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I own one of these in sunburst. This instrument is extremely high quality, with alnico pickups, a fully flamed maple body, and a very comfortable neck. However, it features a few common issues with MIJ guitars of the time, like unpotted pickups and very low frets.

While mine is heavily modified now (not as a result of any faults by the manufacturer, but me being bat shit crazy) in its original state it is a nearly perfect instrument, the shorter scale allows for a more approachable feel, the tremolo came set up perfectly from the factory, and the pickups rival that of some American Fenders. My one gripe is that the slide switches that it came stock with were almost unusable out of the box, sometimes the "on" position wouldn't work on any of the pickups, leading to me swapping them out almost immediately. That isn't really a problem with the guitar though, and more with a personal dislike for the performance of slide switches as a whole.

For being a cheaply made guitar, even for the time, it's a really well built instrument. Pros: -The neck has a good feel, kind of thick but less than a classical neck. -Extremely light. -good quality pots and capacitors. -neodymium pickups offer a different tonal option than anything I've ever used before. -not nearly as much feedback from the pickups as you'd expect from a usually un-potted neodymium magnet pickup. Cons: -No trussrod. -bridge is non intonatable. -Finish chips easily. -Low, thin frets, like a teisco's but thinner. Overall a very fun instrument to play around with, but don't expect a Fender killer.

This instrument is surprisingly very well crafted and high quality. The distortion circuit seems to be going after a tube screamer sound but isn't as quiet as a screamer, it's hand wired and the pickups are alnico 5. The onboard mid boost gives you a good solo sound to build on if you don't really want to use the built in overdrive. Feel of it is about what you'd expect from a first act, but if you do some basic setup work, it's a very viable instrument.

I have one of these on my Squier Cyclone, didn't impact the sustain and even without a locking nut, stays in tune very well.