What are the real good Epiphones?

[Moose28]

Sjl200 states it very well.

I've had an EJ200 and an IB texan. The ej 200 was just not for me and the texan was a very thin sounding guitar. I sold them both waited and waited and.......

Then I found a J15 and that was it. First gibson and I am very pleased.

Another poster mentioned seagull as an option and he is correct. A very good guitar.

[eagle_fly]

Yet another detail.

Maybe I should have started with this.

Among others, I am interested in getting close to the sound of some acoustic classic Stone pieces,

like Wild Horses, Angie etc.

[fortyearspickn]

Yet another detail.

Maybe I should have started with this.

Among others, I am interested in getting close to the sound of some acoustic classic Stone pieces,

like Wild Horses, Angie etc.

 

My formulae for reaching an objective like this is "Practice Time = 1000 X GAS Time"

[meanstreak]

If you're looking for a good Epiphone the Masterbilt series is where it's at. All-solid wood throughout and sound amazing. I'd challenge anyone to a blind test against a Martin, Gibson or Taylor and be pretty confident my $500 Masterbilts could sound just as good if not better than most. Bit tough to find a brand new one other than the two cutaway models but they are all over eBay and found used at plenty of online merchants. You can't go wrong with them!

 

The round-shoulder AJ or the square shoulder DR series are both terrific sounding guitars, although it has a thinner nut than the J-45. The EF series are OM size guitars that have the much wider 1.75" nut if you have big hands like me.

 

Here's mine -

 

 

and here's a nice video of the DR-500 sound -

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_R54JM3WTM

[eagle_fly]

WOW! meanstreak, amazing photo! These are some awesome guitars :))) And thanks for the suggestion on the Masterbuilts!

Will def. search for some!

[DenverSteve]

Since "real good" is relative and subjective - I have an Epiphone AJ200SR/VS 2006 that is spectacular. It has been well set up and pick up installed and it was used for years as a great stage guitar. It now lives in our mountain house for weekend use but holds its own with guitars costing 10x as much.

[Leonard McCoy]

Epiphone produces some amazing guitars, it's more a matter of finding the right one for you personally. Your short list of candidates looks pretty solid already. And while I'm enarmored by the 2014 Indonesian-made Inspired by 1964 Texan, I wouldn't disregard vintage Epiphone models that are no longer in production. Sometimes they are cheap to pick up and offer amazing sound and playability.

 

[Mickthemiller]

I would take a look at an epiphone masterbilt aj45me. I have had one for around nine months and it compares very well to my recently bought gibson j15. Both have the gibson short scale.

[blindboygrunt]

You think the original poster is still interested a year later??

 

How do these old threads get woken up?

[Smurfbird]

I'll put a vote in for the Epi Hummingbird. It's not a Gibson, but it's a quality cheap guitar. Very comfortable to play. The EL-00 Pros are good, too. As with all guitars, there are hits and misses in all makes and models.

 

Eastman makes a very nice guitar, too, for half the $$ of a Gibson. Fact is, with computer aided design being what it is, the 'cheap' guitars of today are 10,000x nicer than the cheap guitars of our youth. There are still plenty of lemons out there, but it's pretty impressive, overall, at what you can get for a few hundred bucks.

[fortyearspickn]

Zombie Thread. The OP has no doubt decided on which non-Gibson guitar to buy over a year ago

[Mickthemiller]

Zombie Thread. The OP has no doubt decided on which non-Gibson guitar to buy over a year ago

 

Woops we all missed the time lag. Maybe the poster will tell us - next year!!!! I feel really silly now!!!!

[flatbaroque]

In other news "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN!".......

[Murph]

My son has an EJ200ce in burst. He gigs with it. I tried it, but the action is high...

 

 

My daughters is perfect from the factory. We actually tried an IB64 and it was fretting out. Surely just a truss adjustment, but you want them to be right when you try them, eh?

[bobouz]

Zombie thread or not, some recent-experience thoughts:

 

The current group of Indonesian-made Epis with solid tops can range from thin & tinny, to rich & responsive - but the good ones can sound very good. It's best to try three or four of them to get a true idea of their capabilities.

 

The EL-00 Pro intrigued me with it's small body, solid spruce top, and short scale. In sampling a few, one stood head & shoulders above the others (which often turns out to be the case when A-Bing a number of examples). It's just a darn good guitar with a surprisingly clean build quality overall.

