Epiphone Les Paul Special VE HCSB

I've been playing for well over a decade and in that time I've played dozens of epiphones, squiers, harley bentons etc and, in my opinion, this is one of the better guitars in that price range. It feels wonderful to play, sounds excellent and the finish looked gorgeous (a lot better in person than it does in the picture, I reckon!). I bought this for my brother as his first electric guitar and it did the trick nicely. The neck feels very fast and responsive and I'm quite a fan of the single tone/volume knobs as it helps keep things simple for beginners. My one criticism is that the frets are a little sharp. Other than that, it is an outstanding piece of gear for the money!

Either I hit the jackpot or Thomann gifted me a full setup.
Pros:
- Absolutely beautiful finish, the paint job is great and the coating is extraordinarily thin lacquer, so the neck feels great, no gloss, not sticky at all.
- The fret job is brilliant, this might be me being lucky but no sharp fret ends at all and the level is great, checked the whole neck and only one rocks VERY slightly, does not merit a fret job.
- The guitar came fully set up: everything, intonation is spot on, the action came already set LOWER than 1.5mm on the treble side and around 2.0mm on the bass side, no buzzing. Neck perfectly straight. Pickup height correct, but that is down to preference. Only had to tune it and it was ready to rock.

Cons (sort of~):
- Not objectively a con but the pickups are HOT, god are they loud. They sound correct and pretty much the best you could expect for the price.

Others:
- I still can't give an opinion on the tuners, but they do their job.

Before I ordered it I asked Thomann if they could check the fret levels before sending it, they said no problem, add it to the order notes.
Got no word back from them after the order, so not sure if the setup is due to them but it sure has worked out for me! Best buy in my lifetime, plays like a dream.