Frustrated with my new Epiphone Dot!

[peterpanico]

I think we can respect all opinions.

The OP asks :
"Should I:
1.Break down and buy a better Jazz box?
2.Stick it out and get this thing fixed?
3. Buy a Tele and get back to enjoying electric guitar.
4.Trick my son into trading me his Squire for the Epiphone?"

So, the answer of PeterPanico was completely appropriate with the humour of the first choice.

"Trash the Epi and buy a "real" guitar"

Thanks mate, I thought I had mixed up a Jazz guitar Forum for the "Holy Inquisition" instead...

[peterpanico]

I don't take offense to the "real" guitar statement. The "worthless" statement was a bit much. I could have bought an archtop. The truth is I wanted a little more than just a Jazz guitar and I wanted to add the Harmonizer to my studio equipment.

@Kidblast, thanks for the troll defense, I think in forums it's easy to misunderstand the spirit of someone's comments. We don't have the luxury of facial expressions or tone.

I did open myself up for the comment, but I will make every effort to get the guitar working correctly. I just wanted some advice. I got a lot of good advice (even the get a "real" guitar was good advice). So no harm done. Thanks everyone!

But in fact there was no offense at all,If I speak frankly and with a bit of Irony,that's not to be taken "that" way I just meant
that in my experience,Epis are not worth,for what they cost/give,and as I said,there are wole lotta guitars in that price range with better features and performance "for the price",and also as always it's only IMHO...not trying to convert or convicing anybody,my 2 cents,but I see that this Forum is getting like the Vatican we unfortunately have sittin' here in my Country,if you don't weight all the words may end up burned in a public square for Heresy....
by the way,good luck with the guitar,and about Trolls,the last i saw were in Middle Earth chasing fancy blonde chicks.....not here,they have better things to do!

[KidBlast]

I respect your opinion,you do it with mine,and Troll has nothing to do with anything else imho

I do respect opinions of others Peter, What do ya say that we move on from here, and we'll let the troll stay under the bridge.

[larry graves]

I'm with peter here, if you're a serious guitarist you shouldn't be buying plywood junk, there is a reason why a Gibson costs two grand more whether you believe it or not. to cure the string breaking you will need a nut file, or failing that, a piece of fine
wet'n dry paper and a graphite pencil.......

[peterpanico]

I do respect opinions of others Peter, What do ya say that we move on from here, and we'll let the troll stay under the bridge.

Sure thing mate...

[Bryan T]

Based on your posts so far, I think you should pay a guitar tech to sort it out.

[Dave70]

One year ago I bought an even cheaper Epi, the Dot Studio. I'm on the third set of strings now with no problems. (Moved up to .12s)

And for the record, I think it is a nice sounding instrument. In the future I'd like to upgrade, but I think it was worth it to try out a cheaper jazzy guitar to see if I liked it. (I was mainly using a classical guitar or my tele or strat. Never owned a Gibson-type before.)

Plus I had a low budget! The $359 total price, including hardshell case and shipping was about all I could afford.

I like the sound of the neck pickup with the tone rolled off a bit. I use a JC-120. My buddy commented that I had a pretty sweet jazz sound when we played together recently. I even like to play classical guitar pieces with it. If I capo at the sixth fret and play Bach, with a lot of reverb, it sounds a lot like a church organ!

Anyways, I'm happy with it.

[KidBlast]

@Kidblast, thanks for the troll defense, I think in forums it's easy to misunderstand the spirit of someone's comments. We don't have the luxury of facial expressions or tone.

I guess that was one reply I should have left unposted huh.

I didn't mean any offense to Peter. I see he posts here a lot and seems to know what he's talking about.



But while I understand both sides of this argument, if you don't have $2,500 to spend, is nice to have options and I wouldn't want to be discouraged by having something that was within my reach at the time.

Is a $350/$400 Epi dot "as good" as the USA Es-335. Certainly not! but you ought to be able to get it completely usable by letting an experienced person do their thing. (that's really the gist of it for me)

I guess it's all good right?

If it's your goal to someday , perhaps have the good fortune to by that $2,500 Gibby, take from yet another one who has them, you will definitely not be disappointed.

/Ray

[Doctor Jeff]

I'm going to hijack this thread a bit. I've been listening to a lot of John Scofield recently, which has given me the jones for an Ibanez double-cutaway semihollow. Without the Scofield model pricetag.

How do the cheaper AS models compare to the real thing? Is the AS-73 to the JSM-100 as the Epi Dot is to the Gibson ES-335? I like the idea of the smaller body for this kind of guitar.

