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Who has an Epi Swingster?

jmendoza

By jmendoza
in Epiphone Electrics

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jmendoza

jmendoza

Posted
Posted

How do you like your your Epi Swingster?

I wanted to poll Swingsters owner and ask for their critique and impressions, pros, cons, likes, disslikes.

 

Has anyone tried different PUs, and if so, how did that work out.

 

I was interested in a a Swingster because it has a Bigsby and wanted an alternative to a Strat for doing surf style and rock where you need a tremolo.

 

TIA for your replies.

Jay

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JerseyRay

JerseyRay

Posted
Posted

I have one, I call her Big Red... great guitar... basically a Joe Pass Emperor II body / neck with a really cool bigsby and great pickups. There is not a damn thing I don't like about it. With the active / passive swingbuckers you have a really wide verity of tones.. it came stock with 11's, they had to go. I put slinky 10's on it.... I've played a lot of epiphone / Gibson's & Gretch's before deciding on buying one of these. I liked the looks of Gretch 51xx's... and that's about it.... just don't like the feel of them. Same with a lot epiphone / gibsons.... I like the swingster's thin tapered neck.... you get a lot of guitar for the money with one of these... it's at the high side for cost in the epiphone line, but IMO, worth it.... [thumbup]

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kidblast

kidblast

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I have a White Royale, I wouldn't change the pickups. IMO they are fine, as is the rest of the hardware/electronics. the only thing I would change is the pull/push, I'd reverse it so the default setting was parallel but it's not something I would hassle with, so I've left it as is.

 

 

BTW, just some useless trivia, These were initially shipped with a roller bridge, but Epi later changed out to a more standard bridge / saddle setup, due to complaints about strings popping out of the roller bridge, though I've not really had this problem, (I have a pretty light touch)

 

I tried the 11s for a while, but eventually went to, I like that setup better.

 

I did have to dress a number of frets down to eliminate fret buzz in various places, but this is not a big deal IMO as like the action a bit lower than factory specs.

 

I do lube the nut/ bridge and bigsby, and I have no tuning issues, and the guitar is somewhat resistant to feed back at stage volumes.

 

All things considered, for the money, it's a great guitar

 

FYI: if you get to the next step, and decide to go for it, be aware that the case fit with the bigsby does work with the right epi case, but you just need to put the chet wire over the volume / tone controls to close the case.

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  • 1 year later...
shardy53

shardy53

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I have a Swingster and I love it. It is the most versitile guitar I have ever owned with the series/parallel controls. I can go from Rock to Jazz to full twang in seconds. It sounds great through my Fender BassBreaker 15 tube amp and my Roland Jazz Chorus 40. I have come to love the Atkins Bigsby Bar. Epiphone did a hell of a job on these guitars and they are worth every penny. The flame maple is stunning too. I had no intention of buying another guitar untill I spotted it in my local music store one day while window shopping and made the mistake of playing it. I couldn't leave without it. Now I have a Casino Coupe, an Epi ES-339, and the Swingster. I swear that I will not go window shopping again.

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