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I have a similar experience with my cheap Epi 'couch guitar'. It's a MIK Howard Roberts knock off with an unusually loud acoustic voice.
Maybe its the huge oval sound hole mated to a 175 sized box that does it, but it works for me.
I bought it cheap to restore and flip, but now each time I strum her, she makes me smile with its sweet, acoustic volume...perfect for practicing while watching TV.
Its like the guitar is yelling at me not to sell her.
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09-21-2017 01:56 PM
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Here is how mine sounds with the Vanden pick-up.
Video not to good quality but gives you an idea. John.
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Sounds awesome johnnyjazz. Thanks for sharing. Good examples of these affordable laminate guitars certainly punch well above their weight, especially in capable hands such as yours.
Roli
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Any of you have a Broadway? Looks very similar to the ER but with 2 set-in humbuckers. Is it in L-5 territory plugged in? How is it acoustically?
Roli
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A colleague of mine had an Epi Broadway. We did a lot of duo/trio gigs, sometimes under my name, sometimes under his. He sounded great. I was playing my Empress Regent. Of course he sounded great on vocals, keys, bass, drums, and, for all I know, the diddley bow. But seriously, the Broadway ( not the Elitist, such as forumite Lawson Stone wields so well) sounded excellent. I've been looking for one ever since, to no avail.
Originally Posted by rolijen
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Very very nice JohnnyJazz. It's in the hands. I love your soft touch. These guitars perform when you can play them. And you can! Nice going. Originally Posted by johnnyjazz
I had 2 of these. I wanted sooo badly for them to stick. One had a twisted neck and the other was setup so horribly bad by the factory. High nut and the bridge was buried as low as it could go and the action was still almost a quarter inch too high.
Joe D
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> Anyone have a similar experience with a 'cheap' guitar punching ridiculously above its weight acoustically like this?
Me! I think this guitar provides a ridiculous amount of bang for the buck.
For some reason the ER doesn't seem to get all that much love around here. There are a few people here who've owned them who have been very vocal in bad-rapping them. Of the ones that do get the love around here, those seem to be the Peerless guitars. The later Korean guitars and the newer Chinese ER don't seem to be getting as much love.
I don't understand why the Peerless are so popular at the exclusion of the others. I have one of the other Korean Emperor Regents, a 2009 ER built in South Korea by Un Sung. It definitely performs higher than you'd expect it to perform as an inexpensive plywood Korean guitar. In my experience it's every bit on-par with the Peerless ER that I have played. I bought mine at GC several years ago as a new instrument that was being sold as used with a deep discount because it was being discontinued by Epi and they wanted to unload inventory that wasn't turning over. Out of the box it came with the best setup I've ever seen on a new instrument. There was literally nothing that I needed to adjust... except for getting rid of those floppy 10-ga strings that they put on at the factory.
Honestly speaking, the guitar didn't project all that well and it sounded a bit thin with the factory original 10-ga D'Addario strings on it, which is probably why it wasn't all that popular a guitar at GC. I replaced the strings with 11-ga roundwounds, and then moved to 12-ga roundwounds once I was sure that the guitar wouldn't object. Because I primarily use the guitar as a couch potato I prefer to string it with rounds to play it acoustically. The guitar performs surprisingly well as an acoustic for being a low-cost plywood guitar. I think the heavier strings are a large part of helping these guitars to be all that they can be. It certainly improves their tone, which can be on the thin side with lighter strings.
Looking at the guitar from a build quality perspective, it's flawless. Looking past the heavy poly finish, the fit and finish of the guitar as it came from the factory were perfect. There's not a single fitment error or a finish defect anywhere. The neck and the fretwork are great, no complaints whatsoever. The body produces quite a bit of volume and seems well balanced from the bass to the treble side, which is surprising for a plywood guitar. I primarily use this as a couch guitar, for when I don't want to deal with an amplifier. Most of the time I play it unplugged.
When I do plug it in, that's when I see the guitar's weak spot -- the OEM pickup just isn't that great. Like most Epis, the electronics are what's holding it back, and this guitar could benefit from a pickup upgrade. Even for a neck mounted floater, which I would expect to sound on the thin side, I think the OEM pickup sounds too thin for this type of guitar/pickup combination. Personally, I haven't worried about the pickup upgrade because I like to play mine acoustically and I use it as a couch guitar, something that I can leave out without worrying about family members beating up something that's more expensive.
