Vintage Icon V59MRBK Distressed Black

This is a great purchase irrespective of price.
Out of the box the guitar was very well set up. Action was excellent with no buzzing on the frets. The ends of the frets were well finished with no sharp ends. Intonation was slightly off on the low E and A string, easily fixed. The truss rod was perfectly set up. The nut, however, was slightly rough on the edges. It keeps tune well. The three way switch is temperamental on the neck pickup setting. Occasionally it needs reselecting. This probably just needs cleaning with some contact cleaner. However if it needs replacing, I consider that a small price to pay as everything else is excellent. I drop one star because of this.

I bought the guitar as I had read that they are better than a strat for getting jazz tones. It does not disappoint in this area, so a very versatile guitar from Jazz to rock. The bridge pickup is very bright and needs a treble cut when switching from the neck pickup. The bridge pickup works very well at high gain, aggressive, but also quiet in terms of hum. On a clean setting both pickups reveal the calrity of each note.

I was not originally seeking a distressed version but the ordinary black version was difficult to get hold of. The distressed version looks good, but is a also vey practical. I do not think anyone would worry if it gets scratched! This guitar does not have body contour shaping on the back. I thought this might become uncomfortable but have not had any problems so far.

If the guitar was stolen I would buy another. I think it would be very easy to spend three times it's cost on a similar guitar which wasn't so good.