View other reviews for this product:
tjon901 « Passive alternative for the SG Prophecy »
Published on 11/11/11 at 07:15Everyone knows what Epiphone is. They are the budget line of Gibson guitars. They are all made overseas and have much of the same specs to the Gibson guitars. They are more marketed towards younger people so they are more likely to put out aggressive metal style guitar. This is one of those metal guitars. The Epiphone Prophecy series is a really nice line of guitars from Epiphone. These guitars have a real metal attitude to them. All the guitars in the Prophecy series feature 24 fret ebony fretboards on special satin finished necks with EMG or super hot passive pickups. The necks are nicely bound like on custom models They all have cool quilt maple tops and special inlays. This guitar is the SG of the Prophecy line. The SG shape fits with the series more than the Les Paul shape does. This is the SG model with the passive pickups. The control layout is stripped down with just a volume and tone with a 3 way toggle.
UTILIZATION
Since this is an SG the 24 fret neck goes naturally with the cutaways. You get much better upper fret access on this model than on the Les Paul model. Epiphone calls the neck on these guitars their Speedtaper necks. The back of the necks have a satin finish similar to if you took steel wool to the neck. The finish is still there but there is not gloss to it so it is smooth and not sticky. This is the ebony fretboard and jumbo frets means you can really zip along. An ebony fretboard on an Epiphone is pretty cool not even all Gibsons have ebony fretboards. Another thing most Gibsons dont have is the locking bridge and tailpiece these guitars have. All new Epiphones have their locktone locking bridges which are great. Gibson is just now starting to put these on their guitars.
SOUNDS
Its pretty cool that they found a guitar to drop the old Dirty Fingers pickup in. The Dirty Fingers is an old school heavy metal Gibson pickup from the 80s. You rarely see it nowadays. The people from Epiphone are crazy to put one in the neck as well. These pickups are really hot for a Gibson passive and they were pretty bright. In the bridge position this brightness is good. It will really cut through any heavy mix. In the neck position I dont think it is a great pickup. You cant really get a smooth neck position tone with the brightness of the Dirty Fingers. I dont know anyone who likes a bright neck position tone other than Kirk Hammett. I would have thrown in a more traditional PAF style pickup in the neck position to balance out the dirt from the bridge.
OVERALL OPINION
Its pretty cool that Epiphone is putting out good midlevel guitars that will cater to what the kids want nowadays. This isnt the Epiphone Les Paul special junk Epiphone was known for. This is a real serviceable guitar with great features and quality pickups. This guitar is perfectly road worthy and with a nice setup will play as well or better than any out of the box Gibson. Personally I would get the EMG model over this one but if you are into passive pickups this is the one to go for.
UTILIZATION
Since this is an SG the 24 fret neck goes naturally with the cutaways. You get much better upper fret access on this model than on the Les Paul model. Epiphone calls the neck on these guitars their Speedtaper necks. The back of the necks have a satin finish similar to if you took steel wool to the neck. The finish is still there but there is not gloss to it so it is smooth and not sticky. This is the ebony fretboard and jumbo frets means you can really zip along. An ebony fretboard on an Epiphone is pretty cool not even all Gibsons have ebony fretboards. Another thing most Gibsons dont have is the locking bridge and tailpiece these guitars have. All new Epiphones have their locktone locking bridges which are great. Gibson is just now starting to put these on their guitars.
SOUNDS
Its pretty cool that they found a guitar to drop the old Dirty Fingers pickup in. The Dirty Fingers is an old school heavy metal Gibson pickup from the 80s. You rarely see it nowadays. The people from Epiphone are crazy to put one in the neck as well. These pickups are really hot for a Gibson passive and they were pretty bright. In the bridge position this brightness is good. It will really cut through any heavy mix. In the neck position I dont think it is a great pickup. You cant really get a smooth neck position tone with the brightness of the Dirty Fingers. I dont know anyone who likes a bright neck position tone other than Kirk Hammett. I would have thrown in a more traditional PAF style pickup in the neck position to balance out the dirt from the bridge.
OVERALL OPINION
Its pretty cool that Epiphone is putting out good midlevel guitars that will cater to what the kids want nowadays. This isnt the Epiphone Les Paul special junk Epiphone was known for. This is a real serviceable guitar with great features and quality pickups. This guitar is perfectly road worthy and with a nice setup will play as well or better than any out of the box Gibson. Personally I would get the EMG model over this one but if you are into passive pickups this is the one to go for.