So. I plugged it in today, and put it through its paces with the gunky rounds that were on it. Bright, clangy, very Stingray-ish sounding.
The plaid finish was done by adding the red over a White body, I can feel the raised edges of the red portions. I'm not 100% sure the white is original, either. It could be a refinish.
The action was quite high, I had to wrestle the strings to the fretboard. This will be adjusted upon restringing to BEAD.
Some of the pickup pole pieces are worn away. While it doesn't seem to effect the output, it's visually off-putting to me.
The first knob, furthest from the jack, seems to do nothing at all. The middle knob is volume. The knob closest to the jack seems to be tone. No knob scratches or crackles, but the jack scratches with cable rotation.
I can't get the control plate off. Is there something other than the screws holding it in place, or was is it "glued" onto the body while the paint was wet? The pickguard came off no problem.
The neck has a slight bow. I don't have a truss tool here, so that will wait until I restring in BEAD, as well. The frets and fretboard show visible signs of wear, but appear to be serviceable. I say visible, in that while I can see the string tracks, I can't feel them. Ditto the apparent scalloping. I can't feel it on the frets.
All in all, I'm well pleased. I knew it was going to have issues: it was used by a shop as a loaner/rental at one point before ending up in my hands. But the issues all seem to be easily resolveable, and, barring further issues, I believe that this will become quite the beast in BEAD mode.
