I do not know the year or country of manufacture. I bought this from the original owner in 2010 and it was a burgundy/wine color finish (you can see traces of the original paint/finish in the photos). I proceeded to remove all of the branding and relic it myself. I've done this to dozens of guitars and sold over 50 of them on Reverb in the past. I have subjected the parts that have no FUNCTION (the plate under the bridge/around the pickup....the tuning KNOBS...the neck plate, the cover for the neck pickup, etc) to a process that removes the chrome and at least "dulls" the finish but sometimes actually gets down to the copper layer (thus the verdigris on the bridge plate). None of the moveable/functioning parts of the guitar have been treated at all so the electronics, the tuning pegs, the bridge, etc. have all been kept in original working condition. The backs of the tuning pegs have been coated with a paint-like substance that has actual iron in it, then lightly sprayed with acid to produce rust. It's ONLY on the surface and could be scraped off to reveal the original brushed nickel underneath. The body is definitely swamp ash - the guitar weighs 9lbs. As for sound - like anything, it's subjective. I'm fairly certain that the pickups are original but the bridge pickup seems to be a little subdued in it's output but, again, that's just one person's opinion. The bridge is a jaguar bridge. The pickguard is tooled leather. Everything works as it should - the action is good, no buzzing frets and it stays in tune nicely even when using the Bigsby. To say it's a head-turner would be a severe understatement. Every single time this guitar has been played at a gig I get multiple people coming over to ask me about it. If you like relic guitars - you won't find one that looks this "bad" but plays this good! Case is nothing to write home about but it "matches" the guitar - I tore the covering off it by hand.