Recording King Series 11

[Goat Mick]

Hey I just stumbled across this guitar on YouTube today and in every video I've seen it sounds dang good. They have a Dreadnought, 000 and 0 model and they're all solid wood. Have any of you got one? I'm thinking it would be a good campfire / shady venue gigging guitar. I get excited when I learn of a good sounding inexpensive guitar.

[Goat Mick]

[llew]

JP Cromier sure likes them...skip ahead to around the 3:00 mark.

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by llew

JP Cromier sure likes them...skip ahead to around the 3:00 mark.

I did see his review and he was obviously impressed. I'm hoping someone that has used one of these for a while will chime in.

[llew]

It seems like another (less expensive) contender in the Martin 17/Waterloo/Beard type guitars. I'm all about an inexpensive good sounding guitar!

[mdshax]

I have one of the 000 Limited Ed Deluxe models, which is similar to the series 11 but with some supposed tweaks to bracing and some different aesthetic choices (tuners, finish, etc.). It obviously has a more limited pallette, much more of a one or two trick pony, but it's very impressive for what it does and for the price. My take is that it's 80% of the Waterloo sound at 20% of the price

[llew]

Originally Posted by Goat Mick

I did see his review and he was obviously impressed. I'm hoping someone that has used one of these for a while will chime in.

Honestly Mick...I don't see how you could go wrong at $459 for either of the three body styles?

[UncleJesse]

I haven't played this particular series but I often wonder if RK Sends the best of the bunch to JP Cormier or Patrik Lundgren. I had a RD328 briefly and I wasn't super impressed with it. Sounded good for for the price but I thought Eastmans ran circles around the Rks. Especially when you look at fit and finish. A mirror to the inside shows RK bracing to be flat on top and it looks unfinished compared to the great scalloping on a Eastman. I know if I were shopping i'd be looking at a second hand Eastman rather than an RK. You can find used E6Ds for around 600-700 bucks.

[robroy]

I’m just another impulsive guitar buyer who purchased the dreadnought version of the 11 Series Recording King based on the reviews I saw here. I am mostly pleased.

It’s a nice looking guitar and I found only minor flaws in the finish that I will attend to one of these days... just some raised grain on the sides that will buff out easily I think.

The guitar is not a loud banjo-killer in the Martin tradition. The tone has a nice even woody quality. To my ears, the fishman pickup does a wonderful job amplifying the sound through my AER amp.

The action came medium-low out of the box. I tuned it to standard dropped two half steps so it’s D standard tuning. I capo to bring it up as needed. I did this because I’m used to Gibson short-scale guitars like my vintage Lg-2 and didn’t want to wear out my hands with the longer scale on this guitar.

Also noteworthy is the light weight of this guitar which makes it so much fun to play. It is currently my favorite. Your mileage may vary but there is a lot to like about this guitar and the price is rather unbelievable.

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by robroy

I’m just another impulsive guitar buyer who purchased the dreadnought version of the 11 Series Recording King based on the reviews I saw here. I am mostly pleased.

It’s a nice looking guitar and I found only minor flaws in the finish that I will attend to one of these days... just some raised grain on the sides that will buff out easily I think.

The guitar is not a loud banjo-killer in the Martin tradition. The tone has a nice even woody quality. To my ears, the fishman pickup does a wonderful job amplifying the sound through my AER amp.

The action came medium-low out of the box. I tuned it to standard dropped two half steps so it’s D standard tuning. I capo to bring it up as needed. I did this because I’m used to Gibson short-scale guitars like my vintage Lg-2 and didn’t want to wear out my hands with the longer scale on this guitar.

Also noteworthy is the light weight of this guitar which makes it so much fun to play. It is currently my favorite. Your mileage may vary but there is a lot to like about this guitar and the price is rather unbelievable.

Thank you for chiming in with your hands on experience. I’m mainly interested in one as a backup for my main stage guitar which is a Martin 000-17. I feel like the RK would be similar in tone and feel and would be one that I wouldn’t worry as much about in questionable venues.

[robroy]

As you’re probably aware they make a 000 size as well in this series. I would not hesitate to gig with mine. I’m looking forward to it !

[MojoFelix]

I bought the 000 version for $300 and have had it for 10 months. It really is very sweet. Very easy to play. Very light. Prettiest of all my acoustics. Not overly loud, but loud enough. Not really comparable to the darker tones of my Martins or Taylor, but I love it's tremenous clarity and articulation. Intonation is noticeably perfect in that it plays in tune all the way up the neck. It is sometimes just fine for me to play it all day and ignore my other guitars.

Laughlin Large Guitar
Martin 000-17sm
Martin OM-16GT
Taylor GS-7
RK ROS-16
RK ROS-11
Ovation Elite
Avalon L-10
Larrivee D-02-12
Art & Lutherie Ami

[Jim Comeaux]

Yes, I have an 11 series Recording King. Yes, I like it very much. I’m not really thrilled with the satin finish, I just prefer a gloss finish, but the construction and materials used are way above what I expected to get for my $450.00. It did need an action adjustment, but I expect any guitar to need that. It is very lightweight and not particularly loud, but it has a good, clear tone. I also have the big brother to that model, the RD-318, which is a D-18 clone that has everything the D-18 has as far as materials, but just falls a bit short on the sound, but either of these two punch well above their weight in performance.