SC-450Plus LD Vintage Series : What a cracker

I bought this after checking the specs against a similar Vintage brand guitar and after receiving the Harley Benton I am absolutely convinced that this HB is an identical guitar.

First off, the HB is not perfect by any means but I have to say that for the money it's an unbelievable buy.

I'll do the cons first. There were a couple of tiny, tiny flaws in the veneer top but you have to really hunt for these and are practically invisible. The tuners were ok but felt a bit cheap and were slightly loose due to what seems to be oversized holes for the retaining screws. The knobs are also a bit cheap feeling as well.The coil tap is a nice touch but really thins out the sound - though I should say I'm not a fan of coil tapping anyway. In terms of construction it's not bad with only a couple of bits of glue evident beneath the finish and these again are not really visible unless you are super picky and really looking for them.

Now for the pros. This guitar has a mahogany back and neck and definitely has a maple cap with a very nicely matched flamed maple veneer. It looks absolutely amazing. The neck is very comfortable and it has a rosewood fingerboard. The fingerboard was slightly dry but a good dose of lemon oil sorted that out. The frets are fine, well seated and finished. I think the bridge and tailpiece are both adequate and have no plans to change them.

I should add that this is quite a heavy guitar but then given the timbers which have gone into it's production that shouldn't be a surprise.

I changed the machineheads for some others which are identical apart from having better quality, white buttons. I also removed the scratchplate and the Rhythm/Treble plate to show off the amazing top on the guitar.

The electrics are typical of an Asian build with small pots and relatively cheap capacitors but they work ok.

My plans are to upgrade the wiring and swap the Wilkinson pickups simply because I want the slightly different, spongy sounds from a pickup with an Alnico 2 magnets rather than the Alnico 5 magnets I believe are installed in the guitar.

Would