2010s Recording King RD-310 Dreadnought Guitar

August 16, 2020

2010s Recording King RD-310 Dreadnought Guitar

This great-sounding Recording King is basically brand new. It came in for consignment with its hang tags on the tuners and cling wrap on the pickguard. All I had to do was set it up and restring it... boom! Away it goes.

I've had ups and downs with various RK products that have come through the shop. Most of them are customer repair jobs or in for setup work and a number were bought new with issues -- bridges in the wrong place, frets wonky, and whatever else. Fortunately, this one is in good order and came from the factory mostly bang-on. Its neck is straight, the truss works, the fretwork is good, and the setup was not too far off.

Now that it's playing spot-on I can appreciate the sound which is -- oh my -- really good. It's loud, punchy, full-sounding, and has a lot of mids to chew on if you're of the flatpicking persuasion. What surprised me most is that these guitars feature Adirondack spruce tops over solid mahogany back and sides. I mean -- really? It's a bit bonkers coming from the vintage perspective that at the street price of these new (~$550-600) one can get all that and have it sound decent, too. Oh, modern world!

Anyhow, it's in good health, shows only the most minor of use (I mean, I can't find anything that I wouldn't find on a new guitar hanging in a showroom), and ready to go.

Setup notes: strings are 54w-12 gauges, action is spot-on fast at 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret, the truss rod works as it should, and the neck is straight.

Scale length: 25 1/4"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 3/16"

Body length: 20"

Lower bout width: 15 5/8"
Waist width: 10 3/4"

Upper bout width: 11 1/2"
Side depth at endpin: 4 7/8"

Top wood: solid Adirondack spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: x-braced

Fretboard: rosewood
Bridge: rosewood

Neck feel: slim C-shape, ~12" board radius
Neck wood: mahogany