[Brian's Twin]

Mine came as well. Quite astounding what the Chinese can build and ship to your door for $300. It does have two scarf joints in the usual neck locations like every other inexpensive guitar these days, but I must say that the fit & finish is superb. It's a very pretty guitar. I'm guessing that the blowout price is because this model is discontinued as it's no longer on the Alvarez website. But even at it's normal street price of $400 it's a lot of guitar for the money.

The setup is excellent too, right out of the box. I see no need to tweak relief or re-cut the nut or saddle, it plays easily and intonation is good. I have not gotten to playing it amplified yet, but the sound hole controls beckon. I don't expect miracles from an under-saddle peizo, but we'll see. An on-board tuner would have been nice, but I really can't complain at this price point.

The factory D’Addario EXP strings are fine, but I ordered the Martin Lifespan recommended by L20A above, just to see how they sound.

It's interesting playing standard-pitch songs on it, some work and some just lose their oomph. One thing that does seem to work consistently is capoing at 2 or 3. If you strain to hit the high vocals on some songs, it sure solves that problem.

I'm just guessing at this point, but I bet it will excel at adding low twangy single-note fills in recordings. Just add reverb and tremolo and off you go.

More later....