ST-25TH Firemist : What a phenomenal instrument !

I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years, I’ve played live, recorded, and have done a couple small tours. I intend to get back into making music and gigging, as such, I like my instruments to be professional. My main guitar for heavy music is a high end schecter, and it’s beautiful. But I needed a high quality guitar for my non metal interests. And I found the HB 25th Anniversary ST, truthfully I was not expecting much from HB. Out of the box the guitar was near flawless. It is outrageously beautiful, and plays perfect. I don’t understand how HB can make such high quality instruments and sell them for so little. If I had to pick one detail that makes this guitar stand out, it’s the neck. It’s chunkier than my schecter, but in a good way, though it doesn’t quite feel like Vintage Strat. The flames maple and stainless steel frets are perfect….The one con is maybe the pickups, I’m not saying they’re bad, because I somewhat like them, but I could see why someone would want to replace them for more traditional sounding Strat pups. The stock pups are a midrange heavy, a little Hi-Fi sounding, modern take on Strat pickups. If you are on the fence about buying one of these 25th an guitars. Just do it you won’t regret it.