I should start by saying I really like this guitar, I'd have given it 5 stars across the board for the way it is now. It looks beautiful (shows more grain than in the pictures), sounds just like a strat should, and plays really nicely, but it's taken some work.
It arrived in unplayable condition, the neck was like a ski jump, the strings were corroded and the fretboard was bone dry and finished with 80 grit sandpaper. I expect a bit of setting up and then tweaking to taste with a new guitar, it's all part of the fun, but if it hadn't been so pretty, I'd have sent it back. At times it felt more like repair than setting up. After a lot of fettling of the truss rod and saddles (and new strings), the fretwork is fortunately pretty good. I've got the action just the low side of normal and there's no sizzle or choking, there were a couple of very slightly gritty frets but nothing a few hours of playing didn't clean up. The fretboard is rough, it drank loads of oil which helped and maybe it's supposed to be like that, I can't feel it when I play, but I don't like the way it looks. I don't need it glassy smooth, but I like how the light hits a smooth, well oiled board, so it's getting polished at the next string change.
In conclusion, it's a beautiful guitar, it now compares very well to a friends 90s American strat for playability and tone, but if you aren't comfortable doing a setup, factor in the cost of getting someone to sort it out for you.
