Heh, I just BOUGHT a Gibson, a mid nineties Les Paul Studio (the ones without the binding) of which the former owner replaced the pickups with Dimarzio humbuckers.
When picking up the guitar, it was set up with 009 strings and the bridge pickup was set in way too low but when I tried it out through a VOX AC30 the sound of the guitar floored me.
So I got it home, slapped on a set of 011 strings, adjusted the bridge pickup and adjusted the neck, that was all it needed, through my London city tube head and Marshall 4x12 cab I got that classic Les Paul-and-cooking-EL34-amp sound that you hear on classic rock albums.
The Dimarzio pickups have a little more highs, which makes for a versatile sound.
Maybe you should've tried out the V through a Marshall rather than a Fender. As for set up issues (I guess you can call me biased because I have ten years of luthiery experience) there's nothing that a little elbow grease can't fix.
Sharp fret ends: Get out 1000 grid sand paper and carefully smoothen that out.
Bowed neck: Get out the allan key and give the truss rod a yank.
Pickups not evenly matched: A screwdriver will fix that problem quite nicely when used to highten or lower the pickup in question.
Scratchy pots: Just treat them with contact spray.
Seriously, have you guys who complain about set ups in music stores, forgotten that when one of us buys a car, also does a lot of work on that car himself to get it right? How many of you for example change the oil yourself or install a CD/MP3 player or aplies his or her own touches?
You guys seem to think that every guitar in the shop needs to play heavenly, its a simple truth that it's not the case. Because everyone of us prefers another set up, those guitars are set up in a way that each of us can adjust it to his or her own needs after we get it home. My Gibson was not properly set up, it had strings that felt horrible and yet I saw that with a little TLC I could bring out its full potential.