I have to say I love it. The string spacing feels just a wee bit tad narrow and the neck a tad slim for what I'm used to, but I have to say it is a very fast playing neck, which invites shredding, rocknroll double stop abandon, super fast Barre chord playing, etc. Picking arpeggios on an open A chord feels a tad crowded maybe, but I don't do much of that anyway.
The fit and finish is excellent, and the frets are nicely polished, with a low action and no annoying buzz. I understand these are Pleked and it shows. One of my best playing guitars at the moment.
The tone on this thing is incredible though! First of all the Empress body makes for a guitar just under 7lbs. It is very resonant acoustically, but it is an electric of course, and where it matters, plugged in, it has superb sustain and a gorgeous tone! On a structural level I think that it starts with the fact that that DF Vibrato has posts set in large brass inserts, and the saddles and sustain block are really high quality, solid and really well made (I have to look it up but I think they are brass and the sustain block stainless steel or also brass? whatever it is it is massively solid). The Vibrato action is probably the best I've tried and the guitar stays in tune great (standard tuners). I even dig the way the geometry of the tremolo arm is designed (I did have to bend it up a bit) as it makes it very easy to hold and pick, and even play lead, at the same time. It is also very easy to adjust the tension on the trem bar to be able to move it but also stay where you set it while playing.
The electronics and the MFD pickups are also a total revelation. They are very sparkly and high fidelity, but not sterile at all. Having the high and the bass cut tone knobs makes for a gorgeous array of tones. All the controls are extremely useable and compel you to play with them. This is definitely NOT a keep all knobs on 10 guitar. Turning the volume down retains clarity and high end. The tonal range of this guitar is incredible. I like sparkly, twangy, bright single coil sounds and I get that with the volume on 8, treble cut on 3-5 and bass cut on 3-5. But you could dial in much fatter and warmer sounds, very easily. This is all with clean, to edge of breakup, to medium overdrive tones. I haven't had a chance to go high gain yet, but I rarely use really high gain these days.
And..yes, I even dig the headstock. And I'm one aesthetically high strung bastard too when it comes to guitar design, especially headstock design.
I think I may just have to get a hardtail sister guitar for this gal.
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