Great talking with you yesterday at Sullivan, Illinois. I love my new Recording King mandolin. I've never played anything that plays or sounds better. You played soooo good yesterday. (I was the old, old guy with the beard)
This guitar is in my short list for my next dreadnaught. Very useful insights from a first rate musician. Glad to know it warms up over time. Recording King. Alvarez Laureate, Blueridge and Eastman all offer appealing options in this general price range. Glad it seems to be defect free- QC is not always a given.
i have one as well, took a couple tries to get the right one, some quality issues with some of them in early builds of the 342. but the one i have now is perfect. the only thing i noted was the position of the pickguard, should be lowered to expose the rosette inlay all around, not sure why they covered that beautiful inlay on soundhole. I have a ton of acoustics as well as a couple other RKs ( 318/328) but RK got it right with this one, plays as nice and sounds as nice as my 6k martin. The v is quite heavy on it so not for everyone but i can play any neck so wasnt an issue for me. These are exceptional guitars and well worth way more than selling price, just a word of caution to others as many have noted they did have some quality issues early on, which were rectified.
Hi Adam. I just got one of these awesome guitars. I’m going to go with a couple of your mods. The pins and pickguard are easy. What did you use for tuning machines? Did they drop in or require fitting?
How much more low and mids in the 42 compared to the 28. Was thinking of buying RD-328 but is it worth to just get the the best model. Like the sound of a Martin D28 and thinking the best Recording king has a chance to come closer to a Martin sound :)
Sounds awesome. I have a bunch of recording kings and love most of them. In my opinion one of the best bangs for the buck. I have a couple that are laminated back and sides that sound better than some of the solids.
I would like to install gold tuning machines on my new RD-342. Does anyone know if these will work without major modification? GROVER STA-TITE™ WITH 18:1 GEAR RATIO (97-18 SERIES)
I wonder the same thing, unfortunately the two guitars are impossible to find in a store to try them out and get an idea, they can only be found online
I love these guitars but the V neck was giving me a bone spur on the inside of my lower thumb. Unfortunately I had to return the guitar for that reason. Otherwise love their guitars. 😢
I love the recording king quality and price point but just can’t play the V shape necks, hurts the inside of my thumb. I’ve had both the RD318 and RD328 bought them both at the same time. Didn’t take long to determine the unplayability of the neck (for me). I have a 45 year old Yairi with the best neck profile I’ve ever played. Just can’t get away from it. I have 5 guitars and the Yairi beats them all.
Just bought a 318 a few weeks ago and was hesitant with the neck. Now I like it over the C shapes my other guitars have. I just use it as a guide to slide my thumb up/down on without too much pressure. I can see it jamming up the thumb joint though.
I don't know, I'm just the opposite. Thought I would hate that neck but I love it now. I have a lot of other acoustics with different style necks but I prefer this one over all of them!
I purchased an RD-328 from Sweetwater. I chose the RD328 because I prefer a 1-11/16" nut over the RD-342's 1-3/4". Yeah, 1/16" sounds like a ridiculous small difference in width but it creates a totally different finger feel. :) Both are very impressive guitars for the price.
