked off while I waited for an op and Lee, all you can manage is 🙄 . Well, thanks 😆 . In all serious, though, I’m not going to blat £300 upwards on a kid who might sink me with a git I can’t use. Putting snobbiness aside, has anyone tried out one of the cheaper ends and thought “actually, that’s not a bad guitar”? I’ve got a severe dislike of ply bodies, which is why I stayed off the Sunn (couldn’t be sure – Squier was flirting with ply at that time).