R-458BK Fanfret : good luck hearing the entire range

For the price, really, I couldn't ask for very much more. Thing plays better than I was expecting, tuning stability is deceptively good, pots are quiet, neck has zero dead spots, etc.

Basically, the thing is great EXCEPT for the fact that, for whatever reason, the pickups frequency response is pretty much zero in the high end. Mushy, muddy tone down low on the 7th and 8th string (again, better than i was expecting for under 200$), and you cant even hear the 1st string about 80% of the time you're playing it. No clue if i got bad pickups or not, but damn did that kill my enjoyment of it. Could always drop new pickups in it, but this thing being routed slanted and for soapbars leaves me very little choice in what i can put in there, all of which being more expensive than the rest of the guitar.

In short, it's good for the price, and for once, a HB sounds like its price.