ok...got the marauder.
it's totally rad. the neck isn't thin and in fact has a very comfortable shape. it's on the heavy side. the strings were put on the wrong way on the GBE and it pulled the nut off to the side....no biggie but i couldn't play it outta the box.
it was dirty as fuk but cleaned up nicely. i can't remember ever having a solid body guitar made out of maple. it's pretty tight and ringy when played acoustic. the frets are low and wide, the gibson norm on some models at that time and it's one thing i don't like about the guitar (not a deal breaker though and doesn't need a refret...thankfully)
it sounds interesting...good interesting too. like nothing else...a bit like a strat, a bit like a tele...nothing like a gibson. the pickups are bill lawrence designed and all his pu's tend to make everything have a tele quality. i'm going to have to ebay a set of just the pu's and try them out in an alder, mahogany, pine, or basswood......i have a slight crush on a couple of his old pickups (the L350, and the old tele ones...). now the S1 and the marauder deluxe (block markers, blend instead of selector) are in my sites.
so.....the marauder rules and i'm a happy fuk that got a great deal. all is good.