I have never tried an Edwards, all I know is its a part of ESP, never heard a bad thing though. How is the wood,fit,finish,electrics etc etc...
I've owned five Edwards guitars, I only have two of them left but that's not because I was disappointed with them in any way.
It's hard to comment on the
quality of the timber, I'm no expert, but they always seem to use very lightweight mahogany - my LP was only 8 pounds 5 ounces. My Potbellys both had one-piece bodies, which I wouldn't expect at the price. I couldn't say what species of mahogany it is, it may be a far eastern equivalent, but it certainly looks and sounds like mahogany! If it has a flame maple top, the flame will probably be a veneer - but the plain top underneath
will be solid maple, of the proper thickness.
Necks tend to be quite fat, roughly a Gibson '59 shape. Most of the LP models have long tenon neck joints.
The finish is usually some kind of poly, some of the more expensive models have nitro but I've read that it's actually nitro top coats over a poly base (which is what Fender sometimes do as well, apparently). Anyway, they look great.
Pickups are almost always Seymour Duncan (USA, not "Duncan Designed"), the tuners are usually Gotoh and the bridges/tailpieces are Gotoh or something very similar. Some models even have TonePros parts (not sure if this applies to any LP models). The electronics are of the far eastern variety and (IMO) usually need replacing.
Basically, they're very good and worth buying if you can get one for a reasonable price.
I agree that Japanese Tokais are worth considering, and also the Japanese market Epiphones (with the proper Gibson headstock shape), which are absolutely excellent if you can find them. Of course if you're ready to buy secondhand, there are other Japanese brands like Greco, Burny and Orville by Gibson.