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I've waited to drop this review because I wanted a true hands on experience before I shot my mouth off.First impression, it was just gorgeous. The pictures cannot do it justice. I hear from photographers constantly that they love shooting my Sterling for the color grades and how deep it is, and I couldn't agree more. She's just a beautiful guitar.Second impression, there's no way this is a sub-$1000 guitar. It's not perfect out of the package, but good gravy she just played really well. Tones were gorgeous, out of the box and the knobs were sensitive without being touchy. Distinct character to each switch, and all usable. I've recorded and published 3 songs with this guitar (after my Luthier did a setup) and I'm still very pleased with every note.Third impression, like every guitar I've bought from a store or a distributor the basics needed addressing. Shipping and temperature changes always throw a need for truss adjustments and such into your equation. I dropped her off at my Luthier on my way to work, picked her up on my way home, threw him $50 and it was like he handed me back a $3000 guitar. People that say buttery smooth get on my nerves, but people please understand me when I say after I picked her up it was like warm butter on hot glass. I was just shocked. She didn't hold tune very well prior to the setup, but afterward I can take Low E down to C before I have to make semitone adjustments on anything else. I don't use a lot of tremolo in my toolkit for playing but when I do it as a gag I'm always so very pleasantly surprised to have everything pop right back to perfect tuning.The flamed neck is pristine and glides. The finish is flawless. The fretboard got a 5 minute treatment according to my Luthier, just some minor fret edge smoothing and minor adjustments between 11 and 14. All of the electronics got the stamp of approval untouched, though he did make a minor adjustment to the tremolo springs, just a single notch across. Very standard adjustments I expect when picking up a guitar from a distro or big box, nothing scary.I'd planned on testing some pickups at my Luther's shop when I originally ordered it, but to be honest... I wouldn't change the pickups on this thing if you offered them to me free. There's a really wide, balanced array of sounds and tones the stock pickups off that make this thing really stand out on a shelf as far as being a universal Go To. Pop Punk, Classic Rock, Worship, Post-Hardcore, Death metal... this thing legitimately does it all. I'm so very impressed with what Sterling has put out here at this price point. If you decide to pick one up, my only suggestion is to swing it by your Luthier and give him $50 for a simple setup before you make your final judgement. You'll see what I'm talking about.

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Ever since trying out an L III close to ten years ago, I wanted a guitar just like it. I actually was a fan of this guitar model before I listened to Luke's playing. Now, Lukather is one of my biggest influences and he inspired me to become a professional session guitarist. Since the prices of Music Man guitars skyrocketed, I started looking into the Sterling brand. So, when I saw a Sterling LK100 hanging in my local guitar store, I knew it had to be mine.When I tried it at the store, the soft V-shape immediately felt comfortable. I like keeping my thumb over the neck which this neck facilitates nicely. The thing I was most concerned about was the stability of the trem system. From seeing Luke at live shows a few times, I know the Music Man trem system is perhaps the most stable non locking system you'll come across. So safe to say I was skeptical about the Sterling's stability. But after a setup I was able to do all the things I would want with the trem without it going out of tune. The electronics differ from previous Sterling models. The LK100D had the Dimarzio Transition pickups in it. The LK100 has Sterling's own pickup design, which I so far seem to prefer to the Transition pickups. The pickups are pretty low in output when compare to the Transitions, which I like a lot. The bridge pickup is clear, but still has plenty of body to it. The neck pickup balances well with the bridge pickup, but I do have to say that, to my taste, it's not quite clear enough. The 12dB boost has also proven to be very useful in live settings when I'm taking a solo and I am away from my board, but I still want some extra drive. The coil splits also make this guitar very versatile. So far I have done at least ten sessions with it, ranging from R&B to hard rock, and it nailed all those sounds with ease. As I said I do feel like the neck pickup's a little dark for my taste, So I'll perhaps swap it out with a Bare Knuckle Stormy Monday I have lying around. All in all, I'm very happy with this guitar, and I can safely say this has become my new number one!

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There will be two parts to this review. The first will be the Bad.The Bad: The advertising for these Sterling guitars is all about them setting up each and every guitar they ship out. The guitar I received had several issues that, to me (the novice) had to rectify (took me two hours) that a professional could have taken care in less than a half hour. I had to look up a couple of videos so I didn't really mess it up. The action (string height) was touching the frets. The saddles were in-line at the very front of their carriage range (complete lack of intonation). The springs were tightened down nearly all the way. And the frets were very scratchy and unpolished. The tone pot is literally the size of a dime. The pickups need replacing right away. The tremolo is supposed to be floating and setup to use. The guitar I received wouldn't hold a tune in the least until I learned how to adjust and setup of a floating tremolo system. The bar provided to adjust the truss-rod wheel was 1mm too large to fit into the holes in the mechanism. I had to sand it down until it fit.The Good:The color is really great in person. From the pictures, the does look nice but in person, it's impressive. The website showed a plain maple neck in the pictures. But this is a beautifully (nearly flamed) baked maple. So smooth and so very comfortable. The locking tuners are firm but smooth and able to make and hold micro adjustments in tuning. Once the tremolo was set up, relatively well, This trem-system is really smooth and can handle it well.The verdict: After all the frustration was over this guitar really plays like butter. The pickups do need changing. The neck pickup is muddy and the bridge lacks anything special (if on high gain its not too bad). But after that change, I fully expect to promote this girl into the starting role.

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Ok. 1..rip out the pickups and electronics. The trem can be a bit tricky. Once it's in, you're good to go. But my BFR Luke was the same way. The neck feels like every US Luke I've played. The weight even felt right. I've played Luke's for years at a time, so I miss the Emgs. Slap some of the Luke Dimarzios in it, put an earvanna nut on it, and it dang close. The pickups just...kill me loving the guitar.

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Had a Transition put in the Bridge of mine the person who put it in made it level to the neck pup,l tried to adjust at home and it would not raise or lower, then I tried to lower the neck pup nothing. Sterling doesn't seem to take this guitar seriously, when I got this guitar intonation was way off ,frets scratching and board a little dry.l would recommend this guitar.

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This guitar is awesome for the $! I had originally ordered a Ibanez az....didnt care for it. This guutar kills it in my opinion, and is half the money. Seriously. Great guitar. Only a minor adjustment or two needed when i got it to make it play the way i like....and bam! It now plays better than my $200] prs ce24! ;)

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