Show your Epiphones

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Fatboy

Fatboy

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Epiphone Emperor.JPG

This is another ride or die - just sounds amazing for so many things. From rockabilly to alt to country to rock

Started life as an Emporer with a Frequensator and a neck pickup with pickguard controls - $300 at Guitar Center. I guess gold sparkle jazz guitars aren't big sellers.

Many gigs with this lady, even broke the headstock - thanks Billy at Dave Sound for the great repair!

I've probably owned 100 guitars in the past 40 years - all shapes and sizes. Oddly enough two of my favorite players/giggers of all of them are these two Epi's.
 
Mike Drop

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My first. An Epi Dot Cherry. Just de-strung it after it acclimated for 48 hours. Fresh 8's and I took the opportunity to clean the area between the pickups. Polished some of the scuzz off the brightwork and lightly oiled the neck. Next comes some set-up.KIMG0301.JPG KIMG0299.JPG KIMG0300.JPG KIMG0302.JPG KIMG0301.JPG KIMG0299.JPG KIMG0300.JPG
 
Mike Drop

Mike Drop

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imnotcreative said:
I got me one of these last week
View attachment 15485
I really like the neck shape, ever so slightly thicker than my gibson tributes, but same shape overall. But i wasn't into the ''aged'' finish very much, felt like some of the cheap textured plastic to me (very different than the satin feel on my gibsons) so i polished it and now it feels perfect. I also switched out the toggleswitch washer for an original gibson one i initially got for my bfg but decided not to use. The one that came on the guitar wasn't silkscreened very well and didn't look very good.
It has a good weight to it, slightly lighter than my standard 60's, and doesn't sound as dark and bassy as my standard 60's( acoustically and amplified) here are some more pics, but they don't appear as shiny as it does in reality.

The fretboard darkened up quite a bit after oiling

One thing i don't really get though.. why put a ''locking'' latch on the case if there is no lock installed.. I thought it was a bit odd to see the key wasn't shaped so i decided to have a closer look at the latch. There seems to be nothing but a cylinder inside which you can rotate with the key, other than that it doesn't do anything
View attachment 15491 That small piece of metal is part of the key by the way.

As my buddy's birthday is coming up next week i was planning on giving him the LP std 60's. He doesn't seem to be able to keep his hands off of it everytime he comes over and keeps saying it's about time for him to get himself a Les Paul.
So i thought it's about time for him to get a Les Paul. Since i have a couple of LP's and i know where it will be going i don't have too much trouble parting with it. And besides, when i visit him i can still play it.
Click to expand...
I didn't want to dig up a thread from last year but I have a classic on my list in cherry burst. I just wanted to know how you like it so far.
 
I

imnotcreative

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Mike Drop said:
I didn't want to dig up a thread from last year but I have a classic on my list in cherry burst. I just wanted to know how you like it so far.
Click to expand...
I enjoy it quite a bit. I love the shape of the neck, a bit rounded and not too thin and not too thick, fills the hand nicely (that may depend on the size of you hands though). That and the sound of the guitar made me buy it. What i wasn't a fan of though was the texture of the finish. It didn't feel very smooth, more like the surface of a chalkboard. Therefor i polished it up a bit to make the neck feel smoother and by doing that the woodgrain on the neck got more visible so i tried it on the back and eventually the front aswell. It shined up nicely and the flame in the veneer also got a bit more movement under the light. All in all a bit more pleasing too look at in my opinion. I also had to polish the frets a bit because they were a bit rough but that was a 10 minute job, or you could play it a lot and it will smooth out. All my guitars have polished frets so i couldn't just leave it be.
One last thing i changed was the toggleswitch washer. The font on mine was a bit fuzzy around the edges and i still had a spare one which i intended to use on my Gibson LP BFG but i decided not to use it on that. The nut was cut pretty well but i did file the back of the nutslots to have them angle towards the tuners a bit to help with tuning stability so there are no sharp angles at the back of the nut for the string to get caught on. Gave it about 0.005'' relief at the 7th fret and it plays without fretbuzz with a low E height of 3/64th and a high E of 2,5/64th without any fretbuzz (ymmv). After all that it feels really nice to play and i'm quite happy with it. It is a little weighty so i wouldn't recomment jumping around with it and standing around with it for a prolongued time can make my shoulders feel a bit sore. A wide strap could probably help with that.
Sound wise It has some deep bass, rounded mids and highs. The bass was a bit much at first but adjusting pickup height and setting polepieces to match the fretboard radius evened that out a lot. The rest of the fine tuning can be done on the amp. It has some grit and growl to it but with the volume knob turned down a bit you can make it clean up for some nice clean sounds.
The case is a nice bonus, but to me quality wise it feels more like it's made to protect the guitar around the house. The latches aren't that tight and there isn't a lock in the ''locking latch'' just a hole to put the key in which you can then spin around untill you get either bored or tired. I wouldn't use the case to haul the guitar around. I'm too afraid the latches come loose and the guitar dropping out. Maybe it was made like that intentionally so you keep the guitar out of the case and play it more.. Who knows.
 
Mike Drop

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imnotcreative said:
I enjoy it quite a bit. I love the shape of the neck, a bit rounded and not too thin and not too thick, fills the hand nicely (that may depend on the size of you hands though). That and the sound of the guitar made me buy it. What i wasn't a fan of though was the texture of the finish. It didn't feel very smooth, more like the surface of a chalkboard. Therefor i polished it up a bit to make the neck feel smoother and by doing that the woodgrain on the neck got more visible so i tried it on the back and eventually the front aswell. It shined up nicely and the flame in the veneer also got a bit more movement under the light. All in all a bit more pleasing too look at in my opinion. I also had to polish the frets a bit because they were a bit rough but that was a 10 minute job, or you could play it a lot and it will smooth out. All my guitars have polished frets so i couldn't just leave it be.
One last thing i changed was the toggleswitch washer. The font on mine was a bit fuzzy around the edges and i still had a spare one which i intended to use on my Gibson LP BFG but i decided not to use it on that. The nut was cut pretty well but i did file the back of the nutslots to have them angle towards the tuners a bit to help with tuning stability so there are no sharp angles at the back of the nut for the string to get caught on. Gave it about 0.005'' relief at the 7th fret and it plays without fretbuzz with a low E height of 3/64th and a high E of 2,5/64th without any fretbuzz (ymmv). After all that it feels really nice to play and i'm quite happy with it. It is a little weighty so i wouldn't recomment jumping around with it and standing around with it for a prolongued time can make my shoulders feel a bit sore. A wide strap could probably help with that.
Sound wise It has some deep bass, rounded mids and highs. The bass was a bit much at first but adjusting pickup height and setting polepieces to match the fretboard radius evened that out a lot. The rest of the fine tuning can be done on the amp. It has some grit and growl to it but with the volume knob turned down a bit you can make it clean up for some nice clean sounds.
The case is a nice bonus, but to me quality wise it feels more like it's made to protect the guitar around the house. The latches aren't that tight and there isn't a lock in the ''locking latch'' just a hole to put the key in which you can then spin around untill you get either bored or tired. I wouldn't use the case to haul the guitar around. I'm too afraid the latches come loose and the guitar dropping out. Maybe it was made like that intentionally so you keep the guitar out of the case and play it more.. Who knows.
Click to expand...
Well. thanks for that very complete review. I'll know what to look for. That case came with it?
 
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