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Post by grayn on Jul 10, 2021 9:23:47 GMT
I'm wondering if anyone on the forum has any experience with the newer, Epiphone Masterbilt guitars. A few years ago, some Epi Masterbilts came out but were all of the vintage, jazz style. I played a few and was really impressed with the quality and sound. Alas, I am no jazz guitarist. Anyway, more recently Epi have produced a few "inspired by Gbson" Masterbilts. J45s, Hummingbirds etc. It's these that interest me and I was hoping someone else would have tried them and could share their thoughts. Cheers.
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Post by andyhowell on Jul 10, 2021 10:02:26 GMT
THe Inspired by Gibson range have received great reviews. If you haven't found it yet check out JP Cormier's featuer:
To be honest I expect these guitars to be very good. The quality of factory built guitars from Asia has rocked in recent years and I'm constantly surprised by what I am hearing in music stores.
These are not cheap guitars but seem to offer great value for money. And their manufacturing process would seem to be far more consistent than Gibson's US production facilities.
SO much value in the US is placed on 'made in the usa' for patriotic reasons I think it clouds people's judgement when it comes to anything from anywhere else. I'm loking forward to trying these, indeed, I might just go and do it this week — reporting back of course.
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Post by grayn on Jul 10, 2021 13:46:45 GMT
Thanks. I have watched that video but he tends to be wowed by most non Gibson/Martin guitars, I've seen him try. I hope to try a few out soon and the other, old Epi models, that have got the Masterbilt revival.
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Post by surfguy13 on Jul 10, 2021 17:42:37 GMT
I had a look at these acoustics some time ago when someone offered me a AJ-45ME; this is a copy of the J45. I had wrongly assumed that anything with Epiphone on the headstock would be cheap and cheerful with laminated woods and limited attention to detail. They appear to have solid woods throughout and the specs are unbelievably high for guitars in this price range with 18:1 Grover tuners and built in electrics with preamp on the electro models. As grayn mentioned, they also do an excellent range of jazzers and I have tried a couple and they were superb. I expected the pickups to questionable and was amazed how good they sounded and the build quality and feel was of a pretty high standard too.
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