I've waited to drop this review because I wanted a true hands on experience before I shot my mouth off.First impression, it was just gorgeous. The pictures cannot do it justice. I hear from photographers constantly that they love shooting my Sterling for the color grades and how deep it is, and I couldn't agree more. She's just a beautiful guitar.Second impression, there's no way this is a sub-$1000 guitar. It's not perfect out of the package, but good gravy she just played really well. Tones were gorgeous, out of the box and the knobs were sensitive without being touchy. Distinct character to each switch, and all usable. I've recorded and published 3 songs with this guitar (after my Luthier did a setup) and I'm still very pleased with every note.Third impression, like every guitar I've bought from a store or a distributor the basics needed addressing. Shipping and temperature changes always throw a need for truss adjustments and such into your equation. I dropped her off at my Luthier on my way to work, picked her up on my way home, threw him $50 and it was like he handed me back a $3000 guitar. People that say buttery smooth get on my nerves, but people please understand me when I say after I picked her up it was like warm butter on hot glass. I was just shocked. She didn't hold tune very well prior to the setup, but afterward I can take Low E down to C before I have to make semitone adjustments on anything else. I don't use a lot of tremolo in my toolkit for playing but when… read more I do it as a gag I'm always so very pleasantly surprised to have everything pop right back to perfect tuning.The flamed neck is pristine and glides. The finish is flawless. The fretboard got a 5 minute treatment according to my Luthier, just some minor fret edge smoothing and minor adjustments between 11 and 14. All of the electronics got the stamp of approval untouched, though he did make a minor adjustment to the tremolo springs, just a single notch across. Very standard adjustments I expect when picking up a guitar from a distro or big box, nothing scary.I'd planned on testing some pickups at my Luther's shop when I originally ordered it, but to be honest... I wouldn't change the pickups on this thing if you offered them to me free. There's a really wide, balanced array of sounds and tones the stock pickups off that make this thing really stand out on a shelf as far as being a universal Go To. Pop Punk, Classic Rock, Worship, Post-Hardcore, Death metal... this thing legitimately does it all. I'm so very impressed with what Sterling has put out here at this price point. If you decide to pick one up, my only suggestion is to swing it by your Luthier and give him $50 for a simple setup before you make your final judgement. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Musical Background:
25 years live musician

Musical Style:
Rock and Roll, Punk Rock, Pop Punk, Metal, Deathmetal, Worship, Ska read less