Overall I’m quite impressed with the overall workmanship. The finishing, although a bit plasticy because it’s spanking new urethane, is faultless. The neck is very nice: regular graining with even some very slight flame/crossgraining all over the neck. It has white dots and a laminated rosewood board, quite dark and evenly grained. I knew the CIJ JM’s are quite nice guitars but often found myself battling with the stock setup with .009 strings which made it hard sometimes to evaluate their playability. When I got mine it was strung with .010s which was a whole lot better although the action was a little high.
I decided I would try it with even thicker strings so I removed the tens to replace them with my favoured Jaguar strings (Ernie Ball .011-.054). The extra load would add more relief so I had to adjust the neck too. I loosened the neck screws and gave the adjuster half a turn. After restringing and tuning up the neck was near straight with just a hint of relief. With the bridge lowered a few mm’s I was able to get a very low action without any buzz. I counted myself lucky to find perfect intonation with the preset I choose for the saddles and no noticeable rattling. After readjusting the tremolo spring I was very pleased with the feel and playability. The PU’s could be better but with the heavy strings the sound is already impressive. Even unplugged it has a very rich and deep voice with nice jangle on top.
I’ll keep this guitar stock for a while but my plan is to upgrade the pickups with Novaks or Lollars and replace all electric parts and wiring. Because I’m not so fond of this pickguard I’ll probably replace it with a gold guard. I can't wait until next rehearsal so I can make some more noise and see how it fits with the band
. I like this 3TS too as it's executed well, not at all like a target burst, no nasty grain showing underneath and a good blend between the three tones. As for the gold guard I'll wait and see if Doug's plan to replicate his original guard comes through. If it doesn't I might see if I can get my hands on a Scotland guard sometime. 
