Rocktile Sidewinder MG-3012 Electric Guitar

Although I usually play ESP, LTD, Ibanez & fender, after watching YouTube videos, I decided to purchase a cheap out the box guitar. This guitar has a great feel although quite heavy, it’s worth it just for the ‘Floyd Rose’. The neck and bridge humbuckers are ok quality, no adverse feed back on high gain. Only problem with this guitar was that the fret wire hadn’t been sanded along either side and so I took some ‘middle road’ wet/dry sand paper and run it up and down the fretboard a couple of times and it was perfect. Once tuned and locked off- using the Floyd rose does not adversely effe t the strings and so far, after a week and a lot of jamming, it’s kept in tune pretty well. Overall it’s a good ‘bang for ya buck’ and you won’t be upset with its smooth performance. Came with a cheap lead and Allen keys etc.

First impressions out of the box were that of a fairly handsome appearance in its red metallic finish, with the neck fitting fairly snugly in its pocket. On inspecting the neck finish I came to the first mild disappointment, as it was quite rough, as if it had been sanded but not buffed afterward, however this did not stop this neck feeling slim and quite comfortable. I will probably apply a few coats of satin polyurethane and buff it to a nice satin sheen, but then I did buy it as a test bed for customisation, and you should not feel you need to do the same. On starting to play the guitar, I found that the factory action was much too high, but a few minutes with one of the supplied Allen keys soon rectified this, and I was able to achieve a quite low action with no apparent fret choking. The fretwork was fairly well installed and I did not encounter any sharp edges, which is better than some more expensive makes of guitars who will go unnamed. The next mild disappointment was with the tremolo unit, where I struggled to get some of the fine tuners to turn in their threads. I experimented with moving the really tight ones into different string positions, and finally got them all to work, albeit some still very stiffly, and I suspect the judicious use of some wd40 may well be in order here. Otherwise the unit seemed to function adequately, but I would recommend an upgrade to a better quality unit in the future. The locking nut was fine in operation but was slightly too wide for the neck, but this is really a very little niggle, and should not put you off! On plugging in, the clean sounds were usable, if not overly inspiring, but this guitar is all about rock, and switching over to the dirt channel yielded some very usable tones, although both pickups lacked some definition in the lower midrange and the low end. Again I would recommend a pickup upgrade in the future(I am commencing an immediate upgrade with a pair of iron gear hum buckets, but then I like my dirt really dirty). The electronics worked perfectly with no apparent issues. The real icing on the cake for this guitar was the metallic red finish on the body which has been very well applied and buffed to a high sheen, and it is clear that most of the attention to detail has been focused here! Aside from the minor niggles mentioned earlier, and especially considering the price, which is lower than i would have expected, I would recommend this guitar as a good alternative to a real iceman, particularly if you are on a budget. If you factor in the upgrades, it should make for a very gig gable and flashy rock axe! Nuff said!Paul Caeiro

THIS INSTRUMENT LOOKS EVEN BETTER IN THE FLESH.THE FINISH IS EXCELLENT, THE FRET POLISH IS GOOD (NO SHARP ENDS) AND THE BASIC SETUP OK.IF YOU HAVEN`T TUNED A FLOYD ROSE BEFORE GOTO YOU TUBE -THERE ARE GREAT VIDS THERE.THE GUITAR PERFORMS VERY WELL AGAINST MORE EXPENSIVE MAKES (I HAVE SEVERAL SQUIERS, A DEAN,AN IBANEZ AS WELL AS OTHER BUDGET GUITARS) IT SITS ON THE KNEE COMFORTABLY AND RIDES WELL ON A STRAP.SOUNDS GREAT-SO WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT AT THIS PRICE?

Bit on cheap finish & low quality not setup & inferior machine heads keep slipping . Suppose built to budget I won't be buying this manufacturer again . Very noisy on electrics no shielding internally . Ok for practice but no way anyone could use to gig without rebuilding & rewiring very disappointed . Sorry but that's my opinion

Bought this 4 my boyfriend 4 christmas and he absolutely loves it

Very disappointed