Quality Would you consider this product to be made well? How dependable? The quality of this guitar is as nice as my friend's original run Malmsteen Strat. Reliability How has it stood up over time? Only had it a couple of weeks. will let you know later General Your general opinion of this product. Overall, I would have to say if I didn't know it was crafted in China, I never would have guessed. Playability and Feel How does it feel, Heavy, Fast, Chunky? How was the neck? Are the controls easy to get to while playing? The feel is very light & smooth. Will get back to you on how it is with the 11's I'm putting on it. Tone Bright and snappy? Dark and smooth? Were the pickups hot, mellow, thick, thin? The coil splitter is a great feature to have on this guitar. It let's you change the character of the guitar at the drop of a hat. Finish How did the stain or paint job look? The finish was as nice as I've seen on any fender. Action How was the action out of the box? Out of the box, all I had to do was tune it with my new SNARK tuner & it was ready to go. the intonation was right on the money too!

Quality Would you consider this product to be made well? How dependable? This is a very well made fender.I have been working it over for about two months and it will take a beating and come back for more. Reliability How has it stood up over time? I have had many strats over the 34 years I have been playing that were mostly American and very expensive.this one stands up to any of them on sound and its well balanced in features and well made. General Your general opinion of this product. I bought this second hand and wasn't expecting it to take the place of my American telecaster as my number one but it has.Its lite, well put together, great balance of pickups and sound quality have me using it all the time. Playability and Feel How does it feel, Heavy, Fast, Chunky? How was the neck? Are the controls easy to get to while playing? fast fast fast. Yeah, I know strat players are always changing things on strats but with this one you don't have to, if you give it a chance to prove its worth. Tone Bright and snappy? Dark and smooth? Were the pickups hot, mellow, thick, thin? people who don't like the sound of these pickups need to change their ears not the pickups.stop chasing tone and start playing if you are a serious student of guitar.I wasted a lot of time and money before I learned that lesson and became a better player. Finish How did the stain or paint job look? finnish is fine beggers can't be choosers. Action How was the action out of the box? bought it used but the action is as low as my american guitars.

Quality Would you consider this product to be made well? How dependable? Very well made with exception of the cheap slotted tuners that also have dead action when backing off which is typical of cheap tuners. The packaging was the best I have ever received, and I have over 70 guitars. Reliability How has it stood up over time? Just received it and set it up. General Your general opinion of this product. A typical $300.00 (or less) China guitar. You can buy better quality China Strat style guitars for this much money, but they will not have the Fender name on them. Playability and Feel How does it feel, Heavy, Fast, Chunky? How was the neck? Are the controls easy to get to while playing? The guitar has a good feel to it except for the strings that feel raspy which says they are cheap and rusty. They look like 9's so will change out to new 10's. Tone Bright and snappy? Dark and smooth? Were the pickups hot, mellow, thick, thin? Good tone except the volume pot does not come on until you hit around 7 on the dial and it is pretty dramatic which says it is a cheap pot. The first thing I did was to block the bridge as I personally do not use a tremolo and found the block to not have the typical Fender bar tab on it so the wood filler block size is around 5/16" thick instead of 1/2". Finish How did the stain or paint job look? Finish is typical of most of the China guitars these days except for some wood planning waves just below the bridge that most people would not notice unless they knew what to look for. Action How was the action out of the box? Pickups were sitting almost flush to pick guard surface and strings were set high, so brought up the pickups and brought down the strings. The saddles are stamped sheet metal instead of cast, but work just fine.

Quality Would you consider this product to be made well? How dependable? Made in China. I prefer this over the Mexican made Strat. I have only had this guitar 3 weeks and seems very well made. Reliability How has it stood up over time? Only 3 weeks old. Time will tell. Seems solid so far. General Your general opinion of this product. Seems like a great guitar. I bought this guitar because I wanted a Fender that didnt cost too much. And I wanted a project guitar. It has that great Fender feel. I will be upgrading pickups, saddles, tuning keys, etc ... over time. Playability and Feel How does it feel, Heavy, Fast, Chunky? How was the neck? Are the controls easy to get to while playing? Out of the box it felt great. Action was decent. I had to lower the middle pickup because my picking kept hitting it. The pickups arent that great. Got a lot of buzz from the neck position pickup. It was a heavier guitar than I imagined. Loved the feel of the neck though. Tone Bright and snappy? Dark and smooth? Were the pickups hot, mellow, thick, thin? Pickups were noisy. Middle pickup was too high and in the way of my picking. Decent tone through my Line6 HD500 but noisy unless I use a noise gate. Finish How did the stain or paint job look? Excellent!!! Action How was the action out of the box? Was very decent. But I had it set up with 11's, Drop C tuning which raised the action a bit. Will have to adjust the truss rod to fix this.