ST-70 Black Paisley : Great 'bang for the buck' instrument

First Impression:

Solid feel, nice build quality and finish (that Paisley decal...), no cheap feeling whatsoever. Neck is lacquered but isn't sticky.

Setup:

Action on the nut is a bit high but acceptable. String action at the 17th fret was on the high side (~3mm+ for low E). Was able to bring down to ~2.2mm for low E and ~1.75 for high E, anything lower will unfortunately require a fret level on my sample (to be done in the near future) as it starts buzzing quite a lot for GDAE strings. Frets also required some polishing. In the end I guess fretboard state is a bit of a lottery and considering the price I'm OK with it. Tried couple of more expensive Squiers that were not much better in that department.

HW:

Trem looks nice with proper block (not a light thin stuff you may find in this price range) and holds the tuning quite well. Stock tuners did the job just fine, but I replaced them with HB Locking Tuners (same 10mm bore, no need for re-drilling). Tone/Vol knobs are smooth but aren't the lightest to turn.

Sound:

Sound is better than I expected and, at least for me, better than pricier mid-range Squiers, but YMMV.

Summary:

Quite an impressive instrument for the price which I'm happy to recommend (especially if you get one of the better samples) and

with some TLC+DIY (if you're up to it) can become 'a killer' one.