Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Ephiphone Electronics n ES 355


MaadDaawg

Recommended Posts

I LOVE this subject:

 

Fisrt off, regarding VALUE, replacing would make the guitar worth more, but NOT at the amount of the "investment" of the upgrade. It's a lot like tires on a car: poeple care, but no one is going to pay the price of the tires on top of the price of the car. So, if you spend a couple hundred bucks on your EPI, you won't be able to sell it for 200 hundred bucks more if you sell. Maybe 50 or 100, or more like make it more desireable in the market and sell easier but at the same price.

 

It might be true that sound quality is often subjective, but one thing that is not subjective is the quality of the other equipment you are using. For example, IF you are using a lower-quality amp, the amp might not be capable of picking up the differences in tonal "quality". If on the other hand you are using something like a hand-wired tube amp that HAS a lot of quality to the tone as far as purity, you will be able to pick out and hear more of what differences are there between cheap pups vs good ones.

 

Lastly, "success" often has more to do with how well you pick your components that YOU would like the first time. PIO caps, for example, MIGHT be an improvement overall, but unless you pick out components (wire, pots, AND particular cap in brand and values) that SUPPORT a tonal direction you want to go in, it could actually mean nothing at all in the end result. PIO caps are not inherently better than ceramic or mylar (usually can be worse), but they SUPPORT a certain tonality. So pup choice can have a huge impact on what other components and values to use.

 

Lastly lastly, what does it matter if you have a discount at MF? If you find what you want cheaper either used, OR get the gold pups you want, or even a brand that has a certain quality that might work better for you, you aren't saving money. ALSO, while it makes a lot of sense to maybe pay more for a pup set that you KNOW is the sound you are looking for, if you are still at a point where you are GUESSING (with the most info you have of corse), it makes a lot more sense to take a chance on spending 100 bucks for a set of pups LIKELY to be what you like than 250.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I LOVE this subject:

 

Fisrt off, regarding VALUE, replacing would make the guitar worth more, but NOT at the amount of the "investment" of the upgrade. It's a lot like tires on a car: poeple care, but no one is going to pay the price of the tires on top of the price of the car. So, if you spend a couple hundred bucks on your EPI, you won't be able to sell it for 200 hundred bucks more if you sell. Maybe 50 or 100, or more like make it more desireable in the market and sell easier but at the same price.

 

It might be true that sound quality is often subjective, but one thing that is not subjective is the quality of the other equipment you are using. For example, IF you are using a lower-quality amp, the amp might not be capable of picking up the differences in tonal "quality". If on the other hand you are using something like a hand-wired tube amp that HAS a lot of quality to the tone as far as purity, you will be able to pick out and hear more of what differences are there between cheap pups vs good ones.

 

Lastly, "success" often has more to do with how well you pick your components that YOU would like the first time. PIO caps, for example, MIGHT be an improvement overall, but unless you pick out components (wire, pots, AND particular cap in brand and values) that SUPPORT a tonal direction you want to go in, it could actually mean nothing at all in the end result. PIO caps are not inherently better than ceramic or mylar (usually can be worse), but they SUPPORT a certain tonality. So pup choice can have a huge impact on what other components and values to use.

 

Lastly lastly, what does it matter if you have a discount at MF? If you find what you want cheaper either used, OR get the gold pups you want, or even a brand that has a certain quality that might work better for you, you aren't saving money. ALSO, while it makes a lot of sense to maybe pay more for a pup set that you KNOW is the sound you are looking for, if you are still at a point where you are GUESSING (with the most info you have of corse), it makes a lot more sense to take a chance on spending 100 bucks for a set of pups LIKELY to be what you like than 250.

 

 

A whole lot of truth and good common sense there. I know what sound I want to arrive at but not necessarily what will get me there, I've never owned an ES guitar before. I did look around at other pups, but the only ones I heard ... could actually listen to... were the blue sky, and they sounded awesome. But then, like you said, there are a lot of variables that made up that blue sky sound I listened to that I don't know, and these pups were expensive to boot, so... I was intrigued by the SD Silver wired pups, but at a grand a set couldn't do that :P I'm looking for that bluesy with a bite sound, so I'm thinkin that the hot vintage should be close... should be, we'll see. Don't really have the time/resources to swap out various pups so the thought was to go with a known quantity, but preferably with a little twist, which I'm hoping the hot vintage will give. Had I seen other pups that I was familiar enough with that were cheaper than the discounted set I bought, I'd have bought them. Don't want to create an SG or LP sound, so I'm hoping I guessed right.

 

So, in the end, I think, with all the help I've gotten here and elsewhere, I've chosen wisely ... time will tell if I've chosen correctly.

 

At this point I've gone with the Gibson Hot Vintage pup set (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/gibson-hot-vintage-matched-pickup-set--scratch-and-dent)(FYI the MF description is totally off from the pup specs), a pre-wired set of pots/caps from MartinSixString (https://www.martinsixstringcustoms.com/store/prewired-guitar-electronics-harnesses/prewired-es-335a-wiring-harness/prod_22.html) (w/ CTS pots and Russian NOS caps), and now I'm wondering if I want to go roller bridge or not. Have read good and not so good things about them, but this Babicz full contact seems to offer the best of the beast while actually increasing sustain (or so the marketing goes). I wrote them to see if I could buy only the bridge cause they usually package them with the stopbar (http://www.fullcontacthardware.com/fch-tune-o-matic-bridge-tailpiece)? That decision will probably be made sometime in the middle of next week. Then once the parts arrive, it'll be time to get my hands dirty and find out how wisely I've chosen.

 

I'll play with the pups in their nickel covers until I'm sure I don't want to return them, then if they're keepers I'll swap on the gold covers. If they don't give me what I thought I'd be getting, guess I'll have to look around some more :) Problem I'm finding is that the price tag will probably go up before it goes down although I did see some interesting boutique pups that were really reasonably priced, so who knows. But SEE, not HEAR is the main difficulty in deciding on unknown quantities :(

 

On another note, I was looking through ebay, looking at pups, and was mildly amused to see that Epi Probuckers demand a buy now price of $12.99 a pair, which dashed any thought I had that maybe selling the stock components could offset the expenses some :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...