So I've decided to keep it.
All the whining and hand-wringing about the s/n aside, it's a great guitar. My conversations with MIRC have settled my mind that it's likely not a stolen guitar. I've told the seller that I'll take his partial refund offer. Doesn't hurt to have some spending money in the ol' paypal account.
I'm a bit dissapointed in the color because it's not what I thought it would be. Here's the seller's pic next to mine:
The Bluesbird is the guitar on the left. As you can see, it's very brown. Not at all the color it appeared in the original photo. As you can see from my Les Paul, I love that Brockburst kind of color, and was really hoping that it would look like the first photo. Ah well. That sort of disappointment is forgotten when you find ruined serial numbers.
I'll be writing a comparison to my R9 soon, and then I'll be dropping my HB1s into it and reporting on them. I'll then probably go nuts hunting for prettier HB1s since mine have the chrome worn off of all the screws.
