I got this guitar as a DIY metal machine project. First off the box, the action was a bit high and after a couple of days the wood had dried so that the neck needed a lot of adjusting. The neck feel was however exactly what I was hoping for, that classic Jackson neck with a super smooth satin finish. The overall finish of the guitar is decent, especially for the price. Neck binding is nicely done, the body contours have some roughness here and there, but nothing outrageous.
The pickups were actually surprisingly decent. High output and capable of decent heavy tones. As per my original plan, I swapped the pickups for Bareknuckle Aftermaths with coil splitting on both and the result is just as it should: precise, heavy low end with clear highs and as a "bonus", when splitting the neck pickup, you get almost stratty tones. Perfect!
The bridge seems OK, nothing bad to say about that. I've adjusted it to "dive-only" mode, works perfect. The tuners were not very convincing, but my plan from the start was to change them to Schaller locking tuners and the end result is rock solid.
Overall, with the standard hardware the guitar is a decent rock guitar, especially if you are a beginner. With this price, you could do a lot worse. After the upgrades, this quitar can be awesome and does not pale in comparison to way more expensive guitars.