As much as I like my ER, I haven't been playing mine as much as I should because the neck is just too skinny for me. I know, necks are a totally subjective thing, but I get hand cramps from playing skinny-necked guitars and that's a deal breaker for me. Unfortunately the ER neck is just too thin for me to play for any expended period of time, and that means that I'm stuck paying through the nose for fat-necked Gibsons. They're much more comfortable for me to play.
It seems that skinny necks seem to be the norm for Epis. After I bought my ER I tried to bring home a Joe Pass and an ES-175 but their necks were too thin for me and being getting used to a long scale and a 17" body I just couldn't bond with the petite short-scale guitars. I really like my ER, and I'd be playing this guitar a lot more often if it only had a thicker neck. All in all, I think it's a great guitar for the money and definitely performs better than most guitars in it's class. It's a great bang for the buck.
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Yea, the pick-up is the problem, a shame really, i think it sounds fine acoustically.
You should put up a video, let us hear it. This with flat wounds and slight hump in neck at body join.
Last edited by johnnyjazz; 11-05-2017 at 03:36 PM.
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Does it sound any better acoustically with the pickup removed?
There was recently an ER hanging on the used rack at my local Guitarget, but I didn't consider it as I already have a modified JP, a Broadway, and a new D'Angelico Excel. I've recorded the Broadway and the Excel acoustically, back to back, and I can't hear a difference. The Excel and the Regent bodies seem very similar to me, so I wouldn't have expected the Regent to be any "better", unless taking the floating pickup off livens it up.
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I don’t think removing the pickup changed the sound. But adding the custom pickguard without controls and removing the wiring made all the slight buzzes disappear. It’s just pure acoustic bliss. Really sweet and toneful. I’ll probably never put a pickup back on it at this point. But, never say never, right?!
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It's interesting that you say this, because I feel the same way. I have an ER and I just picked up an EXL-1 and I think the bodies are probably made from the same pattern, if not by the same people. If you set aside the bling factor (which definitely works in the DA's favor) I think that deep down inside they're the same guitar, with only a few accoutrements being different between them. Originally Posted by JGinNJ
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BeBob, I think you are right. The workmanship of the Excel feels very similar to the Emperor Regent and they sound very similar. I too was thinking they must come from the same assembly line. In many respects, they are twins. While I still love my ER, I’m enjoying the chunkier neck profile of the Excel.
Roli
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Hey!
I recently bought a used Epiphone Emperor. There's no serial number on it and the seller didn't know much about the guitar, but he said he had been told that it was probably an 80's model made in Japan (judging from the thruss rod cover).
I thought it looked a bit different than other Japanese Emperors I've seen pictures of, but I bought it anyway since I thought it was nice to play on and it has a great tone. For example the tailpiece and bridge looks different, but they could have been changed obviously.
Can anyone identify it from the pictures?
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I have a 80s Japanese Epiphone Emperor F, Matsumoku made in 1984. Mine looks totally different from yours.
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That looks to me more like a Korean made model. The style of the script on the logo and the shape of the headstock don't look like any of the Japanese made Epiphones I've seen. It looks a lot like the basic shape of the Joe Pass model.
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looks like an early 90's samick to me..same headstock...with that gibby trussrod cover...
has that typical cheapo asian made tailpiece that all the imports used..most likely a change
whats the letter code on the serial number?
if it starts with s its korean samick
cheers
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It reminds me of a Cort/Tanglewood Yorktown.
Here's a picture comparison.
Yours...
Corts...
The Yorktown has a spruce top
Yours does too.
I've played a Yorktown and they're a great guitar. Very underrated.
Perhaps you have a Joe Pass with the selector position replaced.
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OP guitar sure looks like an Emperor II, but the toggle is in the wrong spot. Those have only been made since 94 in Korea, Indonesia, and China. On ebay I see a number of guitars exactly like the OP guitar w/same toggle position, all offered as 80s Japanese Emperors.
