R-458MN WH Progressive Series : This is actually very good

14th fret onwards were kinda rough for my guitar so you either break it in with the factory strings or polish them just before you install a new set of strings.

Tuning the 8th string F# down to E loses its clarity and definition so you might want to get a thicker gauge than the factory .74 gauge like an .80.

Maybe changing the pickups can also fix this problem but keep in mind it's a 26.5". It remains very snappy if you leave it at F#.

Fastest mod you can do out of the box is to wire the pickups into series.

Here's the color coding:

Red- Hot output

White- coil tap

Black- coil tap

Green+bare- ground

The red wire is soldered together with the white wire on the selector so what you want to do is to remove the white wire. The black wire is also soldered to the back of the pot. Remove it.

Solder white and black together and tape them or use heatshrink tubing. Something better would be buying a metric size(8mm) push-pull potentiometer and solder it there.

US size potentiometers require reaming of the holes to 9.5mm.