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First Impression: Right out of the box, my JP150D and it’s virtually flawless blood orange burst burled top was absolutely ravishing. Complimented by all black hardware, and a gorgeous baked maple neck, it felt as welcoming as the US guitars from which the Sterling JP150D derives its namesake. Beautifully crowned stainless steel frets, with absolute zero sprout or sharp edges. Electronics and mechanical parts were all in top working order, as you would expect. Additionally, it came out of the gig bag in-tune! A bit deeper:First, the action was set ridiculously high, around 2.25mm. I find that ridiculous for this type of guitar, however, I do my own setups anyway, and it is very rare that a guitar comes “ready to play” in terms of my preferences. I do, however, think that if these are regularly going out with action that high, Sterling is missing the mark with the type of player who wants this particular instrument, and if that player were not already proficient in doing their own work, they would be disappointed at having to immediately go pay for a professional setup. Minor issue to me, but a dealbreaker for some. Second:This is a big one… The frets are perfect all the way down the neck, with exception of the 23rd fret. It is significantly higher than all the other frets. This is more of a major issue in terms of people who are inexperienced with doing fret leveling, and who do not have the tools or ability to fix this themselves. This clues me in as to why the action was set so high. I will also add that the neck was extremely bowed, and required almost an entire rotation of the very stiff truss wheel. Because it is such a low fret that is completely out of whack, it creates multiple dead spots on every string. It tells me the “tech” who set this guitar up was more concerned with getting the product out, by applying a quick fix, rather than sniffing out the root problem. In the big picture, it is a very simple fix, but again, this lack of proper QA will result in returns and lower reviews of an otherwise wonderful instrument. Final:After I went through and addressed the issues and set the JP150D up to my preferences, I am so pleased with the playability. I know a quality price of gear when it is in my hands, and this one definitely fits the description. Yeah, it had an abysmal setup, but that is absolutely fixable. All in all, I spent about two hours getting everything just right. It sounds perfect, feels perfect, and plays wonderfully now that I have straightened the neck, adjusted the action, and addressed the high fret. All of the aesthetics are there and it looks like a piece of art. Out of every feature this guitar has, my favorite is the knob location. The knobs are down out of the way, allowing uninhibited shredding and chugs. This is the simple feature that puts this guitar on top for me. I wish other guitar manufacturers would reconsider their knob placement. I enjoy not having to use a rubber washer to keep the volume in place, removing the knob, or relocating the volume for ergonomics, as I have to do on every other guitar made. Out of the box, I give it 3 stars because of setup issues. Fully setup and ready, the JP150D is 5 stars all day long.

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