SC-DLX Gotoh Daphne Blue : It is not a copy of anything, it is its own thing

Looks on this guitar is amazing, honestly if I would have ordered a custom made single cut guitar by a luthier, the features would have been quite similar to this:

- Stainless steel frets

- Volute in the headstock

- Thinner than a Les Paul with comfort cut

- Blue or pink satin finish (well, blue in this case). I don't flavor high gloss finish too much.

- Binding

- Two volumes but only one tone

- Coil split

- Gotoh hardware, non-locking tuners.

- Bright pickups (I would not have thought of Tesla, but I love how clean they are, the PAF that had my Gibson LP sound as if you had put a blanked covering the amp). The Tesla's lose volume with split coil, but that is to be expected. Sound doesn't reach as far as a strat, but it is quite bright and spanky, I love it.

Believe it or not, this was the single cut guitar I had in my head before Harley Benton launched this one. I would have asked for CTS pots, but this ones are Alpha, no need to change them for now.

Things that are not so good:

- Neck dive. Yes, the awful neck dive, not everything can be perfect. Guitar is so cool that it doesn't took me down. I put 200 grams of weight in the control cavity, not totally fixed the dive, but is much much better, with a strap with good gripe is not noticeable. Weight WITH the fix: 3.7 KG, out of the bnox around 3.5 KG.

- 2 frets are not perfectly leveled, but I noticed only measuring it, I don't feel them while playing. All in all the fretjob can be considered as well done.

- 2 of the 3 screw holes of the control plate where dull, but still the screws hold position.

And that's it. Honestly I can't fault this guitar, I think is an awesome instrument for a very affordable price. A branded one with the same quality for sure would be over 500 € and I would not count on the stainless steel frets at that price.