ST-62CC MN Shell Pink : Good guitar but needs work

I'm a professional musician and session player.

I bought this guitar to modify and only use in studio when I need a ''vintage'' single coil strat sound.

Out of the box: Good finish, not perfect but for the price its nice. stock pickups sounded a bit harsh to my ears, but they are not bad, the dynamics and characteristics are there.

Neck feels smooth and nicely finished. frets are rough but no sharp edges. everything is nicely rounded. bridge and tuners are decent and they do the job, just don't expect too much for this price.

The biggest problem I had were the action and the setup. it was very hard to get a fairly low actions (only 2mm across on 12th fret) without fret buzz here and there.

I changed everything on this guitar, in fact the only thing stock now is the body and neck. I had to polish the frets and eventually shim the neck to make it playable to my specifications.

I used it in the studio on few session and I'm happy with the results. in fact I don't think I will manage to find a 400$ (cost after mods) guitar that will look, play and sound better, not stock at least.