It's an absolutely beautiful guitar. The first one I received had bits of corrosion on the screws that hold down the pickguard, as well as the screws that adjust the pickups. The two single coils had some corrosion as well as the bridge and the strings near the bridge. I called Musician's Friend and sent it back, fearing corrosion on the inside as well. They were great and replaced it very quickly at no cost to me, they even picked up all the shipping charges.
The second one had bits of corrosion on the pickguard screws and a small bit on the single coil magnets. I inspected the inside wires and found no corrosion, so I decided to just replace the screws this time. It now looks magnificient! Until I received it, I didn't realize that it was not a good looking Affinity but a good looking Standard (having the Alnico pickups). The sound is great (out of a Peavy Vypyr 15w). Contrary to many reports, it stays in tune quite well. I don't use the whammy bar very much, in fact I rarely even attach it. After putting on new strings you have to retune quite a bit for 3 or 4 days while they settle down, then it stays in tune nicely.
It's very well put together and other than the corrosion problem, I only had to tighten down the pickguard screws to get rid of a small gap.
Although I'm a beginner to the guitar and don't have alot of experience playing, I'm sure this guitar could sell for much more than it does. It's the best value I could find after shopping for 3 months on all kinds of strats.
Highly recommended, it's a joy to play and folks who see it are guarenteed to say 'wow'.
*After 5 months of learning to play on this guitar I'm still ecstatic over it. Dollar for dollar, it's the best thing I could have purchased, in looks and in quality of manufacture. It's surely not perfect, but for 200 bucks it's freaking fabulous! If you want anything better you must step up to the 5-600 dollar range. Even more highly recommended than when I first bought it! *
