The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51
    destinytot Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by dcharles
    Really sad to see the current Epiphone putting out this cheap asian stuff using the names of their classic 30s to 50s archtops... Kind of diminishes the standing of the vintage stuff. If I ever get an old Triumph I'll have to differentiate and make clear to people its not one of those cheap new ones!

    Makes me seriously consider getting an old Gibson L-7 instead.
    I agree - that distinction really should be clear. I'd be happy with it for what it is. (I'd love an old Gibson L-7 - no p/u.)

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #52

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    i don't quite get it..epiphone has been the lesser arm of gibson since gibby bought them in the mid 1950's!!..they have been asian made since 1970!!!...46 years of made in asia!!..why the grief now?..if anything the masterbilt series are better quality than the standard epi's...

    think of how many people like their joe pass and broadways and sheratons and casinos..all asian made

    why are these somehow worse?..and without anyone even having tried one out yet...

    weird


    even a 50's pressed spruce top, lam body harmony arch will cost you 500$ now

    cheers

  4. #53

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    I can't seem to find info on the nut width.

  5. #54

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    Neatomic,

    true, epis have been cheapies for decades. But don't call a cheap pressed top guitar the name of a classic. It's like selling a Gibson 335 or some other higher end guitar under the same name made with far cheaper parts and labor... Change the name!
    Last edited by dcharles; 06-30-2016 at 06:03 PM.

  6. #55

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    Man, even I'm tempted. I've been playing a lot of outdoor gigs of late and Oklahoma isn't known for it's mild summers. While I'm currently working on laminate construction processes I still couldn't build a guitar for what those sell for. I mean I have well more than $900 in materials alone plus my time (which I at least feel is worth something). A Zenith or Deluxe with the old DeArmond Rhythm Chief I have laying around would be a nice little box to use when I don't want to bring one of mine. It's cool with me that these companies are still messing with archtops at all.

  7. #56

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    dc-i take it your not much on modern loar, recording king, guild, gretsch, squier, etc etc either..haha

    thank heavens for rickenbacker!!

    gibsons following modern marketing & production scheme..i hear you, but..


    to me, if it extends the interest in jazz archtops that much longer, then its all good


    cheers

  8. #57

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  9. #58

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    Quote Originally Posted by jasonc
    Man, even I'm tempted. I've been playing a lot of outdoor gigs of late and Oklahoma isn't known for it's mild summers. While I'm currently working on laminate construction processes I still couldn't build a guitar for what those sell for. I mean I have well more than $900 in materials alone plus my time (which I at least feel is worth something). A Zenith or Deluxe with the old DeArmond Rhythm Chief I have laying around would be a nice little box to use when I don't want to bring one of mine. It's cool with me that these companies are still messing with archtops at all.
    to me they're really nice looking things

    delux sunburst f hole please !

  10. #59

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    Haha, you do have me figured out neatomic! I am quite a vintage American brand fanatic.

    I do agree though, more low end archtops accessible to more people is a good thing, even if they are stealing the names of some of my favorite vintage guitars!

  11. #60
    Thank you, David B!

    Liked the music on that video too.

  12. #61

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    I can hardly wait to try these out! And my birthday is in August

    Looks to me like Epiphone may have hit a home run with this series.
    Of course, we'll have to see how they sound & feel, but the concept is quite delectable.
    Nice looking Headstock too. I'm curious about the finish.

    I'm leaning toward the blond round hole with no pickguard.
    It will be fun to see what shows up in town.

  13. #62

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    I think it's interesting that they ship without the pick guards installed. I have no idea why, but I like that. It implies a level of respect for the user's ability to install the thing and decide what they want.

    I am delighted to see Epiphone even thinking there is a market for this. I truly hope they are right!

  14. #63

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    Nice line, although they may be overdoing the retro thing somewhat, will some post-early century designs be added eventually, or will they limit the line to that era where the cutaway had not yet been introduced?

  15. #64
    [QUOTE=dcharles;667016]Really sad to see the current Epiphone putting out this cheap asian stuff using the names of their classic 30s to 50s archtops... Kind of diminishes the standing of the vintage stuff. If I ever get an old Triumph I'll have to differentiate and make clear to people its not one of those cheap new ones!

