Item Reviews for:
Subject
A-w-e-s-o-m-e
Quality
Would you consider this product to be made well? How dependable?
Reliability
How has it stood up over time?
Overall
Your general opinion of this product.
Playability and Feel
How does it feel, Heavy, Fast, Chunky? How was the neck? Are the controls easy to get to while playing?
Tone
Bright and snappy? Dark and smooth? Were the pickups hot, mellow, thick, thin?
Finish
How did the stain or paint job look?
Action
How was the action out of the box?
Subject
Great guitar for this price range!
Tamlyn from Marstons Mills, MA, USA
Quality
Would you consider this product to be made well? How dependable?
This is the best oriental made guitar I have ever played and it also has the best fit and finish of any foriegn guitar I own. I love the Epiphones I own that I bought in the mid 60's. I stopped buying Epiphones in 1969 and only just recently bought 4 of them. A Chinese Custom Shop Les Paul Custom with a honey flamed top, a Chinese 61 Les Paul reissue, an Epiphone American made Wilshire ( made in the Gibson Custom shop) and a John Lennon Casino (American made on the original tooling in Kalamazoo in 2005). It is really nice to see Gibson bringing back some American made reissue Epiphones. Epiphone made some really nice guitars in the 50's and 60's. I really love my vintage Epi's and now that they are making some high end American guitars again I will be adding these to my collection
Reliability
How has it stood up over time?
I have owned this guitar for 2 years and have had no problems at all with it. I use this guitar to gig with for the most part, I generally use my 360/12 Rickenbacker for recording and any time I need just a 12 string. I also keep the Ricky as a backup. This guitar is heavy and the 2 necks also make it very unbalanced so it is very much a niche instrument. I would give it a 10 out of 10 for reliability
Overall
Your general opinion of this product.
I was totally shocked when I played this in the store. This is one of the very few Epiphones made overseas that comes real close to it's Gibson counterpart.
I am going to change the pickups to Gibson Dirty Fingers on the 6 and 57 classics on the 12.
Playability and Feel
How does it feel, Heavy, Fast, Chunky? How was the neck? Are the controls easy to get to while playing?
Well all double necks are both top heavy and heavy overall. The 12 string is very easy to play, the strings aren't particularly close together ( much wider neck than the Rickenbacker) making it easy to play without unintentionally muting an adjacent string ( this is a big problem with the Rickenbacker 12, I have small hands so for me it is no big deal but for guys who have large fingers often can't play it. The 6 string plays just like my SG except for the weight and balance issue. As playable as it is it is really only practical for songs where you need one player to play both 6 & 12, it is just too heavy to hold for even a 1 hour set.
Tone
Bright and snappy? Dark and smooth? Were the pickups hot, mellow, thick, thin?
12 string is bright and chimes really nice. 6 string is chunky and easy to get it to overdrive the amp ( I only use tube amps).
Finish
How did the stain or paint job look?
This particular guitar has a great fit and finish. it is mahogany with a flamed maple cap. The flamed maple has alot of very distinct grain ( I bought the cherry color).
Action
How was the action out of the box?
Very playable out of the box, low action, no buzzing. Intonation was off a bit. I could have played it as it came but I set it up anyway.