Well, despite my pessimism, the Post Office delivered my guitar this morning. That's actually about the same time it would have taken UPS, and even better they delivered it around 9:30 AM. UPS usually doesn't come until the late afternoon. So my apologies to the Post Offce (see, quasi-government entities do work sometimes
).
As for the guitar, this one didn't have any scratches whatsoever. However, I ran my fingertip across the pickguard, and it immediately showed a surface scratch. Not sure what it's made of, but it scratches VERY easy. I mean, c'mon, a fingertip. This explains to some the degree the previous one I had received. I thought it had been rode hard and put away wet, but maybe not so much as I originally suspected.
This one also had some intonation issues. Not as bad as the first one, but it also has some issues between the G string and the A note, as well as on the low E string and the G note on that string. This time I tried fooling around with the truss rod, and it improved it quite a bit. Still not perfect, but it maybe suggests that having a guitar tech set it up would be the way to go. I just hate having to spend another $75 or $100 on a brand, new guitar.
This one also doesn't seem to "perform" as well as the first one. My suspicion is that it's the way the pickups are adjusted. It tends to favor the bass pickup when both pickups are in use, and doesn't have the same rawness as the first one. A little less sustain as well. I played with the pickup height a little, but it's still not where I would like it to be. Here again, maybe this is something a good guitar tech could improve.
MF provides a 45-day return policy. So I'm gonna keep it for at least a week or so before I decide what to do. For $600, I was expecting to be a little happier with it. While this was all going on, I also started eyeing up a Hagstrom Viking guitar (
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/hagstrom-viking-semi-hollowbody-electric-guitar). However, I would really like to check it out first. Guitar Center is running the same 15% off sale over this weekend, but unfortunately they don't the Hagstrom in stock.
I'll let you know what happens.