Epiphone Dot - opinions?

[Petie]

Anybody have one of these? I'm looking at getting one in Natural finish.

I've been reading those dodgy Harmony Central reviews for this guitar but I get the feeling that most of those people aren't looking at the guitar for the same reasons I am. I'm looking for something for rocky, strummy, noisy rock (like Bowie in 73 - or 2003 for that matter), as well as Larry Carlton style Jazz. It won't be my main guitar, just something to toy around with and make me look cool. Hehehe.

One concern is, I'm rather addicted to single coil sounds - how do I go about altering the guts? Please don't tell me the top or back have to be removed to do this!

[UVmanMike]

I would say go for it, but play a BUNCH of them. Epiphones are hit or miss because of their dodgy quality control, so find that one that has that extra something and weed out the lemons. Just look, you'll know when you find the right one. As far as the pickups go, it might be cool to do a coil split on the bridge pickup for the middle position on the pickup selector. The Epiphone pickups are absolute crap (pop them out and look at them, they sound only a bit better than there assembled) so popping in some new ones may make all the difference. I know it did in my Epiphone LP Standard (DiMazrio super 3 in the bridge did that trick right quick). Look at the DiMazrio "Humbucker from Hell" for those single coil sounds if you are going to swap PUs because they really do emulate those sinlge coil sounds great. Look around man, there is plenty of options and don't be afraid to splurge and buy a used Gibson for the money.
Good luck

[Petie]

I hear the 2003 version has Gibson electronics and pickups instead of Samsung.