My initial impression......worth $199 and a bit more.
First, it's made in Indonesia. I was really expecting it to be Chinese (despite MusicYo listing it as a US series.....hmmmm).
Anyway......the guitar is much darker than it appears in the photos on the site. Plugged it in and it sounds pretty good with the stock pickups. I have an Epi
Les Paul Standard and an Ibanez ARC300 w/ a Duncan JB/59 combo. The
bridge pickup is fairly close to the the JB. Not quite as bright and not quite as hot. The bridge pickup is pretty close to the '59 but a little more low end. Overall, I would say they fall in between the Epi and the Ibanez leaning a little more towards the Ibanez.
The feel of the neck is really nice. I may get out the digital calipers and do a comparison to the Epi but they feel pretty close. The Kramer neck feels a little bit faster. I think there is something about the finish that just makes it feel a little more slick than the Epi, as they are both painted necks.
The pots are a little bit on the stiff side. Hopefully they will losen up a bit with use as it takes a bit of effort to turn them and given the small size of the knobs, don't expect to do quick turns on them.
Fit and finish is OK. About the same as my Epi but not as nice as my Ibanez. First, there are som small gaps where various pieces of binding meet up (the creme, not the abalone). Specifically at the headstock/neck joints and at the neck/cutout area. The cutout are is especially nasty...in fact, I think this area approaches second/b-stock quality. There is some wierd stuff going on with either the binding/glue/paint or something.
The other issue is that the binding is white, but when you throw a thick coat of clear over it, white items tend to look yellowish....fine, that happens all of the time. But when they polished out the body, it removes some of the clearcoat on the binding making some areas more white. This is really bad at the cutout. Also, prior to polishing, the removed the plastic coat that typically goes on the plastic electronics covers. So, when they polished out the body, they actually polished the plastic to some degree....but not very well, so some parts are polished, some aren't. Also, all the screws are black, but the polishing removed some of the painted finish of the screws, so there is chipping on the screws. These issues are mostly on the back of the guitar.
There were also a couple of spots where something got on the binding and wasn't removed before the clearcoat, so there is some junk trapped under the clear.
Ultimately, it looks fantastic from 6 ft or so and let's face it, most of us would notice those things before the average person. It's still worth what I paid for it.
If you're in the market for an LP style guitar, at $199, this is a really good deal. It's still less than you'll find a used Epiphone for yet looks like you spent a lot more money.
OK. Here's some comparison measurements.
Epiphone
Body at rear strap - 2"
Width at nut - 1.68"
Width at 12th fret - 2"
Body at rear strap - 1.89"
Width at nut - 1.68"
Width at 12th fret - 1.99"
