Hello there! Back again with one of the most real and honest reviews of a great clone strat, SX SST62 electric guitar! I believe I am one of those lucky people that have had the chance to own and play dozens of SX models so I also think I have a lot to talk about about this brand and the clone models they make!
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During my service in the musical instruments industry, I remember having sold dozens of SX SST62, SX SST Alder, SX SST 57, SX STL 50, Ash, SX SST Ash and many other models by SX brand. I’m not saying every instrument they make is perfect but I have never seen such solid Strat and Tele copies in terms of the construction and feel that are close to real ones. Martinic Plugins - Precisely Modeled Vintage Instruments and FX Plugins
On top of that, I have to tell you honestly that SX guitars come with fairly low-quality hardware and electronics as well as low-level quality control. That is one of the reasons that people usually buy SX models to upgrade and modify. I can assure you that almost every single of the same model feels a tad different from the previous one. However, the construction and the feel of SX guitars are unbelievably close to the originals. Since I have had the chance to play many SX models as well as other clone makers such as Jay Turser, Stagg and Squier I suggest you listen to my advice 🙂
In this review, we will be focusing on the SX SST62 Stratocaster model electric guitar that is a pretty accurate clone of a Fender 60’s Stratocaster featuring an alder body with a maple neck and a rosewood fretboard.
SX models are mainly aimed at beginners as they are extremely reasonable-priced instruments, however, as I have mentioned already here I have seen many people buy these models to upgrade and modify them with better components.
I wasn’t a beginner when I decided to buy a clone Strat and had tried almost every single possible Strat copy in my country, from Jay Turser to Stagg, Squier, Cort and many others. But eventually, I went for the SX SST62 model, 60’s Strat clone while being aware of the fact that I would be spending money on this instrument in order to make it function right.
Before we dive into more details about SX SST62 and possible mods you should consider, let’s hear it in action. Note that, this first video is a standard, pretty long and non-biased guitar video review that we used to make regularly and naturally this SX SST62 is not a modded one, stock, out of the box with essential setup!
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SX SST62 Strat Review & Sound Demo (no talking)
I totally remember the moment when I plugged this beautiful Candy Apple Red finish SX SS62 into a Marshall JVM205C valve amp (Recorded with a single Shure SM57 microphone). It was one of the cheapest guitars available and the closest-sounding one to an original Fender Stratocaster. Here you are;
After I had played dozens of strat clones from a variety of manufacturers, I got myself a Lake Placid Blue SX SST62. Since I had already spent lots of time with SX SST62 models that we sold almost every day, I already planned where to start with mods and upgrades. As you can see, this guitar is really close to the 60’s style of Fender Stratocaster model electric guitars.
The original Fender 60’s Stratocasters do not have a truss rod adjustment slot on the headstock, but SX added this to the headstock which is much better because the SX company did try to copy other iconic Stratocasters and Telecasters and didn’t modernize any aspect of the instruments. So you would have to remove the neck completely and adjust it which is not really fun to deal with! 🙂
Another point to mention is that SX SST62s can produce a really crispy and high amount of acoustic sounds and are quite lightweight so this might be taken as a sign of whether this guitar would be worth modifying and upgrading.
Attention to detail with frets was really average. The strings trees? I removed the one for G and D strings since it caused them to stuck, they were really crappy! Tuners? Really bad ones! 🙂 Nut? It was terrible!!!
The bridge was fine and quite resonant due to its being made of metal-looking crappy alloy! 🙂 You wouldn’t want to use the tremolo bar with this bridge combined with those crappy tuners. Electronics were OK and the pickup selector switch was quite stiff but functioning properly. Check out the best guitar pickup company, Seymour Duncan here!
So you might say “Why on earth do you recommend this guitar while mentioning all these average to low-quality components?”
Well, I can not prove this but I have witnessed with my own eyes that every single clone made by a variety of manufacturers comes more or less with the same parts. This means we can omit the low to average-quality hardware from the equation while we are choosing our clone Stratocasters or Telecasters.
When I bought my SX SS62 Stratocaster, I aimed to replace the basic parts first such as the problematic nut, string trees, bridge, tremolo block, tuners and of course, stock strings that were real crap! 🙂
This next video features my SX SST62 LPB with an upgraded Graphtech TUSQ nut and a set of Elixir Nanoweb 12102 (11-49). Note that, the string trees were still there and this gauge of strings was too heavy for a Strat type of guitar so I had to tune down a half-step. Forgive my annoying playing 🙂
SX SST62 Strat Nut Upgrade
Later on, I was lucky to find a spare tremolo block and saddles of a Squier Bullet Stratocaster which was a little bit better than stock ones, I also removed one string tree that causes tuning problems with G and D strings, and switched to Elixir Nanoweb 12052 (10-46) which felt way more comfortable with this guitar. Here’s my full rendition of one of my favourites Yavuz Çetin‘s songs, Fanki Tonki Zonki.
SX SST62 Strat featured in Fanki Tonki Zonki
I kept on using my SX for over 2 years and had to sell it because of too many guitars syndrome 🙂 Here’s my last video with my SX SST62, this time with an actual amp by Behringer GM105 and recorded with a Canon HF R506 camcorder microphone so you can also hear some acoustic attack of this instrument.
SX SST62 featuring in Canon Camera Test
What do you think? I believe this guitar has a crazy value for the money you pay if you are ready to upgrade some of the components. 🙂 Let’s have a look at the tech specs below.
SX SST62 Tech Specs
| Construction | Bolt-On Design |
| Body | Alder |
| Body Design | Stratocaster Style Double Cut |
| Fretboard | Rosewood |
| Neck | Maple |
| Bridge | 6 Screws Tremolo Bridge |
| Pickups | 3 Single Coils |
| Inlay | Dot Inlays |
| Frets | 21 Medium Jumbo Frets |
| Pickup Selector | 5 Way Switch |
| Electronics | Volume/Tone/Tone |
As you can see this is a pretty long-term review that you won’t be able to find on the internet. My first encounter with clone Stratocasters and Telecasters is dated back to 2014. As you can see from the above videos, I also owned this guitar for some time. You might say I’m just recommending every single guitar I tried but you will soon see that this is not true! So stay in touch, please!
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on your clone 60’s style Stratocaster, are also ready to invest in some of the essential components of this guitar and enjoy modifying and upgrading an instrument, SX SST62 is, in my opinion, the best option you can get! Be ready to face construction problems, and low to average-quality components. But as you can from my own videos, this guitar is playable and you can see that it handled my bends pretty well. Music Plugin Deals at Pluginboutique.com
By the way, I have just done some research on available parts to upgrade your SX SST62. Here you can find example products that you can purchase and upgrade your guitar in terms of pickups, electronics, bridges and nuts.
Check out a set of example Strat clone upgrade components here
Graph Tech PT-5010-00
ABM 5050-S Vintage Tremolo
Allparts ST-Style Wiring Kit
Fender Texas Special Strat Set
If you have the chance to try SX models, the first things you should be looking at are the tuners (check if they can function and freely move), the string trees (check if they cause strings to stuck), the body & neck joint (check if there are any cracks on the finish, or deeper cracks exist), electronics (check if all controls and switch works). I’m sure you will like this guitar, especially if you think about how much money you spend on this! 🙂
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Please do not hesitate to ask questions by contacting me please stay in touch! I will be releasing more and more real and honest guitar reviews that you can not find anywhere else on the internet. Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
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