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Anyone ever try one of these? I have an Epiphone Les Paul 100 that's a bit too heavy but sounds good, and a Gretsch Rat Rod that is a decent weight, but it doesn't sound good for jazz.
I'm considering selling off some gear to get a used Oscar Schmidt OE40. Reviews online seem to be mixed. Some say it's great as is, some say they had to do a lot of work to get it playable.
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07-03-2023 08:28 PM
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That sure looks like an Epiphone Joe Pass. I’m guessing it started out at the Samick factory in Korea (though maybe moved to Indonesia later).
I have 2 Oscar Schmidt ukes, one a standard entry model and the other a very nice one in Koa and rather high quality.
It looks good, but I would imagine you could get an Epiphone Joe Pass or a Godin Kingpin for a similar price, with a bit more reliability in terms of quality.
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Epiphone Joe Pass' are going for $500-600 online. I've seen the Oscar Schmidts go for around $300 some places.
I tried a couple Joe Pass' at GC before when they were still in production. A lot were pretty bad, but they might have been set up wrong/had really low action. I remember there were always a handful at the local GC and they were around $250.
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^^Yes but the Joe Pass signature on the pickguard improves your playing by 30%…
JP’s have appreciated a bit since I got mine in the late ‘00’s. They are going for $700-750 on Reverb, whereas the Oscar Schmidts are going for ~$400.
Don’t know what kind of pickups are in the OS. Of course, that’s always fixable. I put a Stew Mac Parsons Street Alnico 2 in my Joe Pass neck position.
Either one would probably be a good deal and a good base for upgrading.
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I was actually going to post a new thread about this guitar but I figured I'd search if anyone else had posted about and here we are! I bought one of these about a year ago for a great price but needed some work: broken nut, broken knob, broken pot, missing truss rod cover, melted? pickup rings, dirty as sin, strings, full setup. When I got it I put fresh Rotosound Monel strings (did not care for them) and a quick setup. Guitar played well, a bit heavy, but good volume unplugged. This was my second hollow body so I don't have a ton of experience with them as I sold my first one a while ago. Pickups weren't too bad, possibly ceramic, but decent warmth and clarity, if you are still starting out I would say they are good enough for now.
This past summer I decided to finish fixing it and do some upgrades such as:
- Installed some PAF-style pickups lying around from a local winder
- Found a truss rod cover that was close to the hole spacing on the guitar, it was a bit taller but I just redrilled that hole.
- I was going to make a nut but I ended up buying a Tusq PQ-6143-00 which fit almost perfectly. When I took the old nut out, the nut slot was filled with paint and wasn't very flat.
- Installed all new pots and knobs and wired to 50s Gibson style, also added a ground wire to the tailpiece to help with noise.
- Knob Pointers
- New pickup rings
- Toggle Switch Washer
- Frequensator tailpiece because I don't care for the Byrdland style ones.
- T.I. Jazz Swing 13-53 strings (love em!)
I also gave it a nice setup and polished the frets.
Overall I think it's a great guitar, a quality setup is important but that goes for any guitar. It has a thicker neck compared some other cheaper jazz boxes, I like the longer 25.5" scale, I feel like type or brand of string could make or break this guitar but with T.I Flats it plays great. Obviously I did a lot of work on it but it was more because I wanted to than I had to. If you have any questions feel free to ask!
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The neck is pretty average compared to other guitars I own. Its about 22mm at the 1st fret and 24.3mm at the 9th fret and I would call it a "C" shape neck, so it's rounder and thicker than a Gibson 60s Slim taper and a little less round and thick than a Gibson 50s profile neck. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to play a ES175 so I can't compare. I really enjoy the neck, fits well in my hand and don't have any issues playing chords but I enjoy a chunkier neck.
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Does anyone know the bout width of the OE40? Is it 17”?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Lower bout - 17"
Upper bout - 12.25"
Depth - 3.75"
Charlie Garnett - Franken Tele
Yesterday, 08:52 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos