• A full unbiased review

  
  As reviewed by Adam Ellison on 11/16/2012

  This is an honest review not comig from some love-crazy Blink 182 fan. Made a guitar trade for it and ended up kind of dissapointed. Let me talk about the Cosmetics first. The finish in person is really ugly to me, its not green at all but a swampy brown. The matte finish leaves all kinds of streaks and marks when wiping it down or touching it, and it doesn't go away easily, mine even has tiny air bubbles visible in some places yep funky little swamp bubbles.If you touch any particular spot often enough with your hands it will begin to gloss up. The racing stripe is really cheap, chips and scuffs far too easily, and it sits on top of the finish, like thick dried up paint. I will give it points for the cool stained mahagony neck it looks really nice and the black epiphone logo. The neck binding is an awesome touch, the dot inlay are nicely done. Now playability, the slim-tapered neck plays silky smooth especially with the binding, and good action is easily attained. As you can expect from all of these 335 style guitars, access to the higher fets is limited, and can be tricky to manuever. When standing the guitar does wnat to lean downwards towards the neck, but this isn't terribly noticeable. More importantly how does it sound, well unplugged has great natural acoustic resonance. Sustain is good. But I hated the sound of the dirty fingers pickup as soon as first tried it, and worse the lone vol. does very little to help alter the tone. Very hot output, very dark and muddy tones. Extremely sensitive to overdrive, it will completely muc up your signal if you give it just enough gain. I thught it sounded far better with low gain, gives you some Nrvana-esque tone. I read the pickup originated in the 80's which makes since, cause' it definitely gives that hair-metal vibe more than punk. And I love punk, and indie rock so I just switched the pickup with a p90 to give it that jangly trashy sound. I wouldn't reccomend this to everyone because it sounds extra bright now with it being semi-hollow, high value pots, in combiation with a single coil pickup. As much as I hate the dirty fingers, it is valuable and there are lots of people who want them so selling it for a replacement is no problem. And there is no other pickup or combination of pickups to choose from, so your stuck with that sharpness you get from the pup being so close to the bridge. Among other things the grovers are adequate, far better than what you typically get with an epiphone, but isn't te end-all-be-all of your tuning worries. The bridge is the typical one you'd find on an epiphone, isn't that sturdy, without strings it will fall off, scratch your guitar. Thats pretty much it. I had big hopes and dreams for this guitar. I was going to paint it black (no pun intended) add a tone pot. But decided to give up and just get a gretsch.

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• what i was hoping for

  
  As reviewed by epiphone on 3/14/2011

  i used to have the fender tom delonge strat, but i could never really get the sound i wanted from it. i tried a used tom delonge epiphone and i loved the way it sounded, so i sold my fender and bought a new epiphone when i first got it, i wasnt sure about the paint job, but the matte finish has grown on me. i would like it if they offered other color options, but oh well when the guitar came from shipping, it was set up perfectly from the start and i didnt have to adjust anything other than changing the strings to ernie balls. at first i thought the guitar sounded a little too washed together, but leaving the volume at 10 will have that effect. i learned to adjust it (i keep the knob at about 5-7) and now i get great tones. with delay and some phaser you can get sounds exactly like AVA the semi-hollow body adds a nice sound to it as well. it produces a more full tone overall, especially for palm muting. as for the construction, i have no complaints. like i said, it came set up perfectly, the neck feels great, and the tuners are also pretty good it is a little neck heavy, so if youre not holding it and moving around, it will tip, but youre getting a lighter body (which is very nice), so its really not a big deal once youre used to it. overall, if youre looking for a nice rock guitar, this is a nice option. i never played the gibson version, but this works great for getting that AVA and Blink sound. note: i thought about getting an epiphone dot and putting a dirty fingers at the bridge because i really liked the natural finish, but after playing both guitars its clear this is a better product. the neck is noticeably thinner and feels like its higher quality overall

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• A guitar from God himself, Tom Delonge

  
  As reviewed by Ruben on 1/4/2011

  This guitar is simply amazing. I'm a die-hard blink-182 and AvA fan, so if I'm going to play a guitar, it's going to be this one. I've played many guitars at GC and none of them have delivered that "blink" sound that the ES-333 delivers. Tell a girl you own a Tom Delonge signature ES-333 and you'll have her in your bed that same night.

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