A cool video about the latest Epiphone inspired by Gibson. Almost at the end there is the SG special.
3/5 with fret issues.. definitely have to try before you buy.. another youtuber has 2 of the new epi's a 50's lp with fret issues and an explorer that was perfect. Regardless I'm still super excited to try the modern and special sg's
I don't have any 2020 Epiphones.I do have two 2019s and one 2018, all shipped from online wholesalers. None have any of these issues, the 2019 Riviera P-93 came out of the box wit a great setup and very good strings. The Les Paul Custom and EJ200CE Also had no issues, at all. There are a couple of 2020 models I will have trouble ignoring.
also, Eppie guitars cost a lot less than Gibsons. I know their prices have gone up recently, but that's probably political. Our "government" puts tariff taxes on Chinese imports, and who pays the tariff is us. The Chinese aren't paying it. They don't give two hoots. ETSG wisdom always was that you save enough buying an Epiphone to afford a good case and professional setup. It isn't just Epiphone guitars that need setup, ALL new guitars do, and so do most used guitars. Professional setup can spot and correct any fret problems. You pay for what you get, which is to transform a guitar which has been in a container on a slow boat from China into a real gig-able instrument. That kind of storage and transportation can play hell with any guitar. If you buy from Sweetwater, they will set your guitar up for you. This is usually included, but for guitars under a certain amount they charge extra. I think it's worth it. They have good luthiers that work there. And a well setup Epiphone is a better and more useful guitar than a poorly set up guitar made by any maker you care to name. Including Gibson. So it's a worthwhile expense, as long as you can find a decent luthier. Sales guys at GC don't count as luthiers. But many stores keep one on staff.
Prices went up here too and we don't have extra tariffs on goods from China. My guess is that it's a strategy from Gibson, to offer instruments in every price range. They now have guitars from $150 and up. During the past few years they've had a significant overlap between the cheapest Gibsons (the Gibson Fusion series was around $450) and the mid to expensive Epis (signature models not included) , making them compete with each other.
The veneer thing is really stupid. No one expects an SG to have nice figuring and you probably wouldn’t even notice a multi-piece body from the front/back. The cheaper satin model looks nicer because of that. But my take away is that Gibson is still the way to go, which isn’t surprising.
sad to hear, that quality control at epiphone seems to be very unstable. (following the gibson policy.. ?? glad the special was the "winner " in this.
No reason for that. I have one, albeit older, and you can yank that thing up and down like a maniac and the guitar still stays in tune. (rollerbridge and properly slotet/lubricated nut is however advisable.)
Guitars are made of wood and metal. Both materials are affected differently by the environment they spend time in. I would expect demo models in a store to be setup properly (would you buy from a store that didn’t) but new out of the box you have to expect a lot of variance. Doesn’t matter what brand. You have no idea where it’s been and what the environmental conditions it’s been in. This winter I had my furnace running more than normal. A guitar I’ve had for years suddenly has fret sprout. I don’t blame the guitar. I’m the one who didn’t monitor the environment. I’m not worried about it. As the weather warms up and the furnace isn’t on as much the sharp fret ends will disappear. Just an example of what happens to guitars. It is not necessarily the manufacturer’s fault. The guitar may have left the factory in perfect condition.
Some stores *cough GuitarCenter cough* don't set up their floor models at all. But IDK why Trogly was expecting Epiphones to be set up from the factory... they never have been and fretwork has always been hit or miss.
The reason was not the tuning problem/issue. If you scroll the topic you will find a post of mine with an explanation. Long story short... too much money for not enough quality.
Ah, ok, get it. I don't see any other posts here by you but maybe that's because you answered someone I ignore. Anyway, just wanted to say that I've tried and tested them and the results are shockingly good.
He passed up a 61 Maestro for his birthday because he didn't want to pay"550 euros for a chinese made guitar which is made just like the old ones with some minor costless or very cheap tweaks...I wanna pay you a little more but you can't triple the price. If you wanna do that you should start making the guitars in Korea or Indonesia. I was the first one who took the Indonesian G400 even paying her a little more than the past one. Because it was an improvement. But I'm not gonna pay 550 for a guitar with a faux mahogany top made in china." Whatever.
