Obviously the first thing I saw was the burl top. I like it as well as the dark rosewood fretboard. And the roasted 5 piece neck. Fit and finish are very good on this guitar. I found no signs of abuse (or wear, actually) looking it over. I don't care that the burl is a thin veneer. It's still real, gorgeous, and I love it. Instead of epoxy filling the gaps you usually see in burl, they let the body wood show in those spots, and that looks really nice.
It had too much neck relief, easily corrected with about a half turn of the truss rod. The action was still a little high. I thought I would address that at the saddles, but the pickups can't go any lower and I don't want them closer to the strings. So I gave it a mild shim and wow. It plays amazingly now and has no issues with high frets anywhere. These SS frets are incredibly well done. I'm guessing a CNC machine does most of it, but they just seem perfect.
The neck itself is a very comfortable compound radius. I'm not sure what the radii are (maybe 10-14?), but it plays effortlessly and it doesn't squank out anywhere and bends are silky smooth. I think the neck shape changes as you go up too. And the neck's satin finish... All that playability is aided by a zero-fret, which I always like, setting the lower fret action superbly. With this good a neck, the guitar could be ugly and I'd still want to keep it.
The tuners could be a bit easier, but they work very well and hold tune so it's all good there. I'm glad they're this style and not the type with the magnet-held crankshaft. I do wish it had a trem though. Interestingly, I realized when shimming the neck that I didn't have to take the strings off. All I did was loosen the tuners, and that's where the ball ends are, they pop right out with the (not a headstock) locking the strings in place at the top. So I took the neck off without removing the strings. Cool. I will replace these strings later though - they're obviously the originals.
Liking the look and playability, it's already a big win for the price. But I might decide I don't like these pickups. They don't get along very well with two of my amps, but the others are fine. The 15.8K bridge doesn't balance with the 7K neck pickup. The 3 low strings sound more muddy than I'd like in the middle and neck positions. So I may replace these pickups, though they do sound good with some amps. I haven't opened the control cavity to see what's in there yet, but I know the tone pot is wired wrong because it's either at 0 or 10, no in-between (typical on lefties). Rewiring or replacing that will be fine at the same time as a potential pickup swap, so it's all good.
Overall it's a real keeper and I freakin stole the guitar for $189.99. I think EART is trying to make a name for themselves, and will then raise their prices. This one punches far above its weight. I can't believe they're making money at this value point. And GC only listed it in "good" condition, so I expected to see some dings, dents, scratches, maybe even a gouge. It has none of that, so I have to assume whoever did the intake process just didn't like the style or didn't like seeing a Strandberg knockoff. No matter, I am beyond happy with this guitar. I am shopping a more proper gig bag for it. But I checked the EART website. They quoted $60 for the right gig bag, but $80 more to ship it. Ouch, not going to pay $140 for that gig bag. It will stay in the $30 Amazon gig bag it came with until I find a good fit at a reasonable price. Actually, someone on a different forum had an interesting idea for headless gig bags - adapt a 49 key keyboard gig bag with custom foam. That sounds smart, so I just ordered one off Amazon for $30 to give that a try. Worst case, one of my keyboards gets a gig bag. Good time to get snowed in tomorrow.
