Rocktile Pro L-200OHB Electric Guitar Orange Honey Burst

ordered this guitar as a holiday present for myself, and it arrived after the holidays. it's fine, i understood that there were delays and i knew that my order would be delayed. but this isn't about that.

been looking at this guitar for months, i was quite intrigued about it and wanted to know if the finish was true to what was shown in the pictures. i didn't like the black and gold, but the body color is what attracted me to it. so i ordered it, and waited for it to arrive. was pleasantly surprised when i unboxed the guitar and saw it the first time. i can definitely say that the pictures don't do the guitar justice at all, it looks so much better when you're holding it.

when i unboxed the guitar, i was stunned with the finish, and wanted to immediately tear down all the gold hardware and black plastics and replace them with nickel and cream respectively. what i had in mind is something close to a 59 Les Paul in orange burst like this one (https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Epi-Les-Paul-59-Andertons5-696x523.jpg).

talking about the wood, the body is made of several wood planks on my guitar, topped veneers on both the front and the back and adorned with binding ala LP custom. it is also quite light, but does not seem to be chambered or relieved. it doesn't sound hollow, and it does resonate when you play it. the top is finished in an orange-ish color with a very slight amount of burst, almost unnoticeable. the back, sides and neck are done in a lighter, amber-ish hue. the grain on the guitar is quite visible under the finish. although the flames on the top isn't as clear, it's fine as the finish is still quite superb for me.

the neck is (i think) similar to a 59-60 Les Paul neck profile. not thick and very comfortable to play. the fretboard is quite dry, which needs a bit of oiling to give it some moisture. some of the fret markers on the side of the neck are not centered in between the frets, but that's something minor and does not affect playability. the frets, particularly the ends, are laid down well, i only had to do a very minimal amount of work with the leveling and crowning. i did not encounter any sharp fret ends, which made my work easier.

as i said, i didn't like the gold pickups and gold hardware, i replaced them with nickel ones i had in my spares bin. took out all the black plastics and replaced them with cream ones for the selector switch, pickguard, pickup rings and the jack plate. replaced the black speed knobs with gold top hat knobs, and that was all i needed.

i knew i made the right choice when i finished setting the guitar up. looks-wise, it fit the bill for me. but what about the sound, you ask? since i had to replace the pickups with better ones, it also ended up sounding the way i wanted it to. added push-pull pots to give it coil splitting. the wood was really light but very resonant, so i knew that it'd be quite suitable with what i wanted to play. natural sustain is surprisingly good considering the wood used for a guitar of this price point, which added bonus points for me.

some points to look out for would be the nut and the neck. on this guitar, the nut does not sit flush to the head and the end of the fretboard, and is also a bit too high. the slots aren't the best on this one, so it does require quite a bit of filing down, or a replacement. however, the sides of the nut are lacquered into the finish, so you have to be very careful when replacing it. also, be careful with the head. although it is bonded to the neck via a scarf joint, there is no neck volute that should add extra strength to the joint. neck setups like these are even more prone to breakage than those with volutes, so be careful if you plan to travel with this guitar or if you plan to play it in a live setting like gigs.

overall, i'd say it's a good buy. it's a good platform for modding, the guitar simply asks you to do it. along with quite a superb finish and exceptional tonal characteristics, i'd give it 4 stars. the missing star is for the bad choice of lacquering the nut to the neck finish, and the volute-less neck design. still, great value for the money for anyone interested in getting this guitar.

This guitar is real value for the little money it will cost. The touch and the sound gives a good LP feeling. The instrument only needs slight adjustments. It may be recommended to give harder strings to it , but this definitely depends on the user"s taste and skill. Any such changes must be followed by readjustment of the neck.

I took a little time with my rating, because in my initial enthusiasm I would have easily given it the full star rating. Everything seemed to be perfect: Discounting the holidays, fast shipping that was also well packaged, a reasonable price since the newsletter I subscribe to alerts me to any special offers from Kirstein, and a really, right out of the box, well set up and playable instrument.
The string action, neck curvature, and intonation - everything was right the first time. Even the saddle height, which is poor on most inexpensive guitars, was right, so even the often critical intonation in the lower register on open chords is not objectionable. The tuners hold the tuning well.

A thick minus point nevertheless became painfully apparent to me after some time, in the truest sense of the word: The lengthening and rounding of the fretsticks on my copy is deficient, so that sharp edges left my gripping hand sore. This is actually unusual for a guitar of this type, since the bars should end before the binding. Here I have to rework - and carefully tape the neck, so as not to damage it in the process.

The look of the guitar is fantastic - unfortunately, the pictures at Kirstein only reveal on closer inspection that the guitar has a multi-layer binding on the top AND bottom, so it looks much better in real life than on the pictures. The woods used, however, do not convince me completely, because they seem to me little resonant - which seems to have little or no effect on the sound. The sound is characterized by an excellent sounding neck pickup. It "sings" and allows solos to soften the heart. In contrast, I find the bridge pickup a bit muddy and undifferentiated at high distortion. The output of both PUs is rather "vintage-oriented" low.

Assuming a more vintage-oriented sound, and the really pretty honeyburst color scheme, one naturally wonders about the black plastic parts and the thick knobs. For me, they don't really fit this instrument and its character, which is why I exchanged the knobs (common 8mm Far East diameter of the shaft) for brown hat knobs and the plastic parts for ones in cream - except for the knob cover, for which I couldn't find a suitable replacement part. Now the guitar is a beauty for me! But that is a matter of taste, younger players may like the standard equipment better.

Conclusion: A really well set up guitar, ideal for beginners, which is also a pleasure for advanced players. If I rate the sharp fret ends as an outlier of my copy, it is five stars, but for my copy unfortunately their only four.

Looks good, handy. Is very easy to play.

This is really a good deal, almost hard to believe...(Kirstein Advent Deal for 138.71 €)
The guitar sounds really grown up and is also from the handling hardly distinguishable from a much more expensive of the established brand.
Even dry played it really resonates very well and after I plugged it in the surprise was even greater ...
The workmanship is really good for the price, each of the pickup settings sounds as you would expect from a Paula....
I bought 2 of the guitars at once, one of them was damaged, Kirstein exchanged without any problems....in total.
a really good deal, not only for beginners...in the store a nice employee still optimized the neck curve for me, super....