I've got a KE3 and personally if you paid anything over what any of the major online retailers charge for it, then you were ripped off. Unless it was modded of course in which case you'd have to find out what wasn't stock on the guitar. I'm thinking about changing the pickups on mine. It's got a nice crunch and the clean can be nice and punchy, but not shimmery. The pickups are overall a little too muddy for my taste. The one thing I have to say good about the guitar is how well it can take abuse. Now mine has some good dings in the paint job on the body, but that's my fault for being careless. However, I was holding my guitar putting the strap on the neck. I had it around my neck, moved and the top strap button slipped out of the strap. The guitar went down away from my body nose diving into the floor. It bounced on the neck and landed face down. I was scared ****less. I thought omg I just threw away $600!!! That's what I paid for mine. But to my amazement, the guitar was fine. All in all, the guitar gets a nice tone. Hardware and pickups can be swtiched out. Most people change their guitars around anyways. The licensed Floyd Rose trem is ok. I haven't played an original Floyd Rose so I can't comment on the difference. I can de-tune notes pretty smoothly if I'm depressing the trem bar. But if I'm trying to go up in pitch, well the guitar just seems to loose the note all together like it's being muffled or something. It could be my setup though. So those are my thoughts.