 

Even as my least expensive instrument from a crank-'em-out overseas factory, I still consider it a keeper. A small body with a big sound grabs me every time!

[DanielJ-160e]

My Epi J-160e sounds and plays exactly like the Gibson version. The Epi is actually a little better because it has a solid top (known to sound better the more you play) and the Gibson has a laminated top. The only difference is the lack of a nitro finish.

[Red 333]

My Epi J-160e sounds and plays exactly like the Gibson version. The Epi is actually a little better because it has a solid top (known to sound better the more you play) and the Gibson has a laminated top. The only difference is the lack of a nitro finish.

 

Daniel, the Gibson J-160E Standard (the most commonly sold current version, available since about 1991) DOES have a solid top. Only the very limited editions with '60s specs have a laminated top.

 

A major diference between the Gibson and Epiphone versions (besides the nitro finish) is scale length. The Gibsons are traditional short-scale (famously common on a great number of Gibson acoustic models); most versions of the Epiphone are long-scale, like a Martin (some of Epiphone's sub-contracors are said to have built short-scale versions from time to time, but these are rare).

 

EDIT: Another major difference between the solid-topped Gibson and Epiphone J-160Es is the pick-up. The Epiphone has a stacked humbucker. From its reissue in the early 90s to some time in last five or six years (you will have to look up the dates--this is from memory), the Gibson J-160E Standard also had a stacked humbucker, but more recent versions are equipped with a P-90, like the vintage originals and '60s spec reissues.

 

As an owner of a Gibson J-160E Standard, and Epiphone EJ-160E, and a '60s spec Gibson J-160E reissue, I don't find any of the three versions similar acoustically. The Gibson J-160E Stadard sounds very muscular and percussive; the Epiphone doesn't seem to have the bass response, power, or percussiveness. It does have a pleasant, though light voice of its own.

 

The reissue 60's spec Gibsons nail the sound you hear on Batles' records, acoustically and electrically. The solid-toped Gibson and Epiphone versions can aproach this electrically, but not acousticly, IMO and experience.

 

Red 333

[Mik Neville]

One of the great points made here in this topic is play lots of different guitars. When I was buying a new guitar three years ago I went into a guitar shop with a wall full of high end on one wall and Epis and some other like brands on the other wall I spent all day in there and played them all. Long story short I had three thousand to spend and walked out with a DR500MCE one of the finest playing and sounding guitars I have ever owned. Mik B)

[Allie]

You will probably end up with a bunch of recommendations and some will be very nice playing and sounding guitars. But making a guitar that looks like a J-45 and making a guitar that sounds like a J-45 are two different things. Generally the usual uspects that will be named - Epis or possibly a Blue Ridge or Recording King - will be brighter sounding, lack the Gibson low end thump, and have a different note decay. When you hear somebody saying their budget friendly this or that guitar sounds just like or even better than the Gibson, more than likely they have not been closer to that Gibson than the pages of a Sweetwater catalog.

 

So I guess I come from the position of accept no substitutes. Buy an Epi because you like that guitar not because you are looking for a wallet friendly clone of a Gibson.

I'd say that about sums it up.

[Allie]

Which J-45 could be had for that kind of money?

That's what most good 'previously played' J45 would sell for and sometimes you can catch a break on that price even....I realize it would be 'used' but so will any twang box you buy new...after you pluck a few chords on it.

example: I have a 94 J45 I purchased on fleabay from an owner in Huston a couple of years ago for $1140.00 delivered to my door in Maine, Gibson Montana case included...I have played the guitar and it has become my primary player since that time. patience is the key here, Good luck no matter what route you take.

[Mike J.]

Greetings from a new guy! Been lurking for a while and found this particular thread to be of great interest so I signed up! I've been playing bass since 1970 (yeah, I'm an old guy!) and have been playing guitar since 1998. But I must admit that my progress on guitar has been slow. Worked long hours for many, many years and with life getting in the way....well, you know how that goes. It's only within the last few years where I've started to show some progress. My only gig is at church where I play bass and on more than a few occasions they've been having me on guitar. They say they like the different things I come up with so I must be doing something right! Technically I'm "decent" but nothing to write home about. But I've been told I'm my worst enemy. (I've heard 15 year olds who can blow my doors off! More power to them!) But I love trying to come up with different things for songs.

