Camazza Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Hello everyone, I have a little question for you. I own two guitars, one's my personal favourite and it's a USA Fender Telecaster (shouldn't be saying that on a Gibson forum though ;-) ). The other's a 2006 (maybe earlier) Epiphone G-400. I think it's an incredibly well-balanced instrument for the money, its only weak side are the electronics and pickups. The Tele I own has high-output Texas Specials in it, so from clean sounds to moderately high-gain rock tunes I'm covered (I play instrumental post-rockish stuff), so the Epi has been largely unused and sitting in the corner. The thing is, being the pickups weak and toneless (despite the instrument having a very nice woods, intonation and tuning stability), even when I need to play some high-gain stuff I always fall back to the Tele. So, I thought about turning that Epi into something, should I say "strange" and put a pair of EMG 89 or 89x in it. They are the "softer" and more cleanish EMGs around, and they are splittable, or more precisely they are "two pickups in one", because it contains a stacked single coil just like the EMG SA (the one Gilmour uses). That way my little inexpensive Epi could turn into a beast capable of doing some extreme metal AND noiseless clean soloing. Plus, I like the fact of having some sort of a "joke" second guitar, something I would pickup and immediately have people say "what the hell is that?" and MAYBE be sort of surprised hearing some decent clean tones coming out of it (EMG SA must have pretty amazing cleans, otherwise mr. Gilmour wouldn't be using them). Furthermore, each EMG pickup comes with an output jack, pots and all the necessary mounting hardware. And it's also solderless. This way I could save some money by not buying pots, jacks and having them installed by a tech. Is this a silly idea? Would this Epi turn into something decent or I would have just thrown away some money? From what I can tell, the G-400 is an incredible budget guitar, It's almost as they put all the effort and money into building it and putting nice Grover tuners in it, just to keep the price down by throwing in some crappy electronics and pickups. Like Mexican Fenders, same as the USA guitars (more or less), just with inexpensive pickups. If I'm going completely mad, please save me! Alessandro (from Italy, in case you were wondering why my English sucks so bad...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Is this a silly idea? Would this Epi turn into something decent or I would have just thrown away some money? From what I can tell, the G-400 is an incredible budget guitar, It's almost as they put all the effort and money into building it and putting nice Grover tuners in it, just to keep the price down by throwing in some crappy electronics and pickups. If I'm going completely mad, please save me! Alessandro (from Italy, in case you were wondering why my English sucks so bad...) First, your Engrish is much better than my Italian. Come to think of it, it's probably better than my American. Down to it. Don't know squat about those pickups. What I do hear is that you seem to know what you are talking about. If you can afford the pickups, why not? When I do mods I look at a couple of things. If I don't like the guitar as it is, what can I do with it? Fix it? Sell it? If I don't like the outcome, can I put the original parts back in? If I undo the mod, what can I resell the parts for? The difference is what the mod really cost. Hope you get some good advice. Whatever you decide....keep us posted. Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JellyWheat Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Buongiorno! I always found that Epi pickups were either very good or no good at all. That having been said, the controls and wiring are often not very good, in comparison with all the other qualities of the guitars that you have mentioned. I have never been a fan of EMG pickups, just because they are usually way too powerful for the amps I own and the types of music I play. HOWEVER, if you like the sound of them, and are fond of the guitar, I would not hesitate to do the upgrade. As long as you can reverse the process fairly easily, I don't see that there is much risk. I agree with what Willy has advised you in this regard. A good friend of mine (and a member of this Forum) just about always pulls the guts out of his Epiphones and upgrades them. He is a skilled craftsman, so the work is a breeze for him. I don't know exactly what he does, but his Epis and Korean/Chinese-made Gretsches sound awesome to me. They sound right up there with my US-made Gibsons and Gretsches, and they play well, according to what he tells me. My $0.02/FWIW/YMMV Ciao J/W B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Buongiorno! I always found that Epi pickups were either very good or no good at all. A good friend of mine (and a member of this Forum) just about always pulls the guts out of his Epiphones and upgrades them. He is a skilled craftsman, so the work is a breeze for him. I don't know exactly what he does, but his Epis and Korean/Chinese-made Gretsches sound awesome to me. They sound right up there with my US-made Gibsons and Gretsches, and they play well, according to what he tells me. My $0.02/FWIW/YMMV Ciao J/W B) So, um, how come you never come over and jam anymore ???????? :unsure: [lol] ........