Just a short update - I brought this axe out last night for my gig last night. It was a swanky jazz / latin gig (The red Cross ball) so I was playing several styles.
To my surprise, the tex mex pups & dual sound humbkr really sounded sweet. In fact the actual tone & set up of this axe qualifies it to be in my stable of "gig guitars" rather than just a practise axe.
I guest even cheap guitar can sound good if you upgrade important parts