It arrived with the top of the box open. Usually there's a box inside a box, but this one was just packed in an open carton inside a single shipping box. Ok kinda sus but no big deal.
I opened it, and immediately realized the strings were tuned almost to standard E tuning (was probably closer to D or Eb but I immediately detuned it)....should be B standard, this has some heavy 14-68 strings and that was a lot of tension...then I noticed the strings were rusty...the frets also looked unpolished if not corroded. The worst part is probably the tuning keys that actually have pitting on the chrome plating. I was pretty upset by all this but the neck and body were very nice, and it'd a good weight for what it is (7lbs 9oz). I slept on it and ultimately decided not to send it back and save myself the stress of sitting on hold and arguing with customer service for half an hour to get a free set of strings or 10% off. The threat to send it back isn't there for me because I really don't want to. It sounds killer through the pro reverb.
I went to parkway and bought a gold anodized pickguard (it's like 3 ply metal/plastic/gold brushed, but it is metal on the top layer). They've had it forever for $20 and I never had the right guitar to put it on. Will need some slight modification for a perfect fit but it looks good (to me). Also when I was changing the pickguard, I noticed the neck pickup is routed for a humbucker - I can see myself wanting a filtertron in the neck at some point, we'll see.
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