Sterling really does put out a great guitar for the money and the used market is full of deals! I have an AX-40D that's really nice and I've been eyeing the JP options for a while!
I really like the guitar so far. It's kinda weird tho...I took this and my LTD M-100FM to my last band practice and it almost seemed like the Custom Custom in the bridge of my LTD had more output than the Crunch Lab in the Sterling. The CC in that LTD sounds amazing.