Quality Would you consider this product to be made well? How dependable? I had the 1st variax model when they came out and to me that was a toy. This new JTM variax has now replaced my Jem as my main guitar. The tuners always stay in tune!! Reliability How has it stood up over time? I have had this for 2 weeks and I have had no problem. Overall Your general opinion of this product. This guitar is very well made and plays good enough to be your main guitar. The tones from both the magnetic stock pickups and the modeled pickups are nothing short of amazing and the new acoustic models in the software upgrade is breathtaking!! The interaction with my Pod HD 500 was the big selling point to me. If you have a HD 500 you dont have to touch a knob on the guitar. You can assign a guitar model along with the tuning of your choice in each patch. You can also assign the volume and treble knobs on the guitar to control parameters in the HD 500 giving you the ability to use the vol or tone knob as a tremolo bar, etc.... I mean wow!!!!!! Playability and Feel How does it feel, Heavy, Fast, Chunky? How was the neck? Are the controls easy to get to while playing? This guitar plays a lot like my Ibanez Jem. The neck is slightly thicker but plenty thin for fast runs. It is well balanced with a strap. Tone Bright and snappy? Dark and smooth? Were the pickups hot, mellow, thick, thin? You can literally get any tone you want!! Finish How did the stain or paint job look? I purchased the blood red finish and I have had several people comment on how it reacts with the lighting. Action How was the action out of the box? I had to lower the action a little but it was playable out of the box. Everyone has a different opinion on the action.