DC-Junior FAT Benton Blue : Good for the money

A lot of the reviews on the internet make it sound like this guitar is an absolute steal. I agree that its value for money but I was less enamoured, I think I paid the right money for it.

I bought it as a project guitar so none of the issues [below] are a problem for me and nothing I wouldn't expect to see on a budget guitar anyway, I just think that buying online its worth knowing what sort of thing you might find, that a picture online cant/wont show you. Also, I'm only going to point out the extremes, good or bad, if I don't highlight then it was ok/good.

The first thing that I noticed (probably the way I unboxed) were the tuning pegs. Very plasticky with obvious mould lines and dirty. On closer inspection the dirt was actually the plastic, like it had been tuned by someone with acetone on their fingers. I had so sand them to get rid of the dirty markings but that got rid of the mould lines too, and they look ok now. Otherwise the tuners are holding the strings in tune ok and are not particularly gritty or scratchy.

The frets were very scratchy and there was a small amount of fret sprout (but maybe I'm just sensitive to these things). The paint on the neck was visibly rippled. It was also super glossy, the kind your sweaty hand will stick to, so sanding sorted out both issues (although, even after sanding there are still low spots in the paint where its still glossy).

There were small blemishes in the paint on the neck and body (3-5mm black marks that are in the paint). As mentioned, I sanded the neck to remove the ripples so I know the marks were in the paint; not on top. Probably wouldn't be notable if the guitar wasn't bright blue, to be fair any blemish will be immediately obvious.

I wanted to use the black livery (gimmicky, perhaps, but I do really like the fact you get to choose, btw) but unfortunately the scratch plate doesn't quite fit properly, there' a couple of mm gap between the neck and the scratch plate at the top end and about 5mm at the bottom end. A gap is probably normal, but its the fact its on a slant. Barely noticeable, can be sanded even, I just point it out because there was no gap with the white scratch plate. Also one of the white knobs broke on removal, my fault I guess but I was using a knob puller that I've used on all my other guitars no issues. There was a bit of foam packing under the pick up that I initially thought was odd but that's apparently quite normal; in lieu of springs.

The tone knob does nothing until you get to about 2 and half, then it kicks in abruptly. There is no tone control, its on or off. The coil split didn't do anything either, but that may be a faulty pot since the tone does nothing either?

Overall I really like the guitar, I like the tone, I like the colour, I like the fact you can choose between black and white livery. I think its good value for money, I don't think its a steal, I think you get what you pay for. Its a solid guitar that you can play out of the box, at a low enough price you can bash it around a bit or modify without worrying about damaging; as you might a more expensive instrument.