I'll try to be as straightforward as possible.
I've been playing live for 2 years now. I constantly alternate between clean and distorted sounds and wanted a guitar which can really handle high gain sounds as the band and I are heading more and more in that direction. This guitar was within my price range and I decided that this is the guitar I need since I already have another which handles clean and low gain sounds quite well.
The guitar is clearly made to handle high gain sounds and does so very nicely, especially if you're the lead guitarist. It can produce some really sharp, yet controlled, tight and refined tones. It's great for rythm guitar as well, the power chords sound massive, mean and you can really make them roar, although you'll have to adjust your playing style if you're not used used to humbuckers (and make some adjustments to ALL of your modelling amp presets if you're using one, like me).
The clean tones are quite nice, thick and warm. You don't get a lot of versatility with this guitar which is just fine as it's clearly made to be good handling high gain sounds. The split coil option really comes close to sounding like a strat-style guitar, but it's not quite the same. The three way switch provides three distinct spins on both clean and distorted sounds, though. You can really make the clean tones pop and the distortion roar even on the low E string with the bridge pick up position.
All in all, I'm quite pleased with the instrument. I wanted something that can handle high gain and I'm definitely not sorry. In my opinion, it's a very solid instrument which excels at what it's made for.
