I bought this for my nephew, strung it with 11's, set it up a bit, and, I'll be damned, I wouldn't be ashamed to play this live except for the scale, how good a guitar and quality is. The pickups are amazing, I would never expect that in this price range, the neck has graphite reinforcements, other big brand name guitars that are much more expensive do not include that feature. I would defenetly recommend this or the Dinky Minion for beginners, because they are an unexpectedly good guitars. Frets polished and leveled,, rounded edges, man, I should by this for myself just to have a Randy Rhoads style guitar for home use.