I bought this knowing I'm going to use it for modding purposes. That said, the guitar in the state it arrived in was unplayable, because it couldn't hold tune. Someone set up the tremolo to float, but incorrectly. Spring tension was not strong enough to counteract string tension and the whole back was lifting off more than a cm off the top.
Tuner adjustment screws were also too loose, and were slipping. Both of these issues were easily fixable with setup and adding extra spring (that was included) to tremolo.
There are no sharp fret ends or dead frets, but the frets could use polish.
The pickup levels were not balanced. Neck and bridge were much quieter than the middle pickup out of the box. Fixable with setup, again.
Sound wise, I was pleasantly surprised by the middle single coil and bridge humbucker, but the neck pickup is so muddy in comparison that it makes the positions including it unusable at least for me. Maybe it could be used with a distortion or fuzz, but do not expect chimy stratty tones out of the neck pickup.
Would not recommend this if you don't know how to do setup work or are not willing to put a few hours in to make it playable.
However, as a modding platform this is excellent, and most standard parts are drop in replacements. Also, neck and body finish has no flaws in it. Cheaper to buy this than to buy a neck or body separately if you want to build your dream strat.
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