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Prophecy series quality diferences


Geff

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I already had a prophecy SG with Dirty Fingers pick ups so I was excited to get the chance at a futura with EMGs to round out my collection.

 

Now the SG is beautifully made in every aspect (made in China) I was very impressed with it so expecting great things of that futura but........

 

The futura is made in indonesia. The neck is way to flexible. The finish is nowhere near as good. The neck is not as silky, it is almost glossy. The holes for the tuners are cut over size meaning the tuners move in the holes until there is good tension on them. The strings were wildly out of tune on arrival - which is not in itself a problem - indicating a lack of final inspection and set up (supposedly carried out in USA). The pickups are not mounted flat to the strings. The frets are poorly finished unlike the excellent finish on my Chinese SG.

 

Anyone else have SG or futura prophecies? Are all the SGs made in China and futuras made in Indonesia. If so where are the LPs made? Is my futura just a bad example? It seems like it should have been a "second".

 

On the basis of my two, I would recommend anyone to buy the SG but not the Futura. I notice that MF now has the futura discounted by $100 compared to the SG.

 

Even so, I complained about the finish issues and got a further $50 reduction on the already low price. End Result - Futura EX for $500, sounds like a bargain, and it is, but I would still rather have paid the extra $150 and got the SG with EMGs if the quality is as with my SG with Dirty Fingers.

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It came from an online authorised dealer.

 

But QC 15 point setup inspection. Now I am laughing - hard! The tuning was so far out that I dont see how anyone can have inspected it at all. The action is a mile high and there are obvious blemishes.

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There is very little that I cannot either fix or live with (at the reduced price I have actually paid). Nothing is broken and the guitar sounds good. A decent set up should sort out the action/buzz. My point is that the finish quality from Indonesia is clearly lower than that from China and that the much vaunted "checked and set up in USA" is clearly worthless. I may well contact Epi with the two inspector's numbers and ask that they retrain the one who passed the Indonesian guitar as acceptable. There is a place to employ the mentally less able. QC in a guitar factory is not that place!

 

It is a shame because, based on my first Epi, I was very happy to recommend them. Based onthe second one I will be nuetral!

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