Here are my thoughts after playing this epi for one year at home and on gigs:
MANUFACTURE
I could find no flaws here. She's heavy (and that's good), the neck is rock solid and there are no sharp fret ends sticking out. Even the finish is flawless. She looks absolutely gorgeous!
FEEL
She feels like a Gibson! The neck is very smooth and a joy to play, the string spacing is just about perfect for me. As I said, she's heavy, and your shoulder clearly feels it while playing.
HARDWARE AND ELECTRONICS
The bridge and tailpiece leave nothing to be desired, they do their job as expected. The stock tuners are good, mine were Wilkinson Grover-like tuners, very smooth and precise. The electronics are great, the pots are CTS, only the caps are of the cheap ceramic kind (but for the price it's ok).
The selector switch is a bit flimsy, though.
SOUND
The stock pickups sound surprisingly good for the price. They are warm, balanced and very versatile. You get just the right amount of midrange and top end with long sustain. That said, I found them sounding a little dark when turning up the gain; not that they're bad, they just didn't work for me. After installing the SD Seth Lover neck and the Lollar Imperial bridge this guitar went from great to incredible!
As always, Thomann did a great job delivering it. It came well-packaged and with a good overall setup.
PROS:
- The price!
- The manufacturing quality
- The sound
CONS:
- None