• Innovative Electronics

  
  As reviewed by David Scheall on 1/2/2012

  A Gibby ES-339 clone with one single F hole, replacing the Memphis tone circuit with four distinguishing electronic features: built in pickup ring tuner, the nano mag pick ups, USB port, 1/4 jack for both or humbucker or nanomag only pickups. The built in pickup ring tuner is incredibly convenient and will likely become a standard feature for many other guitars. The ring also serves as a visual indicator for which pickups are in use. The nano mag pickup built in the 22nd fret does an INCREDIBLE job of producing acoustic guitar tones right down to changing the sound of your strings from nickle to bronze. There are 2 jacks for each pickup set, or you can use one mono jack for switching between nano and humbucker. When using both jacks, annoying ground loop hum is introduced into the signal. Using both jacks into sep amps does make it sound like there are 2 guitars playing together, an acoustic and a humbucker. I ran the nanos to a super reverb and the humbucker side into an egnater renegade head and it does sound very good. The normal neck tone knob is now a push switch to switch between pickups (HB only, HB+Nano, Nano only)and also serves as the nanomag volume knob. The bridge tone knob now is a master tone knob. I have not tried to use the USB port which allows direct connection to PC and DAW software using a downloadable driver and software provided with instructions. I am not certain if this is a non feature since this capability exists through existing hardware widely available and a normal 1/4 jack interface. The touted new epi humbuckers using the same specification wire as gibsons, with the same pole pieces, etc... eh, is close to my Les Paul(s). Paint job and color beautiful. No case, no gigbag, some sort of hum problem with both jacks in use at same time. Neck feels like a real gibby 30/60 neck but has no taper to it. If you like fat baseball necks, you won't like this. Very playable. I think more attention should be given to fret finish and polish. A little steel wool and some neck oil fixes that up pretty good. For a hybrid electric/acoustic guitar this hits the mark a lot closer than say a Taylor T5. Nanomag pickups are very good.

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• What I needed; Just an incredible amount of...

  
  As reviewed by Cris Rogers on 4/23/2012

  range in this little guitar - I sat in the Raleigh, NC store yesterday playing Gretsch, Gibson and other hollow bodies, and because this was in the same area, I picked it up and strummed along. First things first - the combination of the acoustic/electric has a similar amount of range as multi-tracking my acoustic Taylor - the electric pickups are capable of producing piercing bright screams to almost a muddy tone on the low end of the 'tone' spectrum, but when you push that knob to the position where both the fingerboard pickup and the alincos are active, well friends lets just say that all of the after effects in the world can't make this sound. I've yet to explore all of the USB functionality to this rig, but it's a bonus so far as I'm concerned. I wanted to get a guitar that could reproduce the largest tonal range I could find for under a grand; this was it for me. I've had the strings moving for about four total hours, so I'll update the review later should events warrant it.

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• Underwhelming Disappointment

  
  As reviewed by Tim Hardiman on 2/6/2012

  I bought this guitar with high expectations. The innovative electronics, and pelham blue finish in a semi-hollow body seemed too good to believe at this price point. Well, lesson learned. If it's sounds too good to believe - it usually doesn't sound good all. Where to begin? How about the horribly rough, thin frets. Even after a proper setup, the frets on this thing were still very abrasive and felt stiff when bending strings. The machine-cut nut wasn't properly crafted. The nano-magnetic pickup on the neck plled the strings closer to the neck and created a nasty buzz when fretting chords in the middle of the neck. The neck itself was sticky. And to too top it all of, it was a struggle to keep it tuned. I couldn't get through a verse and a chorus before the guitar went sharp. Again, this was AFTER a proper setup. Did I mention the pickups were muddy when playing on a dirty channel?. After fiddling with it for about a half hour, I decided to return it. It's a shame, because I thin this model has the potential to be a game-changer. The pickup ring tuner was cool, but it's a touch gimmicky. I can't recommend this guitar to anybody until they up the QC at the Epiphone factory. The 8 minute factory setups these guitars typically get are killing their reputation.

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