I recently got a Jay Turser flying V which despite having stock hardware plays and sounds amazing. Cost me $250. I still wouldn't have even considered it if the sound wasn't already great, because I'm so tired of swapping pickups hoping that I can "fix" the sound in a certain way. The output is a bit low but it sounds great, so even if the guitar just makes the output lower I can live with it.
I also hadn't even been considering the guitar, because I'm a short guy and Gibson type Vs look huge on me, but a friend was considering getting it; he'd told me if it weren't a piece of junk (being a Jay Turser) he'd consider it because of the price tag alone. That's when I said "Ok then, let's try it and see how it sounds at least". When it kicked both our asses, stock hardware and strings older than Moses, even compared with several other great sounding guitars in the store (which cost upwards of $1000), he still couldn't bring himself to buy it. He asked me skeptically "Yeah...but is it made of real mahogany?" I told him who cares, as long as it looks great, sounds great, plays great...and besides, where do you get the good mahogany from nowadays anyway. If this is a "mahogany like species" and it sounds this good, that's fine by me because I prefer the guitar not to weigh 12+lbs.
So despite not even wanting a guitar of this type, not needing another guitar, I couldn't pass up something that sounded this good at that price. I knew I wouldn't find another guitar this good for a long time, even at a higher price.
The tuners got replaced, and I may replace the bridge later if I find I have any issues with it. I'm not sure what to do about the pickups, but I'll decide that in a few months after I'm more familiar with the guitar. At the moment I'm thinking "don't change them if they sound fine", but I know me...I'll probably try changing them just because.