Always putzed around with guitars from when I was young. Got married , had kids so I never had the time to really get into it. Now all 4 kids are grown and I have the time so I've been pretty serious about playing. Always wanted a Gibson SG but could never really come up with the money. Figured I'd "settle" and buy this guitar because its as nice looking as a Gibson. Boy was I wrong. Straight out of the box the only thing I had to do was tune it. Stretched and retuned the strings a second time and played with this thing for about 6 hours over the last two days. Holds its tune very well. This make me sound like a champ. Playing chords on this guitar was effortless. I like the fact that the neck is wider at the top. I have fat fingers and always had a problem hitting my A chord. Did it with two fingers instead of three. On this guitar I can actually jam three fingers in those two frets and hit that A. My only gripe with this guitar is that there is only one peg for the strap. On the Gibson the second peg is where the neck meets the body on the back. This has the plate because its a bolt on neck. Not a deal breaker. I'll come up with something.