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It'll be interesting to see where it goes. Vintage feel like a clear direct competitor for the higher end HBS, at least, bearing in mind that's probably what they'd retail at if being sold via the normal wholesale / retail distribution model. I'd be very happy to see more HBs of a type I fancy in and around the £250 mark (in the real world, that would be £400-450ish in the usual retail chain) if it meant just enough of an upgrade spec. I'm hoping they eventually do more of the Grestch-style Big Tone in CC colours, and left handed... I remember when I was first learning, guys who'd been playing since the seventies waxing lyrical about the quality of 'beginner; instruments. Squier especially - and that was the early nineties, when pretty much all Squiers were plywood bodied, not something I could see them being able to sell now... The really interesting thing is how many more affordable brands that would once have been "or beginners" are now repositioning themselves as "serious" instruments. Vintage are a little more expensive than once they were, yes - though still cheaper than the top end Squiers and middle-range Epiphones as appropriate. Notably, thought, their marketing has them as "guitars for the working musician". It feels to me like the days when guys in bands felt they had to have a Fender or a Gibson to be seen as serious are behind us, and the more expensive, US-built stuff especially is increasingly viewed as luxury rather than 'professional musician's necessity'. Part of it of course is how manufacturing has come on - with advances in CNC, and designs like the Tele having been around so long, the actual cost of putting together a good working tele type now, for example, isn't what it was. Certainly be interesting to see what happens with HB like this. Given how much cheaper their business model lets them be, can you imagine what HB could do with, say, an ST type they could sell for £400? I just hope if they go that way they do their higher end versions of the same wide range, and don't make it all about SCs, or Fusions, or any one type.

And here it is!!! Set up is lovely, and it was practically in tune (I will have to get used to the locking tuners). Frets feel like a tiny polish on top needed, but playing in will deal with that. Neck is gorgeous, and I love the firemist colour. Either a very, very almost imperceptibly tiny ding on the headstock, or a miniscule imperfection on the headstock finish, but that's the sort of thing it'd get in a few days' use with me, so.... Overall, a stunning piece. The gig bag is surprising good, much higher quality than I expected, and the 25th logo inside it is a nice touch. Highly recommended. I still hope they do 5his soec in the CC colours going forward, as a DLX model.