I'll give it a 9 overall... The setup is truely horrible... loose pickup... but the fact is the neck's straighter, the sound is better stock, and it stays in tune better than a guitar I paid alot more for. The blue finish is pretty sharp if you like that sort of thing. The price is pretty amazing for what you get.

Sound
Just received the guitar today. Still needs quite a bit of setup (see quality), but so far the stock pickups are sounding pretty good. Just as good if not better than the stock pickups on much pricier guitars. No "squealing". I like the overall tone of the instrument. Not too bright sounding on the higher notes, but certainly not muffled or muddy. The Floyd Rose is keeping the guitar in tune very well. A tuned guitar always sounds better than an out of tune one that's more expensive!!!

Features
Has everything you need for heavier styles of music. Dual humbuckers, 3-way switch, Floyd Rose with locking nut... Got the topaz blue. None of the photos I've seen on the net do this guitar any justice at all. Looks almost navy blue at some angles. Brighter straight on, with more metallic showing in bright light. Nice gloss. Headstock is gloss black on the front and more nicely shaped than the one shown in the photo. I actually like it alot, and I wasn't sure I would. Glad I didn't get the boring black.

Ease of Use
Love the neck. A smidge chunkier than the one on my ESP.… read more Jumbo frets. Feels real good so far. Neck is arrow-straight. Can get harmonics anywhere on the neck. Can tell that after a good setup this guitar will play like butter.

Quality
Have to give it a lower mark here. On the good side... Every part of this guitar seems to be of much higher quality than you'd expect for the price. The neck, pickups, Floyd Rose, and electronics all seem excellent. The finish is nicer than I expected and has no flaws. If you look closely, you can see where different parts of the body were joined. No big deal on a $200.00 guitar though. On the bad side... Bridge pickup is just flopping around in there. Don't know yet if they just adjusted it past the end of the screws, or if there's something missing. Absolutely no attention paid to setup at all. When I brought the strings up to pitch, the bridge came up VERY high. Terrible action... Guitar was made in Indonesia and I guess what I've heard about Indonesian guitars is true to some extent. Going to have to remove the strings and see what the deal is with the bridge pickup. Floyd Rose is so far out of whack it will take a pro a good while to get it perfect. I'm probably not even going to try it myself. They should have just sold this guitar in kit form to save the buyer the trouble of taking it apart before reassembling it!!! Was a little surprised at this considering all the good reviews I've seen for this guitar. Is the blue model possibly made at a different location and that's why it's selling for less? Don't know... Guess if so, the $30.00 I saved by getting the blue one will go a long way towards getting a pro setup so I can't complain too much.

Value
After a good setup... I do believe the sound, tuning stability, and playability, will be WAY better than what you can get for the money elsewhere. Minus a point for REALLY needing a setup.

Manufacturer Support
N/A

Musical Background:
Hobbyist

Musical Style:
Alternative read less