This guitar appealed to me as soon as I saw it somewhere on the web. I looked it up in Reverb to get an idea of what the reviews were and prices etc...I also looked for a black model. But I found only two. So I chose the red one. The idea of an Esquire lay out with a PAF instantly intrigued me. I wondered how it compared to a Les Paul Jr. And I love those guitars. The Reverb reviews seemed to agree on many things. Top among them were that this guitar had a Growl in it's voice. And that it was a stripped down Rock Machine. The LP Jr. has a growl too. It's true. It does have a natural growl to it. But you can also get those creamy, jazzy 9th's and 11th's chords type voicing. I have to say this though, and it has nothing to do with Zzounds. The strings that came with it out of the box were horrible. Rough. I put on a set of Ernie Balls Primo Slinky's. (9.5 - 44). And it made all the difference. I stretched 'em out a few times, retuned, and this guitar is a keeper!! I also loaded the new strings through the top of the bridge. This bridge has a top load option. I have not yet tried loading the strings from the back yet. Plugged it into a Mesa Heartbreaker Combo....I'm so glad I bought this guitar!It doesn't need a lot of overdrive. It's naturally growly. Not overly so. But more than slightly. Fast, friendly, smooth maple neck. Pinch harmonics are effortless. Double stops, step and a half bends are easy and the sustain really is acceptable. Great tone too. A great guitar. The bridge… read more might be an issue thogh. These Fender barrel type saddles... this type with three barrels, they're often tricky to intonate. The Peterson tuners can nail it with the Sweetener setting. But then, you're not exactly in tune with everyone else. We'll see. I'm not there yet.The tuners are better than I thought they'd be for an imported instrument. But I gave the strings a pretty good work out. The tuners were adequate. The pick up is wonderful! The only complaint I have is when picking / strumming on the neck itself (Keith Richards), it does sorta approach that thicker lusher tone, it doesn't quite sound as good as some of my other Tele's.In terms of value, damn hard to beat. I love this guitar!Thank you again, zZounds, for your continuing commitment to make available to me instruments I'd want. And for making it possible for me to own many of my dream guitars. Like the one I'm expecting to get delivered today, as a matter of fact!!

read less