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I purchased this from Guitar Center’s site last week and it was live for only a few days. Now I see it on Musician’s Friend:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/gu…ric-guitar
From my understanding, this was a house brand for Guitar Center that has gone out of business. Most of their lineup was low end beginner guitars. Think along the lines of Squire. This one, however, is pretty sweet (especially for $ 400). "Greg Howe" signature model, he seemed to tour with it for quite some time. I don’t think I would spend the MSRP on this, however.

I think their quality control isn’t up to par with some of the other guitars in the >$ 500 price range due to a few small issues I’ve read about with things like fret ends, etc. Mine came back with one exposed fret end and a small dent in the neck. But overall, the pickups sound great, the neck feels awesome in my hands, and the color is beautiful.

If you can get past your bias that this is a non-Fender/Gibson/Ibanez, I think for $ 399 this deal is hard to beat.