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(@Eagle's going to have a field day with this one LOL.)
"Guitar" arrived yesterday. First impressions: good weight and balance, a bit more red than I'd hoped, but overall not a bad-looking guitar. And a surprisingly decent case, considering it must have been more or less free.
Second impressions: really nothing much in the way of tone. Sounds as light as it feels, kind of like a toy. The P90s, to my surprise, didn't do much for me. The neck pickup angle seemed way off axis vs. the neck itself - whereas the bridge pickup was fine - and I didn't see any obvious way to adjust. (Surely there is one?) But I couldn't really draw any conclusions without putting some decent strings on (which, spoiler-alert, I never got that far.) Moving on...
I noticed a cosmetic flaw - nothing major, but sadly exactly where I'd be staring at it all the time: The taping/ spraying of the faux binding at the 6th fret (bass side) was very sloppy:
Disappointing, but not a deal-breaker for what I paid. More importantly, I was starting to realize that I disliked the neck profile: narrow string spacing but a deeper carve than what I would typically go for. And worse, a very unusual taper that made it much deeper at the higher frets than at the nut. Distractingly so IMO.
At this point I stepped away to clear my head. When I got back I turned on the amp, turned it off again, and decided to try the guitar through the QC. With the benefit of all the reverb etc., it actually sounded pretty good! Inspired, I swiped my left hand down the neck (pseudo pick-slide rawk thing), then started to move back up to play a lick, when a pretty healthy dose of pain shot up my left arm. The finish near the nut on the high E side of the neck had started to flake off. It flexed, then a sharp little point broke off in my hand. I managed to pull it out with my teeth. If I could put this part of the story in a positive light: it was the moment I realized I didn't have to worry about whether I could live with the rest of the issues. A neck whose finish is fucked up to the point of causing injury is a deal-breaker a thousand times over.
Tiny, but painful. And sure to worsen with time:
Ouch pouch:
Next up was reading all the fine print on AMS' website and getting agida about "signs of wear" vs. shipping charges vs. restocking fees, etc. Basically, how much was this absolute disaster going to wind up costing me? But to their credit, the actual Earth human I finally got on the phone was really cool, and it looks like I'll be getting a full refund. (Elvis has already left the proverbial building, after all of about 24 hours.)
tl;dr - Oops I did it again? Actually, that's not really fair, since I'm pretty happy with my other Epiphone, a "Limited Edition Tony Iommi SG Custom" I bought a few years back. But I'm done buying guitars (or amplifiers) sight unseen for the foreseeable future.
"Guitar" arrived yesterday. First impressions: good weight and balance, a bit more red than I'd hoped, but overall not a bad-looking guitar. And a surprisingly decent case, considering it must have been more or less free.
Second impressions: really nothing much in the way of tone. Sounds as light as it feels, kind of like a toy. The P90s, to my surprise, didn't do much for me. The neck pickup angle seemed way off axis vs. the neck itself - whereas the bridge pickup was fine - and I didn't see any obvious way to adjust. (Surely there is one?) But I couldn't really draw any conclusions without putting some decent strings on (which, spoiler-alert, I never got that far.) Moving on...
I noticed a cosmetic flaw - nothing major, but sadly exactly where I'd be staring at it all the time: The taping/ spraying of the faux binding at the 6th fret (bass side) was very sloppy:
Disappointing, but not a deal-breaker for what I paid. More importantly, I was starting to realize that I disliked the neck profile: narrow string spacing but a deeper carve than what I would typically go for. And worse, a very unusual taper that made it much deeper at the higher frets than at the nut. Distractingly so IMO.
At this point I stepped away to clear my head. When I got back I turned on the amp, turned it off again, and decided to try the guitar through the QC. With the benefit of all the reverb etc., it actually sounded pretty good! Inspired, I swiped my left hand down the neck (pseudo pick-slide rawk thing), then started to move back up to play a lick, when a pretty healthy dose of pain shot up my left arm. The finish near the nut on the high E side of the neck had started to flake off. It flexed, then a sharp little point broke off in my hand. I managed to pull it out with my teeth. If I could put this part of the story in a positive light: it was the moment I realized I didn't have to worry about whether I could live with the rest of the issues. A neck whose finish is fucked up to the point of causing injury is a deal-breaker a thousand times over.
Tiny, but painful. And sure to worsen with time:
Ouch pouch:
Next up was reading all the fine print on AMS' website and getting agida about "signs of wear" vs. shipping charges vs. restocking fees, etc. Basically, how much was this absolute disaster going to wind up costing me? But to their credit, the actual Earth human I finally got on the phone was really cool, and it looks like I'll be getting a full refund. (Elvis has already left the proverbial building, after all of about 24 hours.)
tl;dr - Oops I did it again? Actually, that's not really fair, since I'm pretty happy with my other Epiphone, a "Limited Edition Tony Iommi SG Custom" I bought a few years back. But I'm done buying guitars (or amplifiers) sight unseen for the foreseeable future.
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