Rocktile Sphere Junior Electric Guitar 3/4 Sunburst - Return (Condition: Good)

Nice guitar for this price!
Only the strings are not of the best quality,
after tuning they are quickly out of tune again!
But they are easy to replace.
It's a nice guitar for a lot of fun.

Hi there,
I was looking for a 3/4 electric guitar for my 8 year old grandson. Initially, I had a Fender Mini and the Ibanez micro in mind, but then decided for the Rocktile. In the end because it is much cheaper and has good reviews in tests. I thought that I would send it back if we were not satisfied with it. However, I must say that the part surprised me positively. The guitar looks good and high quality. I could not find any serious defects. The neck is straight, the string action was fine. The tremolo lever I have not even mounted, is not for children and would only lead to unnecessary detuning. I adjusted the pickups, in this case turned them up, which was done in 3 minutes with a scalloped screwdriver. I was able to tune it to standard E with no problem, with the strings buzzing slightly. If that bothers you, you can tune it to A, my grandson doesn't care.The guitar now sounds almost like a big one and is really fun.
My grandson is happy! For the price - I got it on sale for 79.-, clear buy recommendation! Best regards!

Let's get it straight from the start: This is not an instrument you can start playing right out of the box! If I wasn't familiar with it (I've been playing for 25 years and own 5 electric guitars), I probably would have sent it back as unplayable. However, after spending almost two hours adjusting the guitar, it now works well enough to be played comfortably and hopefully my daughter will enjoy it.
The criticisms in detail: The mechanics have partly quite a lot of play and make the tuning thereby somewhat difficult, but they then basically hold the tuning. Much more annoying was that some of the tuners were screwed on so crooked that I wonder if the manufacturer has any quality control at all. But the problem could be solved with a wrench and a screwdriver. About the side position: It was absolutely lousy, almost worthy of a lapsteel... So I turned down the tailpiece, corrected the neck curvature a bit (positive: the neck tension rod works well) - and then noticed that the saddle notches on the E and A strings are not filed deep enough. So badly, in fact, that when I reach for the first fret, the extra string stretch almost makes it sound a semitone too high. Luckily I own saddle files and could deepen the notches with them... In the end, of course, the octave purity had to be adjusted - this was even surprisingly accurate.
The positive: The varnish is flawlessly applied, without inclusions or the like and looks pretty cool in matte blue. The frets don't protrude anywhere and are well rounded at the edges, I didn't detect any sharp edges. Also, the frets are well aligned, allowing for a relatively low string action. "Dead spots" were nonexistent on my copy (even when bending).
What else is there to say? The vibrato system: As with all cheap guitars - better not use it, it immediately causes detuning! The sound: The pickups sound clean a bit dull and lifeless, but all in all ok. From slightly distorted to high gain they do everything, even without much noise. Much sustain has the guitar of course not.
A little questionable I find the choice of string gauge from the factory (9s). That is already borderline with the short scale length, if you tune the guitar normally. I'll probably put 10s on there (and have to start the adjustment orgy all over again - grrr).
If the guitar had been set halfway reasonable from the factory, I would have given four stars (price / performance), so it is enough for me but only for three.

My little son really wanted to play the guitar. And not just any guitar, no, of course it had to be an electric guitar. So no sooner said than done, we went to a music store and the salesman recommended an Ibanez 3/4 electric guitar, since he is still under 1.50m tall. However, almost 200,- Euro for a small children's electric guitar was just too much for me, because you don't know if he will stay with it.
After a long search we came across this Rocktile 3/4 electric guitar and were thrilled by the price and ordered it right away. And lo and behold... For our purposes completely sufficient, good sound and good workmanship (I mean, he plays the child size not a lifetime). However, for adults, the electric guitar is apparently not so suitable, for that they are probably just too soft. (is also for children, but as a dad you try it of course times :-) )

You shouldn't expect too much from an electric guitar in this price segment. However, there is hardly any choice when it comes to electric guitars for children under ~12 years of age.

We tested various models for our 9-year-old daughter:

The Fender Squier and Ibanez models failed for us, are really hard to play on or were constantly out of tune.

I can highly recommend the Jackson JS1X for children aged 12 and over, it is very solidly made and has slightly better tuners. In my opinion, it's the best short scale in terms of value for money. However, the guitar was simply too big for our child.

So in the end we chose the Rocktile:

Positive:

+ Passable sound
+ Can be played really well once it is set up correctly


Negative:

- The tuners are the biggest weakness. Tuning the guitar is a bit strenuous, but then the guitar holds its tune very well for 1-2 hours while playing and then only goes slightly out of tune. If you accept that the tuners are a bit tricky and that you always have to retune the guitar slightly before playing, the child can have a lot of fun with the instrument.

- The guitar was very badly set up when it arrived. You should therefore only buy this guitar if you already have some experience with electric guitars or have someone in your circle of friends who can set it up properly.