  16. #65

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    if you want to see a great restoration of an original epi zenith..gut shots and all!! haha..by frans elferink

    he does a regular column at -

    PREPARED GUITAR: Tone Wood Epiphone Zenith restoration


    i never miss his posts there..always good


    cheers

  17. #66

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    There are lots of videos now of these guitars. Like Loar guitars they sound very bright, nothing like this beauty


  18. #67

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    I'm pretty sure all the clips I've seen so far on YouTube are with roundwounds. Would like to hear what they sound like with flatwounds. And hey, maybe those old Epis sounded a lot brighter too back in '48 when they were brandnew?


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  19. #68

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    What's that? A reasonably priced acoustic archtop with a built in piezo. Hmm. Might actually be quite useful for me, provided it's any good.

    Will have to try it. Don't think they are available on this side of the pond yet.

    BTW I've had my Loar for about 3 years and the sound has opened up a lot IMO.

  20. #69

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    I am super interested in this line of guitars. I have wondered why Epiphone hasn't done this with their Masterbilt line yet. I enjoy playing flat top acoustics quite a bit. I have played a bunch of Masterbilt flat tops and found them to be much nicer than their regular line of acoustics. If that quality and playability is in these arch tops, they should be great.
    I would like to see a video with someone playing jazz on one. Everything that I've seen so far has been country guys.

  21. #70

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    I've yet to hear a nice jazz tone out of a piezo.

  22. #71

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    Quote Originally Posted by gggomez
    There are lots of videos now of these guitars. Like Loar guitars they sound very bright, nothing like this beauty

    That thing is gorgeous.

  23. #72
    destinytot Guest
    This thread has prompted me to experiment with EQ settings.

    Long story short, I find I can get the sort of sound I was looking for in these new Epis by rolling off most of the bass when strumming my Sonntag through an AER Compact 60.

  24. #73

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    Quote Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
    I've yet to hear a nice jazz tone out of a piezo.

    in complete agreement..but nothing that one of these (new guild reissues) couldn't cure


    Epiphone Century-009-9306-049_dearmond_rhythmchief_1100-jpg

    cheers

  25. #74

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    Oh yeah, monkey on a stick!

  26. #75

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    I recently bought an Epi Emperor Regent. It's the only cheap guitar that I own, and I think it's a decent guitar considering it's price point. I was disappointed that it was discontinued and that Epiphone has left such a gaping hole in it's line. These new Masterbilts will hopefully take care of that.

    I also recently bought the "1939 Century" amp that they released as a 2014 limited edition, just for the visual appeal of the veneered cabinet and definitely NOT for it's sound. It's electronics have what I consider to be rather poor frequency response and odd voicing. The sound of this amp is giving me serious pause about what Epiphone considers to be reasonable amplified tone.

    The Century amp is basically a no-tremolo Fender Deluxe circuit that has had it's tonestack pots replaced with fixed resistors in order to shape the tone of the amp. Then the amp has had several high pass and low pass filters added to the circuit to shape the circuit's frequency response to what the guys at Epiphone thinks is a good sound. The result of all of these filters are an amp that has lots of insertion loss and doesn't produce as much voltage gain (that's a geek term for voltage amplification I'm not using the word gain as a euphemism for distortion) as it should. The dynamics and breadth in tone of the amp have been castrated in order to give it one specific tone, and that one tone is not all that great.

    In stock form the amp does not sound all that good. The tone shaping of the circuit makes it a one trick pony that doesn't perform a very good trick. Any 6v6 in fixed bias at 400V should be capable of delivering 22W, but with all the filtering that has been added into the circuit the Epi only delivers 12W. The sound is very tinny, very nasal, with all of the bass starting to roll off at 240 Hz so that there is no meat on the lower strings, just lots of harmonic content that makes roundwound strings sound irritating.

    Right now I'm attacking the amp with a soldering iron and re-voicing the circuit to make it sound more useful. My point is to say that if the guys at Epiphone are shaping the tonal response of these guitars through electronics in the same way that they shaped the tonal response of this amp, I have doubts that I'll ever want to plug one in.

    Can engineers who have never heard the sound of a real Masterbilt guitar or a real EH-185 ever be successful in designing a reissue? Or will this just end up being like the outcome of 4 blind men trying to describe the color pink to one another?

    Based on the oddball sounding circuit in this little Century amp, I'm not inspired with confidence. I'm going to wait to hear reviews from you guys before I take the plunge one one of these guitars.
    Last edited by BeBob; 07-15-2016 at 12:34 AM.