In my opinion it plays beautifully - however i am slightly biased! I used it throughout my "pro" days (75/76), before it was stripped. I think the gaffa is there as it's missing the screw, but I'm reluctant to pull it off in case something more goes wrong. Don't know what happened to that fret. And yesterday, while I took those photos, the case decided to fall apart again, luckily I have some black Gorilla tape somewhere. I reckon the truss rod is holding it together OK at the moment, though it does seem to be inside the neck a little bit.