Christmas is an awesome time to bid on ebay

[Travis]

Uh oh. Pedal just came in the mail!





I've been playing around with it for a few hours. At first I was a bit disappointed to be honest. Then I remembered these have a trimpot and somebody probably fucked with it. So after a bit of adjustment to the trimmer it sounds amazing!

Look at the guts. It's even true bypass! Check out those cool diodes and "dot" package trannies



Negative - out of the Dot and Casino I'd pick the Casino for sure. But have you checked out the Ibanez Artcore semis? I've had both the Dot and Artcore at the same time, the Artcore was much better quality

[Beaker]

You are right there Travis about the Ibanez Artcore guitars - they are really well built and sound great. The new Hagstrom Vikings are great too. Personally I would take a Hagstrom or an Artcore over an Epiphone, but if Negative has set his heart on a Epiphone that is fine by me.

As to pickups - if you have a few SD's lying around try any of them, although "vintage" style low output ones (like PAFs) will work best in a semi hollow. One thing worth considering though - if they are four conductor wire humbuckers, consider wiring them up in parallel instead of in series (or fitting series/parallel switches for them). This can turn them into serious jangle monsters!

[rocket88]

Check out the seymour duncan antiquities. They're PAF style pickups that have been "aged" as if they were built back then. They have a warmer rounder sound then ones that are brand new, "unaged". They really do sound like a vintage set of PAF pickups. I've been trying to get an excuse to get a guitar just to through them in. Or you can get rediculous and get a set of lace dirty heshers, the ones they make for Mike Pike from sleep and high on fire. I want a white sg just to put those into it. They demo video with Mike is hysterical when he shows that they can do "normal."

Btw, I don't know why all the epiphone hate. I personal find them to feel great, and play very well and I like that the pickups are "meh" sounding. It gives me a good reason to spend the money to upgrade it, rather then tare apart a guitar that sounds great from the beginning, just to make it sound different. My epiphone les paul, a Korean made one, I changed the pickups, replaced the pots with high quality ones, put in a gibson switch, orange drop cap, and new wiring and I couldn't be happier. Plus the amount I spent to do it all was far less then a new les paul, and she plays like a dream. Maybe I like to tinker too much and change my guitars .......

[Beaker]

Could not agree more Zach, I really do like Epiphones - honestly. My only gripe is the pickups.

My son has three of them and they are fantastic guitars. He has got an early seventies Japanese built semi hollow bass that sounds and plays amazing.

He has a Japanese Les Paul Jr. with a Bare Knuckle rewind pickup that is honestly better built than any Gibson LP Jr. that I have ever heard or played. He got it for an absolute steal on ebay.

He also one of the new mini humbucker Wilshires with the Bigsby-like trem that are stupidly cheap, but play great. The pickups were absolutely shocking though - thin, weedy and lifeless. We sent them up to Hayden at Bulldog pickups who rewound them and replaced the magnets. Now it sounds like Ron Asheton!

It's worth mentioning that Hayden told me that he almost always has problems stripping the wire from Epiphone pickups when doing a rewind - the wire breaks every few turns, and he reckons that they must use the cheapest, nastiest wire available.

I only mentioned the Ibanez and Hagstroms as alternatives. I am a HUGE fan of vintage Hagstroms - I've even been to the Hagstrom museum in Alvdalen Sweden - not once, but twice! The new reissues aren't as good, but considering their price, they are pretty decent.

[inefficiency]

rocket88 wrote

Btw, I don't know why all the epiphone hate. I personal find them to feel great, and play very well and I like that the pickups are "meh" sounding. It gives me a good reason to spend the money to upgrade it, rather then tare apart a guitar that sounds great from the beginning, just to make it sound different. My epiphone les paul, a Korean made one, I changed the pickups, replaced the pots with high quality ones, put in a gibson switch, orange drop cap, and new wiring and I couldn't be happier. Plus the amount I spent to do it all was far less then a new les paul, and she plays like a dream. Maybe I like to tinker too much and change my guitars .......

I think Epiphone are like any other guitar company - they make some good guitars and some shitty guitars. I just think most people have experience with the really budget end of things, which is why they often don't like them when compared to a "proper" Les Paul or 335 or whatever, but I've heard that a top-end Epiphone is actually a lot better than a lower-end Gibson.

And Travis, the trannies in that Superfuzz look awesome!

[Travis]

Sorry if it a seemed like I was hating on Epiphone. I don't hate them at all, I actually dig them a lot. I'd love to have a Wilshire or one of their semis

The Dot that I had felt like some of the frets were slightly loose, fret ends could use a little work, neck was kindof a clunky D shape, and the plating on the hardware wore off super fast. The Ibanez that I had which was similar and I think cost about the same price had a much better neck in comparison. Frets didn't need any work and you could get the action low without issues

Obviously this is just my one experience and there are thousands of happy Dot owners out there. I think at the time I got the Dot it was one of Epi's cheapest options so it's not surprising that QC seems hit or miss.

