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This modern C neck feels like a 2006 Fender Strat I had back in the day. Its silky smooth and just fits right to dig in and play.I had the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster with the Deep C neck. Like a baseball bat compared to this modern C. The pick ups are just that. 59's. They jingle and jangle like they should. I will probably replace with Tex pick ups. But really, when you play you just want to dig in and let go. A thousand dollar guitar they you won't have to baby. Drink, smoke whatever this is a fun guitar to play!The finish is funky. I dig it. Looks like it will hide any blemish well with the finish. The electronics ok. Not sure if you can upgrade but will if you can. I was surprised at the rolled edge fretboard! Feels amazing. No fret spurs. Will definitely have to set up to your likes. But overall this is a pretty bad azz made in Mexico guitar. Don't let that be the reason you miss out on this one.Hope this helps. You will not be disappointed. Due buy a HSC the gig bag is just that. I bought one and fell better transporting.

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I've had this guitar in my hands for about two days now, and I think I can give a pretty fair assessment at this point. All in all, I really dig the guitar. Is it a perfect guitar, no, but is there a perfect guitar? As for what this guitar is, it does the Strat thing beautifully. First impression after unboxing it, pulling it out of the gig bag and finally winning the battle against the white foam sheet covering it: it's Fender Strat all the way. I wasn't sure I'd like the finish, but after seeing it in person, it's growing on me. I do still wish it had parchment pickups, knobs, and switch tip as opposed to black though. The weight is nice at the lower end of the 7 lb range. Fit and finish was outstanding. Here's what impressed me the absolute most right off the bat: the fret work. WOW. The fret work is right on par with any of my US made PRS guitars that I paid more than two and a half times the price of this for. There were NO sharp fret ends, the frets are beautifully polished to a near mirror shine, and there are no dead spots. Right from go, this is leaps and bounds ahead of the SE Silver Sky samples that I've had since January of this year. Nice unexpected bonus for me, the fret board edges are really nicely rolled. It makes it feel like a guitar that's been played and loved for years, but not in the gimmicky relic type of way. The neck shape isn't bad, it's about the same width as my PRS Custom 24 that has a Pattern Regular neck, but a smidge narrower than my PRS Custom 22's that have the Wide Fat neck shape. It's also maybe a little narrower than the Gibson 60's Slim Taper on my Les Paul DC Pro. The depth of the neck is comfortable, not quite as deep as my PRS Pattern regular, definitely not as deep as my PRS Wide Fat necks, but a little more to it front to back than my Gibson 60's Slim Taper and my PRS Pattern Thin necks. It's a super comfortable neck. The satin finish on the back of the neck feels really nice inn the hand, as well. Right out of the box, the guitar needed some neck relief taken out, and after sitting overnight with the adjustment, I am pleased to report that the neck took the adjustment well (maybe a little less than a quarter turn of the truss rod), and after the adjustment the action was ever so slightly lower. Tone: I ran it through my Helix first on my two go to patches, one based on an Orange Rockerverb with a Greenback loaded 4x12 and a V30 loaded 4x12 and a 2203 JCM 800 model with a pair of Greenback loaded 4x12 cabs. On both patches, this guitar sounds really nice. It doesn't have the guts and grind that my PRS's, Gibsons, and Ibanez's have, but it's not supposed to either. I also ran it through my live pedal board and Peavey Delta Blues 210 and, again, it sounded fantastic. The pickups are bright, articulate, and chimey and respond well to subtle adjustments to the tone and volume control. One thing I will note though is that there is a distinct loss of high end when rolling the volume down to clean up the sound. Having said that, I don't see myself ever changing these pickups. They really give me exactly what I was looking for in a single coil tone.Here's the things I'm not crazy about on this guitar: 1) bent steel saddles. I ride the bridge with my picking hand and I know that when I restring this guitar and set it up with my preferred strings (10-52), I'll wind up with grub screws chewing up my picking hand since I know I'm going to be lowering the action a bit; 2) the vintage type tuners, I've never used this type of tuner before, but I'm a locking tuner guy and have been for many years now; 3) the included gig bag. For a $1,000 guitar, I'd like to see a little more padding from the gig bag; I'd honestly have been fine paying the same price for the guitar but not having a gig bag. 4) I mentioned this above, but the black plastic parts for the pickup covers, knobs, and switch tip. Easy enough to change out, but I'm not crazy about the look. If you want a Strat in the $1,000 price range, I'd take a good hard look at this one. Thinking back, I wish I'd have just gotten this straight away instead of fighting the QC issues with the SE Silver Sky.

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I think I just got a lemon. The fret ends were sharp. I've played $200 squires with better fret ends. The guitar was beautiful, but will be returning asap. I never even plugged it in or tuned it it was that bad. I could tell the guitar was not set up even a little the saddles were all lined up straight and pickups were near flush with the pickguard.