SeriesEpiphone ET

This guitar was made in Japan during the 60's and 70's. Many people refer to this as the Kurt Cobain guitar as this was one of his favorite guitars which he played (aside from his Mustang and what not). This guitar is incredibly rare and desired by many grunge rock players for its very punchy tone. The guitar sports 22 frets on a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, dot inlays. The body is a combination of being shaped like a Mustang/Jaguar. The body is completely flat and is painted red with a gloss finish. I believe the wood is either maple of cherry even, but the grain is very beautiful though some people thing its rather cheap. The guitar itself is incredibly weird and is a total oddball. The bridge resembles that of a Jaguar with a major flaw. The bridge is some sort of tune-o-matic creation wherein it is stabilized by 4 screws. These 4 screw monitor how low or high the bridge may be moved. Sounds like a normal tune-o-matic correct? But the weird thing is that there is a lip on the apparatus that limits how high you can go. To better describe it, the plate which is screwed into the guitar has two beams on the left and right side, at the end of these beams they turn inward (think like an L shape). On this lip you place the tune-o-matic bridge underneath said lip and you screw down to hold it in position. This allows the guitar to have nice low action, but because the frets are very slim buzzing tends to occur. The only way to remedy this of course is to...raise the action which can't happen. My solution: I placed washers underneath the plate on the the guitar which raised the entire apparatus approx a few centimeters and replaced the nut. The action is still very low but now has no buzzing. Best of both worlds. The setting controls on this guitar are yet again even more funky. One volume and two tone pots comprise the knobs on this guitar with a three-way selector switch. However, there is a bass-boast switch on the guitar as well which gives added depth to the guitar. Very good for punk rock. This thing is absolutely a tone monster. The guitar sports two P-90 looking pickups which also lend themselves nicely to blues and rock. Also, there is a place for a Jaguar like whammy bar on the bridge system. The bridge system resembles that of an older Mustang system, which relies on a hefty spring in the cavity of the guitar. It's very interesting in a way because it pops back up after depressing. UTILIZATION As far as the neck, it is like nothing I've ever played. Almost like a D shaped neck with a semi flat top and bottom, and a soft C in the middle. As you progress up the neck, the entire profile of the neck becomes flatter and thicker which weirdly enough allows for incredibly fast playing. The unique double-cut away shape lends it self very easy to playing at the upper register of the neck. The guitar has a very nice balance between neck and body, maybe just a tad bit more body heavy but on the whole it is very comfortable to wear. As far as easily achieving sound, it is debatable. The guitar has a wide variety of UNIQUE tonal possibilities. Three different pick up selections with two tone knobs and a bass boost. That's quite a bit more then your average Strat. It is a guitar which you need to sit down and fiddle with to fully encompass the variety of tones on the guitar. A lot of them almost seem unconventional but very cool for experimental rock. SOUNDS For me personally this guitar caters to my interest in punk/experimental/progressive rock. Even though that facet of me isn't very deep, I cannot deny the fact that this guitar fits the ticket very well. I use this through a Fender Deville with a Route 66 Pedal and Wah. Through this it also gives a really cool blues tone even (SRV like). When played clean, the tone is really thick and clear but I'd still prefer other guitars for a clean tone over this. This guitar truly does the job overdriven. I'd recommend this guitar for most types of distorted rock. OVERALL OPINION I've had this guitar for about a year, I was fortunate enough to find this model in less then desirable condition. I put some elbow grease into it and fixed it completely. What I like most about it is the range of distorted tones you get. I'm not entirely impressed with the clean tones but that may be because I have other guitars that fit the ticket better, I'm sure plenty of people would be be happy with the clean tone. I also like the bass boost which I consider to be very unique however the bridge set-up makes the guitar very hard to work with sometimes. I bought this guitar on a whim, it caught my eye and the price was right. I don't regret buying this at all, and I would highly recommend this guitar to anybody who liked to play punk rock. I paid roughly 200 dollars for the guitar where sometimes this guitar will sell for several hundred more dollars due to the sheer rarity of this guitar. After fixing the guitar and playing it for a while, I do not regret buying this guitar. I love it for what it does and I will never let it out of my sight. Anybody who runs into this guitar don't pass up the opportunity to get this fine instrument. Just be prepared to make it your own.