Heh, what a funny story, eh? Just like in the fairy tales - the little ugly daughter who was actually an amazing princess
There are times, when we encounter things like these - for instance, a friend of mine owns a very old Romanian built guitar, that looks incredibly raggedy and unelegant - he dubbed her Elisabeth. Well, Elisabeth's tone can match any expensive Tele out there
Proven fact! Dunno if I can reach him anymore, as he became quite an elusive person, but if I will manage to convince him to record something with it, I will surely post that recording here
QUOTE (AdamB @ Feb 12 2014, 03:32 PM)
On the buying off the internet un-played, I've had mixed results with that. However, I did buy a guitar lately, a fake JEM (I knew it was fake when I bought it, it was quite cheap), which turned out to be the best playing guitar and best sounding guitar I've ever played, and I'm thrilled to bits with it.
It's built horribly, really horribly. It was someones project guitar I think, sort of a JEM/RG knock off, painted horribly and all the screws that hold on the pickguard etc. are in at weird angles, the pickguard doesn't fit quite right and has been trimmed. Also I think it was originally for single coils and has been dremel'd out to fit buckers. The trem routing was widened by hand I think, as it's all uneven and looks ghastly. The electrics are shot, I still have to replace both pots as they only work in their full on position (the tone one can't be moved, it doesn't rotate anymore for some reason).
But, for some unknown reason, it sounds and plays beautifully. It really is a mystery to me. The neck feels perfect, the action is spot on. I even have no idea what the pickups are, they were black humbuckers and have been painted green in something that looks like nail polish. But my god they sound good.
I also own a bunch of other RG's (real actual ibanez guitars, not cheap copies), including a prestige 1750 with evo's, an RG1xxV and an RG3 25th. They all look and play great, but for some reason this knock off guitar knocks spots off of them. I'm glad to say the build quality on the others is far higher, though!
-Adam
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Haha! I don't know Ben... maybe a bit of both? 
In Romanian, it's Elisabeta ... and I think she looks a bit like this:
