Ryguy
Silver Supporting Member
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Picked this up last week, and am very impressed - so much so that I feel compelled to post about it!
My bandmate had a cherry one that I uses on a gig last year and really liked, so I picked up an Iced Tea version. They are both similar in terms of fit and finish, tone, and playability, and if they are any indication of the overall quality of Chinese made imports, then Epiphone is clearly doing something right. I had a couple of MIK/Peerless Epiphones back in the day (Casino and Sorrento), and neither were as nice as this guitar. The finish is flawless as far as I can tell, and even the fretwork is very good. The neck is wide and flat. Sort of strange, but not at all unpleasant, even though I generally prefer fat necks. The width and shoulders help it fill out your hands well. I highly doubt I'd pick this in a blind test with a Memphis '63 reissue, but for $400 this one is hard to beat, and it is definitely a gig-ready/worthy guitar.
So far I have swapped out the knobs, and changed the cheap-feeling bridge for a Gotoh drop-in replacement that cost $25 (and which made a noticeable improvement in the tone). I also purchased a Tusq nut that I'm going to install, and will change the pickguard and bracket just because. I'll also probably install a Bisgby B7. Beyond that, I am not sure it really warrants any other upgrades or changes. I always tweak my guitars, so none of the above changes were really necessary per se.
The Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro pickups are very, very nice. I swapped out the stock ones for Seth Lovers in my buddies, and remember my initial impression being that the SLs had darkened and muffled the guitar a bit overall, and that the stock ones maybe even sounded better. I didn't really play it enough after the swap to be sure though, and am planning to get together with him soon to A/B them. I haven't played humbuckers in years, so I plan on getting used to these for a while before deciding whether or not I want to upgrade. Not a necessity though by any means.
One last thing: these have coil switching on both pickups, and so far I am finding some fantastic tones with the split buckers. Particularly when using the middle position, and splitting only one of the pickups, then tweaking the volumes, there is just a world of tones in there. Even if I eventually do upgrade the pups, I think I'll stick will coil splitting after seeing how much versatility it brings. The only thing I don't like is the way the volume knobs work in terms of cleaning up and retaining some treble through the sweep. I assume this might be the push-pull pots. I might have those switched to the tone positions if that is possible, in order to get better performance out of the volume knobs.
If you are looking at a 335 style on a budget, do yourself a favor and check one of these out, though of course YMMV. I feel like it holds it own with MIJ stuff, and I am a big fan of MIJ guitars. In fact, I only purchased this because I lost out on a Greco SA-64 to a jerky Craigslist seller. I only spent about 30 minutes on the Greco, but this EPI is not a noticeably inferior guitar in any respect, and cost me less than half what I would have paid for the Greco.
Wow, sorry for the long post, but I hope it helps anyone on the fence about one of these!
Picked this up last week, and am very impressed - so much so that I feel compelled to post about it!
My bandmate had a cherry one that I uses on a gig last year and really liked, so I picked up an Iced Tea version. They are both similar in terms of fit and finish, tone, and playability, and if they are any indication of the overall quality of Chinese made imports, then Epiphone is clearly doing something right. I had a couple of MIK/Peerless Epiphones back in the day (Casino and Sorrento), and neither were as nice as this guitar. The finish is flawless as far as I can tell, and even the fretwork is very good. The neck is wide and flat. Sort of strange, but not at all unpleasant, even though I generally prefer fat necks. The width and shoulders help it fill out your hands well. I highly doubt I'd pick this in a blind test with a Memphis '63 reissue, but for $400 this one is hard to beat, and it is definitely a gig-ready/worthy guitar.
So far I have swapped out the knobs, and changed the cheap-feeling bridge for a Gotoh drop-in replacement that cost $25 (and which made a noticeable improvement in the tone). I also purchased a Tusq nut that I'm going to install, and will change the pickguard and bracket just because. I'll also probably install a Bisgby B7. Beyond that, I am not sure it really warrants any other upgrades or changes. I always tweak my guitars, so none of the above changes were really necessary per se.
The Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro pickups are very, very nice. I swapped out the stock ones for Seth Lovers in my buddies, and remember my initial impression being that the SLs had darkened and muffled the guitar a bit overall, and that the stock ones maybe even sounded better. I didn't really play it enough after the swap to be sure though, and am planning to get together with him soon to A/B them. I haven't played humbuckers in years, so I plan on getting used to these for a while before deciding whether or not I want to upgrade. Not a necessity though by any means.
One last thing: these have coil switching on both pickups, and so far I am finding some fantastic tones with the split buckers. Particularly when using the middle position, and splitting only one of the pickups, then tweaking the volumes, there is just a world of tones in there. Even if I eventually do upgrade the pups, I think I'll stick will coil splitting after seeing how much versatility it brings. The only thing I don't like is the way the volume knobs work in terms of cleaning up and retaining some treble through the sweep. I assume this might be the push-pull pots. I might have those switched to the tone positions if that is possible, in order to get better performance out of the volume knobs.
If you are looking at a 335 style on a budget, do yourself a favor and check one of these out, though of course YMMV. I feel like it holds it own with MIJ stuff, and I am a big fan of MIJ guitars. In fact, I only purchased this because I lost out on a Greco SA-64 to a jerky Craigslist seller. I only spent about 30 minutes on the Greco, but this EPI is not a noticeably inferior guitar in any respect, and cost me less than half what I would have paid for the Greco.
Wow, sorry for the long post, but I hope it helps anyone on the fence about one of these!