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Yeah, it looks like a Joe Pass tailpiece. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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Sorry, this is an old thread, but hopefully still active.
I had planned to purchase either the d'Angelico Excel EXL (Korea) or Ibanez AFC151 (China). The former was well built and extremely comfortable, but didn't sound good to me. I purchased the latter. It sounded pretty good (more acoustic properties) but was plagued with many manufacturing problems, so I returned it. Now, I'm hunting for an Epiphone Emperor Regent. I'm hoping the neck is 1 11/16 fully C-shaped, not a thin D-shape. I had tried one sometime in 2006-2007. I recall it was clearly marked made in China. I did not like it.
Why have Epiphone ERs been selling at $400-500 as recently as a couple months ago, while the current ones are offered at $1,000? There is one in Antique Sunburst in mint condition. Researching its serial number indicates:
Peerless Plant, Korea
on March, 2005
Production Number: 484
Any reason why the OP's 2005 guitar sold for $400 and this one is asking $1,000? I doubt that the aesthetic condition alone would justify more than double the price.
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Mine is from 1996 and I'll go to grave with it. Not a single flaw in build quality. However, still (lazily) searching for the perfect pickup.
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Ime the market will vary greatly especially over a three year time frame. Originally Posted by woofcyn
I am in the process of liquidating most of my instrument/amp collection (trying to sell about 45 of my guitars and about a dozen tube amps) and I track the prices of my instruments that I’ve acquired since the late sixties and often the markets have spikes in price both up and down, mostly with no apparent reason.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Other things being equal, are there also large differences in prices between the years and certain manufacturers? I see that Peerless is the most popular, though I read that some consider Unsung equally good.
I also read that certain Korean manufacturers opened plants in China, so based on the serial number, an Epiphone Emperor Regent could actually be made in China by a Korean company.
I also saw the guitars selling for ~$500 a couple of months ago. If there is a sudden and large increase in price for no apparent reason, then it's best not to purchase anything now.
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$400 was a good deal. Some issues with these guitars (I had one back in the 1990s):
1. Gibson nut width with fender string spacing; not an optimum setup, too cramped for me, but YMMV. The spacing can be fixed with a new nut.
2. Sounds great plugged in, but has very poor acoustic sound.
3. Some cognitive dissonance with the idea of putting a floating pickup on something that has no merit as an acoustic guitar; it would sound the same with a routed pickup.
So, it is a fine electric guitar if you are OK with the string spacing, and the weight and size (it is a bit of a boat anchor). Paying $1000 for one would be crazy money.
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I was surfing around and found this Epiphone that didn’t quite look like every other Broadway. It was, in fact, listed in multiple locations (eBay, Reverb, etc.) as a ‘90s Korean Broadway. It was missing the label inside and every listing mentioned this so it seemed a little sketchy. I had no idea what I was looking at and spent days looking all over the internet and finally just bought it because something was nagging at me about it. The day I placed the order, I finally found what it was by chance. I didn’t know Emperors were made in Japan until last week, now I do! (Yes, I have been under a rock not to know this.)
i found enough pictures and information to know it is a Terada made Emperor J. I think I can now spot a Matsumoku or a Terada Emperor at a glance after obsessing about it like I did. The Epiphone font on the headstock screams Japanese made to me now. The Matsumokus have the serial in gold on the back of the headstock and more binding on the fretboard. The Terada Emperors have a different body shape- more L5 than the rounded Matsumoku Emperor F or TH. The Matsumokus have Tuners with the epsilon on them, also.
The guitar is in outstanding shape and the neck is a dream. The strings have to go as they are a standard set of electrics. I can’t wait to get some decent flatwounds on it. I used an inspection mirror and looked all over the inside of the body for the missing serial tag and it just isn’t in there. All the electronics seem decent, as well. I need to pull a pickup when I change the strings, because the spruce grain inside seems to match the top. My reading tells me these are laminate tops, but anything is possible. It sounds simply fantastic, so who knows? I played a few real L5s, but that was three decades ago so I have nothing to compare it to real time. One odd thing for any Japanese Emperor is the scarf joint. I have not seen another one like this.
Alright, the best part- $479.00 out the door.
So does anyone else have any experience or input here? I think it is wonderful, but what say you all?
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