[rocket88]

Wow. Everyone took me way to seriously on that. I know there's no real hate going on, it's not the haters ball. <smiley image="smiley_tongue.gif"/. I just find it funny since we all have our preferences what companies seem to end up on the bottom of the list. The sad thing is I've played about 50 les Paul's that were gibson and epiphone and 9 out of 10 I liked the neck feel of the epiphone. The one I have no joke, hope everyone is sitting down for this price. I paid.........$150 for a used top end epiphone les paul from guitar center, major chain company, all because I found one for $200 that was in a color I "preferred" and they have a beat a price guarantee. The funny thing is that the one I showed them to match the price was a lower end one<smiley image="smiley_grin.gif"/>. The first thing I did that week was order a seymour duncan jazz for the neck and a pearly gates for the neck, changed out the pots, the switch, put in the orange drop cap, and to me blows away all of the others I've played and when I was don't spent about $350 total. Now I need an sg, and firebird too for the same reasons, but I can't find a good enough deal.

I feel the same about fenders. You all know what I did the my jaguar as soon as I bought her. I always feel that a lot it the stock stuff I'd built to a price, if you know what I mean.

[tjdracz]

Not for Christmas but I did get a Dot. Neck is chunky but nice, needed some time to get used to it after coming from a Fenderish land but it's nice. Not fussed about changing the pickups at the moment, they do sound alright, not in-your-face amazing but certainly not shit. Although I might change the neck to P90 and bridge to some Alnico II PAF style one, but at the moment, nah! (especially after input jack has fallen through the body and it took an hour of swearing and working to get it out, I suppose you might need a patience of a saint to rewire it fully).
Also I think with Epiphones, same with Squiers, the quality has gone up massively in the last couple of years. For Epiphones you had the nice Korean ones, then there was a decade and a half of meh and now they doing seriously good guitars. Same with Squier and their Classic Vibe series and now the Vintage Modified ones. I took my £70 VM Jaguar to the local guitar shop and the owner was quite impressed with the quality and the resonance, especially for that price.
My Dot is I think 2012 or 2013, can't really say a bad thing about it for £160 I paid ;)

And here's my happy family!

[dbat69]

That looks lovely - I like it

I'm a sucker for the tobacco sunburst - they always look classy somehow

[tjdracz]

They sure do, I've been GASing for a Partscaster for quite some time - tobacco/two-tone sunburst but rosewood neck. It seems like you can only get one or the other, Fender 50s or 60s series. I never seemed to get to grips with maple fingerboard

[Beaker]

I've done many a pickup swap or full rewire on hollow bodies. It's kind of like doing a ship in a bottle - while it is obviously more time consuming than a solid body, if you work methodically and use the right techniques, it really is not hard at all.

BIG tip: quarter inch surgical rubber tubing is your best friend!

[dbat69]

I was the other way round - I wanted a Candy Apple Red with maple neck - I was considering getting two strats and swapping the necks and then selling one, but then I managed to pick up steal on eBay - put a daft bid in (not expecting it to win) at the last minute and hey presto, won it
I need to mod it (probably because I can ) so I'll splash out on some Ironstone pups (like my other strat, but I might go for a slightly different set), do the copper shielding in the cavity and uprate the electrics.

One day I will probably end up with a dot, either tobacco or white (I still have this image of Alex Liefson with his white ES335 in my head)

[negativefx]

Played a bunch of used semis this weekend.  The les paul sized epi 339 ($289 w/gigbag).  Pickups sounded like trash but the fit and finish on the guitar was great.

Then played a Dot. ($299 w/ohsc).  Played and sounded excellent... until I switched to the neck pickup.  The hum was so bad I just put it down and walked away.

Found a brownish/grayish artcore with the smaller body ($349 w/ohsc).  Was really nice but didn't like the neck feel and it slightly needed a fret job.  Link: picture

Played a full size artcore ($329 w/gb).  Didn't like it.  3/4 pots were loose and the guy at the shop said he didn't have the tools to tighten them for me (wtf?) and I have no clue what's needed to tighten them.  Minor issue, but it certainly is a bad first impression.  The lacquer on the guitar was applied poorly.  It was dimpled all over the place as if it were intentional.  

I also tried a new Dot, Sheraton, and a few new artcores at g*****center.  Dot was buckle rashed beyond "new" pricing.  Sheraton was overpriced and didn't include the case.  Artcore was OK but overpriced.  I was stupid enough to try a $1299 gretsch.  Sigh.

The search continues!

[tjdracz]

negativefx wrote

Then played a Dot. ($299 w/ohsc).  Played and sounded excellent... until I switched to the neck pickup.  The hum was so bad I just put it down and walked away.

Weird, but probably some dodgy grounding. If you could get the price knocked down because of that, could have been a good deal and probably quite easy to fix.

