Poor quality control by Epiphone. I had to return the guitar 3 times. First 2 times the humbuckers were plated. The 3th time, the bindings were milled to deep at several places. At those places you felt the paint was milled off as it felt rough. What a disappointment. Shame on you Epiphone. Luckily I ordered, as always, at Thomann. As I told the customer care service about the bad guitars, they organised a quality control by the service center to make sure that the 4th would be perfect, and it is. It's a beautiful guitar which sound great, once you have a good copy.