How Ya Feelin' About Your (2016 - Present) Epiphone Broadway?

[VanEpsInDeChirico]

Sorry, I imagine this topic's been beaten to death in other threads, being such a common guitar and all, but I'm curious as to how others feel about them. I'm specifically interested in the ones made in the last 5-7 years or so. Not the 90s ones. Not the Koreans ones, etc.

I bought one a few months ago and though I liked the size and feel of the guitar overall, I think my particular guitar was a lemon. It buzzed and hummed from only God knows where, and the frets had sharp edges. I also couldn't get the action as low as I'd have liked. But it was my 1st archtop and I've heard that the buzz/hum issue is very common, even on "higher end" set pickup archtops.

I'm want to hear others' experiences because I'm thinking about buying another one to see if the problems I had are typical of Broadways in general, or if, as I suspect, the particular guitar I bought was a dud.

In my opinion the vintage natural Broadway it the most beautiful archtop in the history of archtops. And I'm the type of person for whom beauty goes a long way in making up for other faults.

Peace to All!

[AllanAllen]

I like mine. Frets will poke out of ANY guitar if the humidity changes enough, it’s just something that happens.

[Jx30510]

Maybe you should bring your guitar to a luthier, if not already done, to have it set up?
He may be able to fix all your problems, action, buzz, sharp frets..

[339 in june]

I bought mine 7 years ago. I wanted to try a "true" archtop (17" wide, full depth, 25.5" scale)
It's korean made (Unsung factory)
I got it for a good price as it was sitting in the shop for some months with, of course, no interest from metal kids !
Fretwork was rather OK, nut height was acceptable, I had to tweak a little to get the correct settings, especially because it took me some time to find the strings that suited both me and the guitar (to my ears and my feeling). I was very close to sell the guitar as I couldn't make it sound.
I ended up with Thomastik Jazz BeBop 14-55, much higher gauge than I'm used to, and the revelation came ! Nice full and thick sound, far from ridiculous unplugged. To my surprise, playability was still OK in spite of the heavy (to me) gauge
That's my experience, but others may differ. Of course, a visit to a qualified tech will not hurt, but try to find what kind of strings you want before if you don't feel safe with guitar set up

[VanEpsInDeChirico]

I ended up with Thomastik Jazz BeBop 14-55, much higher gauge than I'm used to, and the revelation came ! Nice full and thick sound, far from ridiculous unplugged.

Oh yeah, if I'm going to have a guitar THIS BIG I'm putting some super thick strings on it to match!

Do you find you can keep the action reasonably low?

[339 in june]

Oh yeah, if I'm going to have a guitar THIS BIG I'm putting some super thick strings on it to match!

Do you find you can keep the action reasonably low?

I find it OK to my taste, which is leaning towards the low side.
As an addition, I lent this guitar to a good friend of my son, (who's used to play Prog Metal), as he had a kind of "Jazz gig". He didn't complain about the action.