 

Anyway, I have a Martin DX1R that I bought a few years ago and a while later I had an L.R. Baggs pickup installed. The guitar sounds good, I like it....but I feel like I'm always fighting to play it to one degree or another. Based on some suggestions in this thread I went to my local music store this past weekend and tried out some Seagull acoustics. Never played Seagull's before and after playing a few models it became clearly evident what it was that I needed in an acoustic guitar. Shorter scale, a flatter radius and a good sized C shaped neck. Things that I had been struggling to play on my Martin were not a problem with the Seagull's I tried. I tried 4 different models, they all played good but the one particular model that really felt like home (to my surprise) was the Entourage Mini-Jumbo model with the Q1 pickup system. Right off the rack the setup was perfect with the string height exactly where I wanted it. With the Martin my fretting hand seems to cramp up very quickly, especially when playing bar chords. I played that Mini-Jumbo for half an hour and had no problem. I absolutely loved it.

 

I was tempted to buy it but I didn't because I really want to do more comparing. The other reason I didn't buy it was because I actually preferred the tone of the Maritime Mahogany model that I tried. Just a perfect blend of bass, mids and highs. The kind of tone that made me say "that's it!" But again, the Mini-Jumbo played better. Now that I know what I need both feel and tonally I'm going be checking out more acoustics with pickup systems installed. Believe me, I would LOVE a J45.....tried one and it was love....but there's no way I can afford one. Not even close.

 

If anybody has any other suggestions based on my preferences please let my know. Thanks in advance. Gotta go. Bedtime.

[Red 333]

The other reason I didn't buy it was because I actually preferred the tone of the Maritime Mahogany model that I tried. Just a perfect blend of bass, mids and highs. The kind of tone that made me say "that's it!" But again, the Mini-Jumbo played better.

 

If anybody has any other suggestions based on my preferences please let my know. Thanks in advance. Gotta go. Bedtime.

 

Playability an often be improved with a good set up. If you found a guitar whose tone you love, why not have the store set up to your liking (as best they can), or buy it and take it to a trusted luthier? At worst, you're out the cost of the set up if you choose to return the guitar later.

 

G'night.

 

Red 333

[Mike J.]

Playability an often be improved with a good set up. If you found a guitar whose tone you love, why not have the store set up to your liking (as best they can), or buy it and take it to a trusted luthier? At worst, you're out the cost of the set up if you choose to return the guitar later.

 

G'night.

 

Red 333

 

Hi Red. The reason I didn't buy it was because it didn't have a pickup system. Not that I couldn't have something installed, but I know what I'm after and pretty much want it all in one shot. As far as set ups go, I know if I stick to my guns I'll find that one guitar that will require the least amount of setup as possible and to me that speaks volumes about a guitar. As mentioned I tried 4 Seagull acoustics and as I went down the line the playability got better regardless of the price point. While the Maritime Mahogany sounded good it felt like it needed much more setting up to get the string height to my liking where the Mini-Jumbo needed no setting up. I know "thee one" is out there. I just have to be patient. Nothings worse than buying a guitar or bass and then three weeks later you find the same model that plays even better. I've made that mistake before from buying too quick.

[eagle_fly]

Hi everyone.

I am glad this thread is alive and kicking.

To answer some of your questions, no I have not bought a guitar yet.

The reason is simple: getting a new guitar will not make me a better player, practising more will.

So that's what I did.

Maybe it's not so popular here, but I listened to an advice I got in this thread:

"My formulae for reaching an objective like this is "Practice Time = 1000 X GAS Time"

 

Do I still want a J45? Hell yes, but it will wait till I have the money, have found one that I love and I am good enough player to do her justice!

[Mickthemiller]

Hi everyone.

I am glad this thread is alive and kicking.

To answer some of your questions, no I have not bought a guitar yet.

The reason is simple: getting a new guitar will not make me a better player, practising more will.

So that's what I did.

Maybe it's not so popular here, but I listened to an advice I got in this thread:

"My formulae for reaching an objective like this is "Practice Time = 1000 X GAS Time"

 

Do I still want a J45? Hell yes, but it will wait till I have the money, have found one that I love and I am good enough player to do her justice!

 

Be very aware that by the time you have done your time (practicing of course) good old Gibson will have used their own formula for increasing prices (take the number of the year, minus 10, add $100 per year, divide by the number you first had in mind and then - just increase the price anyway, by as much as the market will take)