If you had ask me yesterday if I would ever buy a Chinese made guitar I would have said NEVER! but that day has come browsing through craigslist I found an ad for a young man parting with his Epiphone Dot studio to pay a ticket. so I bought it for his asking price of $150 and he even delivered it to my work. for what I paid its not to bad actually. the fret ends are dangerously sharp and the pickups suck, but other than that its not bad. still not sure if its actually mahogany and the block inside looks allot like pine but it is as new condition with the plastic still on the pickups. so after some fret work and installing some Vintage Vibe charlie christian pickups it should be a decent jazz box beater. still it is not even remotely close to a Gibson 335 by any means

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The guitarist in kings of leon has one just like that, and we can pretty safely assume he can afford more expensive. That counts for something.

Enjoy.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

You should swap the pickups and put some chrome hardware on it. But that's a good price for one of those.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I am actually thinking I may paint it a high gloss black and name it shadow

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Dude!

That a seriously cool looking guitar! Love the wood grain on the bod. Maybe a little mirror though the F-hole to see if its a veneered top... Regardless, for $150 I reckon its a steal!

If there were bargains like that here in the UK, I'd have a hell of a lot more guitars than I do now.

Enjoy!

Andy

Edit:spelding miskoots..

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Pending Greatness

Sweet axe and insane deal LOVE the grain.

I was also hesitant of made in China guitars until I bought a Squier CV Tele. That thing is the same quality as my MIAs and MIJ. PERFECT fretwork.

Even with the fret adjustments and needing a pickup swap it is still a great deal for $150! Great score...and no hippacrite, just never say never!

I like the idea of a gloss black finish...triple black is always kind of cool, whether it is guitars or cars!

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

Nice guitar and well done on the deal. I bought me an Epiphone ES175, copy of a Gibson ES175 and it's great i love it! the intonation is kinda all over the place but i should be able to fix that. Some of the parts are obviously cheaper, the tuning pegs are rubbish, i'll end up replacing those, but all in all it's a great guitar and the real Gibson is about 10 times the price so.....!

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

I'm sure that guitar will be basically sound. Enjoy a bit of tinkering and tweaking, and it'll be a good addition to your collection.

Frankly, a modern Chinese made guitar is of such quality (except for the budget hardware) that you wouldn't have to give serious consideration to picking one up at any time. They've come a long way in a short period, often under the watchfull eye of a rep from the major Companies who has driven up the quality control in the factory.

Think of them as gigging guitars, and save your 'better' instruments the trauma of travelling and potential stage damage..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

well from the outside it looks ok. but I am more concerned about the overall build quality after looking under the pickups the neck joint appears to be all glue and I can see one big gap between the ply and pine core block. also the main block looks very pieced together. next time I am in SC I will use my fathers sewer cam and take a few snap shots of the guts. but I am afraid of what I will find

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