Recording King RO-328 All Solid 000

I bought this model first from a Romanian website. It sounded terrific, and everything was right with the guitar. By that I mean no buzzing noises, great action, grover tuners, etc. HOWEVER! It had a huge flaw that luckily enough I managed to see when I wanted to upgrade the bridge pins -> there was another set of holes drilled faultily RIGHT NEXT to the final ones. I had no choice but to return it and it was such a letdown, because the guitar itself was incredible.

Now the proper review. After returning that RO-328, I bought one from here, on thomann. At arrival it had it's end pin (the one for the strap) fallen out. Ok...no big deal, could've been a transport issue, or maybe in the factory they made the hole too large. Easy fix however, I just wrapped paper tape around it and pushed it back in. Good.

Sound test: It doesn't sound as good as the other one I had to return. It does have a similar volume, but the low notes sound too subdued, and the highs are too strong. Still, the sound isn't too bad, if not for what I'm about to get into right now...
There is a strange buzzing noise coming from the saddle itself when I fret down on the 3rd fret. I loosened the truss rod and there is ample neck relief, so it CANNOT be from the action. I know this. I've been playing guitar for 10+ years and owned, bought, sold several different ones. On each I did my own basic maintenance, and I can tell 100% the buzzing comes from the saddle. (Or is it from the bridge?). It is such an annoying problem that I can honestly say I'm VERY dissappointed with Recording King. Or maybe I'm the most unlucky buyer, I have no clue.

ANOTHER THING: The tuner heads on this model (despite being an RO-328 like the previous one) ARE NOT STA-TITE GROVERS! They are cheap no-name butterbean copies, and you could tell when you tune, or even worse when you detune. You can feel how the gears skip, very cheap AWFUL feel on the tuners when you detune....
On guitar forums some say that a loose tuner peg-head could also be the cause, therefore I ordered a set of ORIGINAL grover sta-tites IN THE HOPES of making this guitar A PROPER instrument, NOT A FAILURE.

If even that doesn't work, then I might try to send this to a luthier, and tell them to do some kind of magic, otherwise I'd rate this even lower.

Nobody should go thrugh so many hoops to make a guitar sound properly, or to find so many stupid mistakes. Especially when you go over the 500 Euro range. I had cheap Epiphones that weren't even CLOSE to these many problems as on the RO-328.

VERY very dissappointed.

Great guitar for the money. Plays well and was pretty well set up from the factory. And it really came straight from the factory. There was saw dust on the guitar and you could, and still can, smell the glue. There?s some glue that has been spuilt inside the guitar but that doesn?t bother me. But I think the lacquer is too thick and that it would sound better with a different finish or thinner lacquer. I?ve changed strings to elexir 13-56 pb which are the strings i prefer these days. They make the guitar sound good. I mostley strum, play bluegrass and fiddle tunes. I wanted a small body guitar that sounded big and it really does, but I found that in a jam session with lots of different instruments i prefer a dreadnought. But it?s great for smaller jams and playing at home. Also it?s hard to put it down and it wants to be played. That?s always a good sign. Bought it in august 2020 and play it pretty much every day. I think it will be hard to get a better guitar for the money you spend on this guitar.

The guitar has exceeded my expectations. All solid wood and extremly resonant body have a nice and balanced sound for fingerstyle or strumming as an OOO shape guitar should have.
Finish and all the detail are flawless, no sharp edges on the frets or fretborad. The guitar was already set up pretty well from the factory and action is resonably low (2.8mm low E and 2.5mm high E).
While the neck's sharp V shape took some getting used to, it quickly became comfortable and easy to play specialy for ''thumb over top'' style of playing.
Cons: No gigbag included and no pickup (which is also written in the description), factory strings needs replacing ASAP!
The only serious drawback for me is that it only has one strap button making it hard to mount a standard straps. You need to add another strapbutton or to tie a strap on the headstock.
Considering its affordable price, all solid wood, aged sitka top and real rosewood fretboard, I am extremely satisfied with this purchase and highly recommend it! It could easily stand up to any 5x priced Martin.
Thomann service of course amaizing as always!