I ordered this as I wanted an HSS Strat / Superstrat style kind of guitar with a trem.
I got it after 4 working days (+ weekend), so it arrived 2 days earlier than estimated.
The packaging was ok, but not a single scratch on the guitar and the box was handled well.
Looks:
It's ping. It's satin. It's got a roasted maple neck and roasted flame maple fingerboard. Of course it's going to look stunning.
No scratches or bad finish spots, no dents, very few tooling marks. I haven't found any flaws here.
Setup:
It came well set up out of the box. I might have to do some minor tweaks to have it to my liking, but this is purely subjective. There factory setup is great and I might end up leaving it as is, but there are some minor tweaks that I usually do to all my guitars that I might do on this one as well.
The trem also returns to pitch pretty well after smaller dives. I haven't given it the Van Halen treatment yet, but for lighter use / smaller dives it's close to perfect.
The trem is a bit stiff, but that might just be the springs that needs breaking in or minor adjustments, not a big issue so I haven't dug into it just yet.
Sound:
I've heard complaints about the pickups, but I can't confirm these.
To my ears these pickups sound good. I really, really like them.
The coil split is actually pretty good. It does that strat, bridge single coil pretty well.
Rolls off really well on all pickups as well, especially the bridge. I can go from a pretty rocking 80s hair tone to RHCP just by rolling the volume, it's great!
Overall:
It looks good. It sounds good. It feels great! (That neck is amazing)
I don't have any complaints so far, and I'd wholeheartedly recommend this guitar if you're looking for a cheap option of a HSS superstrat style guitar. This has made me join the "HB punches way above it's price" bandwagon for sure.
