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Why doesn't Epiphone use laminate Rosewood?


Fatstrat

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To my knowledge, Epiphone doesn't make an entry level laminate Rosewood body guitar. And I'm curious as to why? Everyone else does. If you like Rosewood tone, both Yamaha and Alvarez offer laminate Rosewood body guitars in the sub $500. price range. While Epiphone doesn't even offer Rosewood on the AJ Southern Jumbo style guitars. Which in the Gibson line, are Rosewood. I think Epiphone is really dropping the ball on this.

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I wonder if there is a lot of difference, tone-wise, among various wood varieties when they are laminated. Maybe if there is none to speak of, then it's a matter of cost between them.At that point it would be a matter of aesthetics and it may not be worth the guitar manufacturers' time to get into another laminate line.

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To my knowledge, Epiphone doesn't make an entry level laminate Rosewood body guitar. And I'm curious as to why? Everyone else does. If you like Rosewood tone, both Yamaha and Alvarez offer laminate Rosewood body guitars in the sub $500. price range. While Epiphone doesn't even offer Rosewood on the AJ Southern Jumbo style guitars. Which in the Gibson line, are Rosewood. I think Epiphone is really dropping the ball on this.

 

I wonder the same thing regarding the laminate rosewood...I own quite a few Washburn guitars and most of them are solid wood soundboard and laminate sides and backs...so Washburn does do as you are suggesting Epiphone should and seems to be successful at it.

 

Brazilian Rosewood is a "protected" species now and it's been reported that even Gibson has had to justify its supply of Brazilian Rosewood. Indian rosewood is not so rare, and that is the variety of rosewood I see on my Washburns and also on my Epiphone AJ500RC (which is an all-solid wood guitar...and in my opinion it is a Southern Jumbo style. The "A" in AJ500RC stands for "Advanced", a reference to the location of the braces on the underside of the soundboard). My AJ500RC fits my dreadnought size guitar cases perfectly and has slope-shoulders rather than the usual square-shouldered design we see on dreads...that's a Southern Jumbo to me [thumbup]!

 

It takes us all a while to determine the tonewood combination we prefer...it seems to be one of those latter "epiphanies" for most of us. Mine happens to be cedar/rosewood, although I do have a few spruce/mahogany and Ovangkol instruments. Those instruments were purchased early in the development of my "collection".

 

Cheers!

 

Dugly [cool]

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I wonder if there is a lot of difference, tone-wise, among various wood varieties when they are laminated.

 

If it's solid wood, yes, but if it's laminate, as you say, I doubt there's any noticeable tonal difference.

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If it's solid wood, yes, but if it's laminate, as you say, I doubt there's any noticeable tonal difference.

I disagree completely. Even in laminate, there is a pronounced difference between the tones of Rosewood and Mahogany. For example, recently Yamaha has upgraded their solid top/lam body acoustic line from the 700 series (with non scalloped braces) to the 800 series (with scalloped braces). So there are now a lot of used 700 series guitars available as people upgrade. I recently was in a pawnshop that had 2. A 700S (solid top over laminated nato) and a 730S (solid top over laminated Rosewood). The differences in tone on these same design/different tone wood guitars was obvious. IMO if Epiphone want to market an AJ body guitar, they SHOULD go with laminated Rosewood to more closely mimic the Gibson AJ tone.

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I have found as long as they are a good laminate, like rosewood inside layer inside as well as out, and not some random wood inside, that there is just as much difference as there is between solids. Comparing lams to lams. It would be cool if epiphone would do a guitar like that.

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