TE-90FLT VW Deluxe Series : Not Quite as Expected

I chose this guitar on the sounds due to the pickups and reviews I have heard. I notice not mant written reviews mention the actual SOUNDS but lots of other issues. The Guitar was my Christmas present and it came poorly packaged and the box it was in too shallow for this model. the volume Tone and selector switch all punctured the lid. Not good but however no damage to the guitar but that was luck,. The guitar is not beautiful in my opinion. Too much whiteish paint and the wood beneth is not particularlygood grain with differences in the grain pattern and some black or dark graining. The neck is a very white bland maple and the matt finish makes it look very cheap. I prefer a Gloss finish. Fender introduced matt neck finishes as a cost reduction then found a "reason" But 70's guitarists were not slowed down by the finish and protecting the instrument is my top priority hence gloss finish is prefered. Maybe if you are Steve Vai you could claim a speed advantage but the feel of the neck is cheap compared to the TE52 and the TE90FLT VW boasts on the headstock Delux which it is not. The Pickguard is rough from the CNC machine, I got £90 guitars with a better pickgurd. The feel of the neck is not HOME for my hands and string tension is on the high side.. The machine heads are fine I never had poor machine heads on a Harley benton. The rest of the hardware is good quality but the guitar is not lookinganywhere near std let alone delux. The sounds are more or less what I expected and this is a diferent sounding guitar to the TE52. The pickups are of reasonable output and give some nice sounds for blues ad funk. However dont expect ritch bass notes to roll off those filtertron style pickups. Also full chords can be a bit cluttered compared to Gibson pickups which articulate every note. The sound is what I got this guitar for and it delivers the difference to compliment my other guitars. So I am Happy but not over the moon. The JA60 for example is far more Delux than this is and will blow you away with feel accuracy and sheer versitility. The TE52 is also a bigger bang for buck.