OK....enough of the pseudo politically "incorrect" commentary, uh...OK...
When Mr.Coppola appeared and presented this instrument of course we were excited to see just how it would stack up to the status quo "top of the line" instruments that we've pulled off the shelf in the music supermarkets. The first thing we realized was the many months of handcrafting appeared right off the bat to be justified. In the light the 3D finish on the body appeared to resemble a Coronal Mass Ejection of cosmic proportions. "12 coats of clear lacquer and locked in a dust free humidity controlled room for 3 weeks to dry. Buffing was performed between coats with a large cloth wheel and special compounds." These pictures don't do justice as they were taken without any buffing or polish by us and there are hand and fingerprint smudges from handling which we didn't remove prior to snapping the photos. Even the commercial parts (pickups, pegs, tailpiece) were tweaked with an experienced articulate luthiers' touch. The next thing was the low action with very little "buzz". I noticed that the fret wires were very deep, lessening the chance of future buzz problems. "OK, Vince, let's plug it in." Great sustain and despite my best efforts, bending the Floyd Rose Lic....I couldn't make it go out of tune. Maybe the tone is somewhat like a LP with a FR. What a beautiful instrument!