This ^ exactly! Back in 2012 I went into Hartnoll's in Taunton with all intent and purpose of buying a Gibson Thunderbird, they were £1199 at that time, and like SteveXFR, after the Gibson I tried out an Epiphone, this model being their newly released Classic Pro Thunderbird IV, neck through with the Gibson pups (£499) so little was the difference, (the Gibson had a slightly thinner neck) I saved myself from paying an extra £700 for basically a Truss rod cover with "Gibson" on it!