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I have a 2006 G400 that I also like very much. I've never even thought about changing the pickups. The ones in mine sound great! Have you tried adjusting them to see how they sound closer to the strings, or farther away from the strings? You don't mention what amp you are playing through. That also has a lot to do with your tone. You seem to assume that because you perceive your pickups to be "toneless" that they are like that in all G400s. I can tell you that is not true. Like I said, mine sound great! Epiphone does use some cheap electronics (especially when it comes to switches), but some of my Epis have had pups changes, and some are still stock. Welcome to the forum BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Welcome to the forums Camazza, great bunch of guys around here, I hope you like the place. What ever sounds good to your ears is the way to go, the only one it has to sound good to is you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birki Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 hi! I have a (heavily modded) G400 and - as a direct comparison - a Gibson SG Standard. - the standard is an awesome guitar. costs 4 x the money of the G400, is worth every cent. mods are not really necessary (i had the nut of mine changed to a bone nut, with a slightly larger distance of the e-string to the fretboard edge) ... - the G400 rececived new klusons (which cured the neckdive of that thing), and new pups + new electronics. it does not have the sustain nor the attack of the standard. besides that, it is a pretty perfect guitar as well. a friend of mine, semi-pro musician, part-time luthier and owner of 50+ axes just recently claimed that he has seen way more worse gibbys ... so ... go ahead and do the mods ;) - the G400 is worth the effort ... yours wolfi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camazza Posted November 24, 2011 Author Share Posted November 24, 2011 Thanks everyone for your feedback. You are amazing! I will do the mods as soon as I can. In response to brad1, the guitar does not sound BAD at all, but the stock pickups make a thin guitar sound even thinner, so unless you're hark rockin' or doing some old school metal, everything between Clean and mildly overdriven WILL sound better & fuller on my USA Tele. That's not to say that it sounds bad clean, I'm just saying that there is no reason to use the Epi when I have a perfectly good tele whith its unbeatable clean sounds at my disposal. What I need is that reason to take it out of its bag, I need a "different" guitar, not a "worse" one... I'm playing through a Deville III 2x12, so it's pretty sensitive to the guitar you're using. PS.: Slightly off topic, but I just changed the strings on the G-400 (.11 gauge strings), and I'm having troubles intonating the G string, there's just not enough room to move the saddle... right now the bridge's screws are facing the neck, some suggest turning it the other way around... I don't have a lot of experience on Gibsons, I've been having enough trouble setting up the tele's 3-saddle bridge ;-) Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I'm having troubles intonating the G string, there's just not enough room to move the saddle... right now the bridge's screws are facing the neck, some suggest turning it the other way around... Actually, the screws are normally set toward the neck. Some do turn them around. However, most simply reverse the individual saddle, having the flat part facing the tailpiece to give it more throw toward the bridge. Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birki Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 PS.: Slightly off topic, but I just changed the strings on the G-400 (.11 gauge strings), and I'm having troubles intonating the G string, there's just not enough room to move the saddle... right now the bridge's screws are facing the neck, some suggest turning it the other way around... I don't have a lot of experience on Gibsons, I've been having enough trouble setting up the tele's 3-saddle bridge ;-) hm ... it IS possible to intonate that thing, I use a .12 set. how does the neck look like? yours wolfi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueman335 Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 I've never even thought about changing the pickups. The ones in mine sound great! You seem to assume that because you perceive your pickups to be "toneless" that they are like that in all G400s. I can tell you that is not true. If you've upgraded PU's in Epi's, you will hear a difference. The better your amp, the more you'll hear the difference. Granted some stock Asian PU's are better than others (one of the problems is a lack of consistency), but none have the clarity, definition, and depth of a high-quality American or European PU. They don't, they can't. Different materials, different windings, and they're buried in a half pound of wax. I have a lot of Epi's, and have upgraded the PU's in all of them; big improvement in tones across the board. I recently bought a used Korina Flying V, plugged it in to test the electronics, and wow, it sounded like no other stock Epi I've played. I was truly impressed at the tone quality. None of the blurry, muddy, fizzy tones you usually get. Then I changed strings and looked at the bottom of the PU's...two DiMarzios. The seller forget to mention that. Trust me, put in $150 worth of American PU's and an Epi will sound much better. I've done it dozens of times. The weakest part on an Epi is the PU's. Just not up to the quality of the rest of the guitar. If they put in better-sounding PU's, more players would buy Epi's instead of Gibsons, which is why Gibson doesn't do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trewblue Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Welcome to the forum. I put P90's from Guitar Fetish in my G-400. Sounds much better than the stock buckers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.