This guitar was everything that I was hoping for. Its lightweight, but has excellent sustain. I lucked out on this one, the neck on this, like the neck on my maple necked affinity strat are two of the nicest finished necks as far as frets go, even out doing some of the Fender Mexican Player strats I've come across. Or even a few of the Jackson JS32's I've come across.The small headstock improves the balance and reduces the neck dive that the large headstock affinity model has.The finish application to the fretboard on the sonic is a bit thin/lacking in a few places, but the back of the neck the finish is perfect, a nice speedy satin. The pickup, while nothing to write home about is plenty adequate to not need to replace it right away, and the tone knob provides a very usable range for the pickup thicker, but not muddy when rolled off, and brightens up nicely as you go up.The slightest adjustment to the truss rod removed the tiniest bit of string buzz but all in all, that wouldn't even have been truely necessary except for my OCD.I honestly find myself picking up this or my squier affinity strat as much or more so than my 90s Fender MIM, and that guitar was twice the price and that was in 90s dollars...*Note, I've had better luck with the fretwork on the maple necks than the indian laurel necks.