Log in
Log in

or
Create an account

or
< All Epiphone The Dot reviews
Add this product to
  • My former gear
  • My current gear
  • My wishlist
Epiphone The Dot
Images
1/799
Epiphone The Dot
Price engine
Classified Ads
Forums
tjon901 tjon901

« Budget 335 »

Published on 07/20/11 at 21:43
The Epiphone Dot is Gibsons budget version of their famous semi-hollow guitar. This guitar is made overseas unlike the Gibson model so it is much cheaper but everything is made to pretty much the same specs with slightly lower quality hardware. The shape is pretty much exactly the same. Gibson came up with the Semi-Hollow design to combine the advantages of a solid body guitar with the advantages of a hollowbody. You get the great resonance of a hollowbody with the versatility and ability to play at volume of a solidbody. Hollowbody guitars when played loudly or with any gain will have a lot of feedback because the guitar body will start picking up the sound from the amp and causing it to vibrate ontop of its own resonance. With the Epiphone dot you get a partial hollowbody by having a solid piece of maple running down the center of the body dividing the hollow cavity into two. The dot comes with a maple body with a set maple neck. It has a 22 fret rosewood fretboard with dot inlays. It has dual Epiphone humbuckers with a volume and tone control each and a 3 way switch.

UTILIZATION

The large Gibson Semi-hollow shape means the guitar is not the most comfortable to play. It fits a bit awkwardly around your body. There are new Vox semi-hollow guitars that arch around and contour towards your body. These guitar have a flat shape and you may find yourself reaching around the body a bit. They are a pretty slim neck they arent like 50s Gibson necks. The fretwork can be hit or miss but it is nothing a good setup cant fix. The upper fret access is slightly better than that of a Les Paul just because of the shape but it is not like a shred guitar or neck through guitar.

SOUNDS

Because of the design it is quite difficult to swap out electronics on a semi-hollow guitar. This means unless you know a really good luthier you are pretty much stuck with the stock pickups. The Epiphone pickups are the weakest part of the guitar. The semi-hollow construction gives the guitar a ton of natural tone and resonannce and it just needs a set of nice pickups to really bring out the tone amplified. The Gibson version of this guitar comes with Classic 57 pickups which are some of the best pickups Gibson makes in house but that guitar is also thousands of dollars more expensive. The natural tone of the guitar helps out the weak pickups so you should be able to get by with most whatever you play on this guitar.

OVERALL OPINION

This guitar is good for some one who isnt looking for a primary semi-hollow guitar. This could be a good backup guitar or first semi-hollow guitar to see if you like the sound. I would recommend the Vox 77 semi-hollow guitar over this if you are looking for a mid level semi-hollow guitar that isnt as expensive as a Gibson. If you are just getting into the semi-hollow scene this guitar is great for that.