I have two of these...first was a 'blemish' blue from zZounds...and it was a phenomenal deal as for the life of me, I couldn't find the blemish yet it saved me 50 bucks. Second is the purple one from another vendor (traded a PRS for it...and some cash for parts to upgrade it.)To be clear, this is a very base model guitar with the cheapest parts available in asia. HOWEVER!...The neck and body are fantastic if you are looking for a viable project and a good place to start. (When I say neck, I'm not referring to the fretwork...just the wood, fingerboard, headstock.) As a note, the blue one was made in Indonesia and the purple was made in China...Indonesia was definitely better build quality as the purple had a bunch of issues.NECK/BODY:The neck wood is very stable. It was pretty straight on both out of the box with very little truss rod adjustment necessary. The frets were randomly proud and the ends pokey but a quick level, fret end dressing, and polish fixed that nicely. As a note, the string hold down bars are cheap and the one on the purple was broken. Replaced those with sub 10 USD replacements that are solid steel.The body of the blue one was flawless. The body on the purple had slight cracking at the neck pocket (poor assembly and overtorqued.) I injected wood glue behind the cracks and buffed out the finish cracks...it's rock solid now. The finish on both was quite nice for a sub 400 USD guitar.FLOYD SPECIAL: These are cheap and flimsy. I had a spare Floyd 1000 from a previous… read more guitar that I swapped into the Blue one as well as using Titanium locking blocks and screws. For the purple, I swapped out the saddles for Japanese made stainless saddles which stiffened up that trem nicely. Both have upgraded whammy bars as the bars for the specials are alloy and chintzy. (-2 for spelling.) And Both now have brass blocks.TUNERS;The stock tuners are junk. I've upgraded both to locking tuners (not necessary for a double locking trem but string changes are a ton easier.) Tone Ninja's on the blue and Grover 505's on the other.PICKUPS:The stock pickups are ok if you don't mind the screechy ceramic pickups. I had a tone of spare Duncans so the blue one now has a TB-12 Lynch Screamin' Demon Bridge and the SH-2N Jazz (both black)in the neck. The purple has a TB-78 model in the bridge and the SH-2N Jazz (both zebras).ELECTRONICS:Functional but bargain basement. Upgraded to CTS pots, Pure Tone Output jack, and a Pure Tone 3 way toggle on bothLastly, as with all my guitars, these have Schaller Strap Locks.Moral, yes I've done more than most would need to...but that was what I wanted. Your mileage may vary however if you want to upgrade/mod/build a peronalized guitar, this is a GREAT place to start.

read less