I bought this after sending back to Thomann a Regal RD40vs. A really badly made guitar. I reviewed the Regal too so you can check out that to see what its faults were on it's product page.
This Recording King, although costing a lot less money is a far better made and better sounding instrument, IMO. It is not faultless, so I'll deal with what's wrong first. The instrument I received has noticeable laquer bloom in the clear-coat, indicative that it was most likely sprayed on a cold, damp day, so I suspect they don't exactly have modern factory conditions. I have kept the guitar because it does not detract from the sound at all, but I'm highlighting the issue as it might be a concern for another buyer.
It needed setup work on arrival... but that could be due to clumsy handling by the carriers.
Once stripped down, I could see this guitar has a level rebate for the cone to rest on and that matters a lot in terms of tone and volume. Alignment was good too. It has a very decent sounding cone, a well-fitting spider, nice ebony-tipped saddles and very good Grover tuners. The nut was properly cut and made of decent quality bone. The tailpiece is heavy gauge and properly fitted. The fitted d'Addario strings were in poor condition though... the G string was not even from the same set. I prefer GHS Cryo 17-56 on squareneck dobros and, turns out they really got the cone working well on this guitar.
The neck angle is correct and enables a nice action with fine tone and playability once the saddles were adjusted and the tension screw set.
Tonally, this Recording King is really nice - plenty of power and rather an 'old school' tonality with loads of richness, and the sound is consistent all over the neck - it doesn't 'thin out'. One reviewer said they didn't like the cone... I can't agree with that, I did a direct comparison with a QD-1 Quarterman and the Recording King cone compared very well for tone and power.
Bottom line... Once properly set up, it is a way better guitar than it should be at this price. Highly Recommended.
