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This is my intro to 8 strings and I must say, I love everything about it. The neck is silky, the frets are smooth, it's straight as an arrow. Intonation is only off a tiny bit on one string. The fanned frets are super comfortable and the adjustment to them is almost effortless. Stock pickups are perfect. Hardware, perfect. Pots, perfect. I couldn't ask for a better setup.Pros: This piece was setup beautifully. Great action, near perfect intonation, low action, perfectly straight neck, fanfrets feel very natural, the tuning stability is spot on thanks to the hipshot bridge and tusq nut. Tuners are acceptable for this price point (lockers should be stock IMO.) Scale length is perfect. String tension is perfect because of that. Bottom strings are tight, high strings bend great, awesome mix. The pickups are a bit higher output than I expected but sound great to me. Bright and endless sustain. The valute is always a nice touch and makes home easy to find. Seems light as a feather and no neck dive whatsoever. Sits perfect using a strap. Frets were finished beautifully. Great crown and level job with no sprouts anywhere. It also comes stock with Ernie Ball quality strings.Cons: the neck is super wide but thin at the same time. Think an ibanez wizard neck. Being so wide the adjustment period is pretty long and difficult to adjust to.the pickups are super hot, maybe too hot. For metal it's awesome, for fusion and jazz, not so much. Very biting and loads of treble. The pickup selector switch can get in the way if you're a bridge hugging palm muting metal chugger using the neck pickup for the thickness. Straight up, way too hot for clean playing and edge of breakup tones. The scale length takes a bit of getting used to. It's a bit uncomfortable because it's around 2 inches longer on the bass strings. Those are my only complaints.Conclusion: if you're looking for a great 8 string guitar this is where it's at. It's a workhorse metal monster. Has all the features you could ask for and nothing more. Simple and effective. For the price point you can't ask for a better entry level 8 string. There are cheaper ones for sure, but this is the best bang for the buck. Hands down. I absolutely would recommend this for anyone that wants to venture into the 8 string world. It's probably the best bang for your buck for an 8 string. Djent away and downtune to your hearts desire. It won't disappoint. If the output is a bit much, turn down the volume knob a bit. It works wonders. It's a metal monster and a djent machine but capable of so much more.