Which is better

[Z]

I went to guitar center and played a gibson explorer and fell in love but is the epiphone like the same tone wise?

[Caramello Koala]

Which is better? Short answer, the Gibson.

[Sjael]

The Gibson is (hopefully) going to be better. It's unavoidable. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Epiphone at all. My Epi Goth Explorer is my favorite guitar, it's of supreme quality. You won't go wrong either way, it's just up to you to decide if it's worth paying up to thrice as much for the Gibby.

[rpach10115]

The difference: The guy that made the Epi makes $ 4.00 an hour, the guy that made the gibby makes $ 22.00 an hour. The wood is different. Not better or worse, just different. Keep in mind that there are many master guitar builders that are Chinese too. They make beautiful instruments too.

The pickups are wound buy a a guy making $ 4.00 an hour using international materials. The pickups in a gibby are wound by a guy making $ 22.00 an hour using materials from this hemisphere.

The Epi guitar needs to travel halfway around the world to get to nashville, where it is "supposedly" set up by a usa worker making $ 12.00 an hour. The gibby is setup up after manufacture by the same guy making the $ 22.00 an hour.

 

So, here's the difference: Materials/final set-up. The materials are no big deal to most of us, and if you have the guitar setup by a good tech, you will have a great guitar at less than half the price. I suggest a pickup swap as soon as you get it. Then throw a party with the rest of your savings:d/ :D/ :- :-