Gretsch packed it well in a cardboard box with styrofoam, so it survived UPS.
Cosmetically perfect, fully bound body and neck (including headstock), shiny in a way that doesn't look cheap, attention to small details. Impeccable!
The 'C' shaped neck is neither too fat nor too thin, it just feels right to me. The back is slippery, I won't need to lightly sand it as I usually do. The shorter scale means frets get kinda tight up the neck, something I'll have to get used to.
Setup great out of the box, just tuned it and played. Low action with no buzz, nut is well cut, TOM bridge has rounded slots and not v-shaped, Bigsby stays in tune.
Plugged in to my Pignose 7100 (best practice amp ever), the pickups sound great, very bright but not piercing (very un-PAF), well balanced between neck and bridge. Even the original strings are decent. The control layout will take some time to get used to, and the potis seem more for minor adjustments than swelling, but are not on/off cheapos, they just work differently.
This will be the first guitar I bring on stage stone stock. This one definitely punches above it's weight. Like a mint 69 Cadillac, just throw some dice on the mirror and gun it.
