my two penneth...
Since i saw the link for these asian guitars yesterday i have been pouring over the site....That green les paul is stunning...soooo much so its now my desktop background and also "I must build a green top les paul" is on the list.
Im a real "vintage/trad" kinda guy....Gibson, fender, les pauls, strats, and teles....and other gibbos....im not a fan of the PRS brigade....but ...some of the guitars on that asian site look amazing...and ok so its off from tradition but that green trans, blue trans looks so sweet on the les paul body shape...with the zebra pick ups..
My view...Sure...they are asian....but you can see from the pics they are made well....and my view on cheaper guitars....if they are made of the correct timbers....real maple caps and not veneer etc....then with our "knowledge" and "skills" ( im talking all us budding luthiers) we have the ability to make pretty much any guitar play well, stay in tune and maybe with new pick ups have killer tone.
For $600 ( about £350) i would have one of these guitars....full set up, fret dress, replace pick ups...and for £500 you would have a killer guitar...back up, or something that just looks amazingly COOL for that song or 2 !!
we should all by now with our luthier skills be able to pick up say a Squier or jap fender and make it play as well as a US built guitar? ( maybe a debateable example but you get what i mean) or an epiphone to hold up well against a gibbo?.
saying all that....a while ago i very nearly plumped for an xaviere shell top zemaitis style ( Tony came from my neck of the woods as did Sid Poole )...but they seemed too good to be true?...and the headstock looked a bit "cheap"...but again i was happy to spend a couple of hundred quid (pounds) on it...but are they really that bad? anyone played one? is it just bad set up and fretwork? ...are these so called GFS pick ups as good as the hype or terrible?....
and the person that mentioned the Aria...i have a 76 aria pro les paul custom....as a spare/back up for my gibbos...and it handles very well...!..