Here in the UK I've seen couple of them cropping up with stuff like Bigsby added or pickups swapped with Seymour Duncans. Before I got my sunburst Dot, I've seen a black one with Pearly Gates P90 and PAF in the bridge, just the setup I wanted. It was £200 but was gone before I had a chance to make an offer.

And that's the thing, Epis can make a great guitar but poor QC makes them also prone to churning a really poor ones. If you get a good one, it will be your friend for life. I've recently played tue Les Paul Plustop Pros at the shop, both same year of manufacture but the difference was like night and day, pickups, neck...

[dbat69]

Well my BOSS Metalizer MZ2 arrived.  Its not in perfect condition cosmetically, but it plays fine.  Any of you guys know where to get a 'cheap' BOSS finger screw for the battery compartment (black would be perfect) - there is a crappy bolt in there at the minute :(

Playing wise, it sounds really good.  It is not a really versatile pedal, very much like the HM2, but with a little less control on the tone (there is only 1 tone control on the MZ2) - can still get some decent sounds out of this in 'dry signal' mode.

It has two 'doubling' modes which give it the 'extra' over the HM2.  THere appears to be 3 reverby type echo modes which add a nice little extra.  And there are 2 chorus modes which are .. nice.  It has two outputs for stereo use and this adds a lot of 'space' when in the chorus mode (even with two disimilar amps).  

I'm really pleased with it so far - more experimentation required.

I did open up the box and have a nose around  It is definitely not a vero project - two circuit boards, one of them is the digital processing (echo & chorus) with a BOSS marked SMD style chip 3/4" square with about 40 pins, the other board looks similar to the HM2.  THere is a hell of a lot in that pedal

[negativefx]

Agreed... it was at a local recycled gear shop that hasn't really impressed me with their pricing or their service, so I didn't feel it was worth the hassle.  Epis quality control is where the money is saved and is one of the major reasons why they're so cheap.  Although one could argue they're not much worse than Gibson Nashville has been lately. :)  I've had some great Epi guitars, and also seen some terrible ones.

[JaviCAP]

I do really hate Epiphone, can not deny it :P Pups are pure crap, no way how you look or listen, I'd rather prefer a gfs or artec pickup, and they're cheaper besides.

With Epihpne, you pay a huge % for the brand and the idea that you own a "little" Gibson. For me, Epiphone is the brand where you pay more to get less, and even prefer a knock-off chinese made Gibson with decent pickups, than an Epiphone just purchased at the store.

Seriously, for me, this is the brand to avoid.

J.

[rocket88]

Well. I never thought I would disagree with you buddy, but I disagree sir . But seriously, it's all in what you want to do with it. I grab it cheap, and junk the shit pickups for what I want. And I find gfs pickups to be awesome, and the fact that they are cheap as dirt makes them even better.

I'm all for the feel of the instrument, not the name. But, I also I'm a bass player more that plays guitar for fun, and have a major a dislike for basses that have the name "Fender" across the headstock. Every single damn one I've ever player had the pickups torn out within the first 3 days of owning it, as well as the tuners, bridge, nut, and pots replaced. A company that charges $450-500 for an instrument that has a cheap ass plastic nut, is resting on their laurels and selling a name. The pickups are weak, and lifeless, the bridge can be bent by hand, and tuners that are loose and cause string buzz should be shot for charging that much. What pisses me off even more about fender is they can't make a good bridge, so they buy the company that makes the best replacement, and had since the 70's IMHO, then kills the market by making it have crappy saddles and putting them on their "signature" models that are over price POS. The saddest thing is that G&L was meant and is the opus of Leo Fender, and people forget about them because it doesn't say Fender across the top.

Sorry for the fender slander rant, but AAAAHHHH! I got into an argument with someone about this Thursday, who was selling a Fender Jazz used and wanted $400 for it, and it was beat up, and I tried explaining to them what has to be done, and condition, etc. and they said, well it's a fender so it's worth money. I've never had anything like that with epiphone, because it's accepted that it's a cheap instrument and it's a "baby" gibson, but no one treat it like it is worth anything close to one. Also, it doesn't hp that I'm on a trip with 70 of my students so I'm kinda out of my mind.....

[Silver Blues]

Yeah, both the basses I own are Epiphone Embassy Special IVs, and I can safely say they outperform basses many times their price. I paid $95 for one and $130 for the other. Pickups sound great, necks are awesome, I can't say enough good things.

[JaviCAP]

Right, but prices like the ones you both tell (from $95 to $150) are imposible to get here. A medium price for second hand "good" Epiphones is about  €300 and new about ~€500.

If I spend €300 in a guitar, and have to spend €200 more (pups, tuners, bridge, and so on) to get it sounding right, is not really a good bussiness. Even worse if you buy it new and have to swap the same hardware :P.

Taking in mind that my G&L Asat Tribute was €220, and the Gibson Faded Flying V  about €400..... I won't spend a single euro in an Epiphone :P

J.