OK - after getting the set-up kinks out of this guitar, I am very much enjoying it. With the coil taps, it produces a wide variety of sounds from warm humbuckers to bright single coils.



The neck seemed stockier than an Epi LP Standard I played recently, I was a little taken aback and I didn't think that I was going to like it, but it actually feels quite good and comfortable. It is easy to play - the easiest playing of all my electrics I think - maybe I like fat necks and never knew it!



The finish is - OK. The front is beautiful actually. I love all the white on black and the zebra open pups - looks very classy in a traditional kind of way IMHO. The back is 'satin', but it actually looks like flat black body paint. As you will see, it looks nice at a distance, and I do like the feel of it on the neck - no stickiness.



But up close, it seems they could have done a nicer job - if you are going to paint over any wood, you might as well fill the pores with something first -





This little patch of open grain on the headstock is the worst of it -



I'm not about the cosmetics, generally, but as a woodworker, my sensibilities are a bit offended . On the other hand, I think that we obsess about this stuff a bit much, expecting everything to be perfect and blemish free (if I want to be that particular, I could buy the Gibson version!) The bottom line is, it sounds great and plays well. Again, here is a good player taking the Gibson version through its paces: