Epiphone Excellente arrived with unglued pickguard

[mgomes]

After living with a very old Yamaha APX4 for many years I decided to get myself a dreadnought.  I chose the Epiphone Excellente, after watching many videos and reviews.

As I live in small Portugal, there are few guitar stores and they usually only have in stock very popular guitars (like Teles and Strats), so this had to be bought online. Every review raved about this guitar and I also like the history of the model (being an actual original and rare Epiphone, not a Gibson copy).

I got the guitar today and unfortunately it came with the pickguard completely detached from the guitar. Pickguard has what seems like double sided adhesive.

Here's a link to a photo I took: https://imgbb.com/WsmKpXY

The top of the guitar without the pickguard is actually virtually clean, just a smidgen of glue residue in a couple of minor places, doesn't feel stick to the touch, completely smooth.

What do you advise to do to reattach the pickguard? 

Also there were a few other issues:

- the ebony bridge edges is not well finished. The top part is nicely beveled but as it goes down looks like someone got careless with a file and it's not delicately beveled but roughly, looks sloppy

https://ibb.co/09Tv1q4

- there's a 9volt battery plug and wired just hanging loose inside the soundhole. Is this suposed to be like this? Shouldn't it be in some way fixed, otherwise it will just be there dangling.

Strumming it it does sound great, it's a canon, but very high fidelity sound at the same time, however I'm used to a humble and oompa-loompa sized Yamaha APX4 so don't have another high end dreadnought to compare it with.

I will maybe take it to a local luthier to take a look and decide if I fix these glitches and keep it or return it. This is my second bad experience with a guitar in a row after getting a Yamaha FGX5 with some equally bad QC and finish issues.

It's a hard guitar to get, always out of stock and price keeps going up (bought it at 1100€, now is around 1200/1300, was once 850€).

What are your thoughts on this, should I keep it?

[the other side]

If you're gonna keep it, I'd remove the adhesive from the guard rolling it with you fingers or using some kind of adhesive remover. I've always managed to roll it off a little at a time with my fingers and thumb. It's gonna take a good while to do it with that large guard. And roll any of the adhesive off the guitar as well the same way. I'd then clean the back of the guard and the guitar with Naphtha (do not polish or anything after cleaning with naphtha). I'd use 3m MP467 or MP468 double sided adhesive sheets you get from Amazon, that is the only type of adheasive I recommend using. Attach the adhesive sheet to the guard first, then apply it to the guitar. As far as your 9v battery, get an inspection mirror and look inside the guitar . May need some velcro and attach it to the neck block inside the guitar. I have no suggestions for the ebony bridge except to possibly put a very light coat of mineral oil or lemon oil on it very lightly and wipe it dry. I'm not to familiar with ebony.

Edited April 12 by the other side
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[mgomes]

On 4/12/2024 at 1:30 AM, the other side said:

If you're gonna keep it, I'd remove the adhesive from the guard rolling it with you fingers or using some kind of adhesive remover. I've always managed to roll it off a little at a time with my fingers and thumb. It's gonna take a good while to do it with that large guard. And roll any of the adhesive off the guitar as well the same way. I'd then clean the back of the guard and the guitar with Naphtha (do not polish or anything after cleaning with naphtha). I'd use 3m MP467 or MP468 double sided adhesive sheets you get from Amazon, that is the only type of adheasive I recommend using. Attach the adhesive sheet to the guard first, then apply it to the guitar. As far as your 9v battery, get an inspection mirror and look inside the guitar . May need some velcro and attach it to the neck block inside the guitar. I have no suggestions for the ebony bridge except to possibly put a very light coat of mineral oil or lemon oil on it very lightly and wipe it dry. I'm not to familiar with ebony.

Thanks for the feedback. The guitar is actually clean, the pickguard just came unstuck and left no residue on the body (just like 3 mms in a couple of spaces). It does sound great, but the (lack of) attention to detail side of things in construction do bug me a little bit. The neck is also a bit on the chunkier sound then what I prefer. I'm playing it for a few days and I'm going to try a Yamaha FGX5 to decide if I return it or take it to a luthier to sort out the issues and keep it.

Edited April 13 by mgomes