The Schecter E-1 Custom "Special Edition VSB" - Vintage Sunburst - is an excellent value! The quality of this South Korean constructed guitar is extremely high - I could detect no significant flaws in fit, finish, or construction. There are dark black spots up and down the ebony fingerboard. My understanding is that this is a natural occurrence and isn't a filler or defect but I don't have a definitive answer as to exactly what these black spots are. The consensus is that it is a naturally occurring thing with some ebony boards but isn't encountered all that often. That being said, the fingerboard is smooth and the spots cannot be felt. The guitar played easily right out of the box with what I call a "standard" setup. A few minutes with some tools and I had the action low (2/64" & 2.5/64") with no trace of a buzz. The neck was dead straight so I added a little relief via the two-way truss rod. Neck relief is necessary if you really want to get the action as low as possible. I had to provide the allen wrenches to adjust the TonePros bridge and tailpiece because they were not included with my guitar. My guitar is a brand new 2020 copy. It's absolutely loaded with desirable features like the TonePros, Schecter stamped locking tuners, Schecter USA Custom Shop pickups, push/pull tone knob for single coil jangle, compound 3 piece mahogany neck radius (12" to 16"), previously mentioned ebony fingerboard, TUSQ nut, mother of pearl block inlays, white single ply neck binding and SEVEN layers of alternating thin white/black binding topped off with a thicker white protective layer. I don't know if the quilt maple top has any thickness to it or if it's a veneer. It appears to be a two piece Mahogany body. Be prepared to adjust your fretting hand grip if you're not used to X-Jumbo frets. You can easily play out of tune with a heavy squeeze. I had to soften my grip to play open chords in tune but this may not be an issue for you if you're accustomed to tall wide frets. My copy weighs in at 9.8 pounds. The weight is nicely distributed and the guitar is very well balanced when on a strap. The body gets thin at the waist (about 1") due to a belly carve that feels great. Now about the tone: The Sunset Strip/Pasadena pickups are fantastic. The Pasadena in the neck has a dc resistance of 8.4K and the bridge Sunset Strip reads 12.6K. This places them both in the slightly hot PAF category. There's a lot of change with just a little movement of the volume knob. Rolling back the volume just a tad gives a hard rock riffing tone and that little roll-up from 8 to 10 saturates the amp significantly more (a Vox AC30S1 in my case) for ringing, singing lead tones. The Red Rox by Dawner Prince paired up with a Barber Tone Press worked particularly well but the Friedman Dirty Shirley and Fulltone OCD pedals also sounded killer. I also love the grippy volume and tone knobs. Check this: you could bring this guitar to a blues jam and sonically fit right in because the tapped (or split?) pickup tone available via the push/pull tone knob is to die for. You can go from roaring beast to delicate flower with the pull of a knob. This guitar is far from being a one-trick pony. I ordered the guitar on 7/27 and received it on 8/11. Kyle kept me informed via the messaging system on his website. In the future I will call their 800 number before pulling the trigger online to avoid confusion as to whether the instrument is in stock or not. I called Schecter directly to inquire as Musician Madness is not listed on the Schecter website as an "authorized dealer". I spoke to a very helpful receptionist who ultimately forwarded me to Brad Strickland, Schecter's National Sales Manager. Brad was extremely helpful and confirmed that Musician Madness is in fact an authorized dealer. He also expressed that due to COVID-19 there have been delays providing product to their dealers so shipping delays of a few weeks should be expected until the world gets back to normal. Overall my experience with this purchase has been a very positive one. This model seems to be out of stock everywhere else. This is my first Schecter and I will be looking to add another. The guitar is crazy-good so don't hesitate to purchase it - the quality and feature-set is there!