[Bigmagic]

I should mention that Don Dawson Product Marketing Director with D'Addario(a member here) has contacted me and offered a set of strings to help with my guitar problems.(There is a reason D'Addario is on every guitar(4) I own).

As I have already said I could have bought a more expensive guitar, I wanted to add to my home studio and get a versatile guitar.

I should add that this is the first Gibson made guitar I have had since I sold my Gibson 335 back in the 70s. I have pretty much played Fender's since. I had mostly bad experiences with Gibson guitars. A good friend had a Les Paul in the early 80s that the neck broke off of after a relatively minor incident. He had it fixed but I think they are largely overpriced. I am liking the tone of the Dot even with the low end Pups. I will probably wind up replacing the nut.

I don't mind the hijack Doc, interested in what you find out. Thanks again all.

[nado64]

As73 is lightly better, I find the as-73 until the as-93 in the same league, but it's not my cup of tea.
I never try the JSM-100, but the AS103 is very well, I think it's the as-153 model, now.

I have a custom 77 (french brand) "needles and pins" for the same price, and it's widely over.

[Spook410]

- The issue you describe, as others have noted, is the nut slot.
- Epiphone Dot has been a very popular model for several years. Vast majority of owners seem very happy with them.
- This is an opportunity to take it to a good tech and get it set up properly.
- -- Chance to discuss choice of bridge with knowledgeable person
- -- Chance to replace plastic nut (seems like someone said they came with a plastic nut) with a proper bone nut set up for your string preference
- -- If you think you will have the guitar a long time, you could also discuss swapping the pots and switch now rather than later. I certainly have no direct knowledge but have heard the factory electronic parts probably won't last like CTS / switchcraft components.
- -- You can start plotting pup swaps.. may or may not matter but always entertaining

[Bigmagic]

Chromes arrived to day along with 3 sets of D'Addario's for my acoustics. A tiny bit of work on the nut, reset bridge and saddles and wala! An in tune Epiphone Dot. I only had to adjust two strings to get it intonated. No buzz, and plays in tune everywhere.. Thanks guys and special thanks to Don Dawson.

[Jimmy Mack]

I own a Epiphone Lucille, made in China circa 2009-10. Fantastic guitar. I play and gig with it all the time . Some mods - yes- but not essential, but I will tell you this, the saddles were crap. I kept the bridge but bought BRASS saddles from Stew-Mac because they were metric, and because that's what belongs on this guitar and other ES models. Gibson Classic 57+ p/ups, and we are talking about a guitar = a $2000 or more instrument. My Les Paul Custom '57RI cost way more, and required work, and eventually got sold.

If you like a guitar, work with it.

[Little Jay]

I'm with peter here, if you're a serious guitarist you shouldn't be buying plywood junk, there is a reason why a Gibson costs two grand more whether you believe it or not. to cure the string breaking you will need a nut file, or failing that, a piece of fine
wet'n dry paper and a graphite pencil.......

My Gibson ES-333 is also made of plywood
I love it though!

I also own own an Epiphone Sheraton and although it's a great guitar for the money, my Gibson definitely has something the Epiphone lacks.

[Guitarzen]

For the money you can't beat Epiphones, imo. I own three. But like any guitar you have to test em out and check things like the intonation before you shell out the $$. That's why I would never purchase a guitar online. Two of my epiphones have great intonation and play great. The third was my first guitar ever so I didn't know what intonation was in order to check it at the time. You can't judge a guitar by it's brand or price, you gotta check it out.

[nado64]

You can beat it for the price, but one day or another, you will need to spend some money and some time to upgrade or to repair it. No matter for most of folks, but it's important to know.

I had an Epiphone Broadway made in Korea, and it was a good guitar.
I tried the Epi Dot made in china, and I prefer to not say my opinion, otherwise you go to burn me.

Epiphone uses the local wood, it doesn't import it.
So, The country and the factory are important to know for this brand, IMO.

[larry graves]

There's laminate and there's laminate Jay....

[GNAPPI]

I find that, for the money they're fine guitars.

I generally agree, but would add IMO, depending on where / when they were made Epi's are fine at any dollar amount.

I have five Epiphone guitars that don't take a back seat to any comparable Gibson I own.

[nikolozj]

I don't know if anybody wrote this but:

If you were using old strings, maybe that's the reason why it broke between nut and peg?
The old string might had some damage on unusual spot like that. (bent or something) Or the scale length of the guitar that those used strings were on, is different from this Dot, so the spot where string broke might have been over peg on previous guitar.