New Epiphones

[Noodles]

Has anyone checked out there site in the past couple of days. One guitar everyone should check out is the new peirced sg, one of the few guitars I would call a piece of art. If you wanna check it out it's in the e series at www.epiphone.com. Too bad their not gibson's so I'm guessing their crap. Just one question though, what is tonewood?

(Edited by Noodles at 3:15 am on Feb. 2, 2001)

[sawzall]

Actually, Epiphone has been putting out some real decent guitars for the money. Gibson has been just whacked in charging way more than they really should and then they let quality go. Take a real close look at some current Epis and Gibsons. Compare the prices, for a few more hundred in pickups, tuners and such, you're going to get much more VALUE than any $3000 Gibson. IMO. of course.

[alienx]

I agree, if one puts the effort in searching and testing certain Epi models, than the probability of finding one with good acoustic properties, say good woods reasonably high. Then changing pups, wiring and hardware can result in a good Gibson copy. But, the wood specs are usually very much different than the Gibsons. So you can get really close to a Gibson, and if that's good enough, everyone should decide for him-/herself.

Cheers.

[Gabe Nickelson]

I'm a proud Gibson LP owner. *I paid almost $3000 for mine. *It retailed for $5600 - go figure.

I've owned 3 LP's in my life, a 57' Goldtop (re-issue), 96 Studio, and my current LP - 57' Black Beauty (re-issue) 3-pickup w/Bigsby (tons 'o gold on this one!).

I still own a Epiphone LP Studio. *The Epiphone is not as good as Gibson quality - I'll give you that. *But it only takes a few hours of tweaking to get the guitar to play real nice. *They're not setup as well from the factory, understandably. *IMHO, Epiphones are WELL worth the price in comparisons to Gibson LP's. *Gibson's are way overpriced and I can't see how they're still in business. *Not many people can afford them.

I'd stay away from the bolt-on Epi necks and keep your eyes on a set neck.

I think tonewood is a seasoned and aged wood... I could be mistaken. *I know it's usually used in finer stringed instruments such as violins and the like.

Gabe

[Noodles]

I agree about their models that have been around but it's this new line I don't trust. Also has anyone noticed that their lp custom flame top which use to be mahogany w/flame maple top (one of the few epi models that did that) is now mahogany and alder w/ flame maple top. Looks like gibson was losing a few costumers so they cheapened the model.

(Edited by Noodles at 2:50 pm on Feb. 2, 2001)

[mecca777]

I quite like Epiphones. I've got an ancient G400 which I got as a Christmas present. It's trashed beyond belief, with the scratched, rubbed-through remnants of at least four different paintjobs, the neck cracked behind the fifth fret and had to be glued, and at the moment it only has one Ibanez humbucker in the bridge, but it *still* sounds killer when I crank my amp. And it's fun. And I don't care about trashing it, screwing up the electronics or breaking the neck.

Some of those new guitars look a bit silly, but quite cool none the less.