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tjon901 « Stick with the hardtail »
Published on 07/05/11 at 08:30Epiphone is Gibson guitars more affordable line of guitars. So this guitar is the affordable version of the Gibson SG but with the maestro tremolo system. The SG was introduced in the early 60s to compete with the stratocaster. They discontinued the Les Paul and made the SG. The SG was lighter and some came with a tremolo system. The Maestro system is not very good. I would recommend a hardtail version over the maestro system. The G-400 comes with Grover tuners on the headstock of a 22 fret neck with a rosewood fretboard. The fretboard is bound with rosewood instead of plastic. It is made from mahogany and has a veneer for the Korina. It has the classic Les Paul electronics setup with dual humbuckers and dual tone and volume controls with a 3 way toggle pickup selector. And of course this guitar has the Maestro tremolo.
UTILIZATION
With the dual cutaways of the SG design the upper frets are very easy to reach. It has the Gibson 60s profile neck which is the preferred profile for guitar players. In the 50s Gibson necks were very large and referred to as baseball bat necks. In the 60s Gibson switched to a slimmer neck design. This slimmer design is what the G-400 has. One problem SG's is that the neck is mounted far out on the body and with the body being thinner than a Les Paul the guitar is slightly neck heavy. When you are standing up and playing the neck may want to drop down and you may find yourself holding the neck up. One thing the Maestro does is help to balance out the neck dive with additional mass towards the back of the guitar. This does not outweigh the tuning problems it causes by being non locking and just a bad design.
SOUNDS
This guitar sounds basically like any other G400 Epiphone. The mahogany slab is nice but the stock Epiphone pickups let it down. Bad stock pickups are a problem on most lower priced guitars. The pickups could be better. They are pretty muddy and dead. You do not get much attack with these pickups. Since these pickups do not have much definition the neck position can get really muddy. With a high gain amp the sound might get muddy due to the lack of definition. With some types of music these pickups are great. If you want a bluesy sound these pickups will do really good and you will be able to get a smooth tone out of them. With a pickup swap this guitar can sound great so I would recommend to anyone who has one of these Epiphones to try it out with some after market pickups. A set of Seymour Duncans would liven this guitar up greatly.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are looking at this guitar I suggest you save some money and get the normal G400. The Maestro trem does not add much but it takes away a lot in terms of sustain and tuning stability. The G400 is a good guitar overall so why bother getting one with a bunch of crazy add ons that take away from the goodness.
UTILIZATION
With the dual cutaways of the SG design the upper frets are very easy to reach. It has the Gibson 60s profile neck which is the preferred profile for guitar players. In the 50s Gibson necks were very large and referred to as baseball bat necks. In the 60s Gibson switched to a slimmer neck design. This slimmer design is what the G-400 has. One problem SG's is that the neck is mounted far out on the body and with the body being thinner than a Les Paul the guitar is slightly neck heavy. When you are standing up and playing the neck may want to drop down and you may find yourself holding the neck up. One thing the Maestro does is help to balance out the neck dive with additional mass towards the back of the guitar. This does not outweigh the tuning problems it causes by being non locking and just a bad design.
SOUNDS
This guitar sounds basically like any other G400 Epiphone. The mahogany slab is nice but the stock Epiphone pickups let it down. Bad stock pickups are a problem on most lower priced guitars. The pickups could be better. They are pretty muddy and dead. You do not get much attack with these pickups. Since these pickups do not have much definition the neck position can get really muddy. With a high gain amp the sound might get muddy due to the lack of definition. With some types of music these pickups are great. If you want a bluesy sound these pickups will do really good and you will be able to get a smooth tone out of them. With a pickup swap this guitar can sound great so I would recommend to anyone who has one of these Epiphones to try it out with some after market pickups. A set of Seymour Duncans would liven this guitar up greatly.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are looking at this guitar I suggest you save some money and get the normal G400. The Maestro trem does not add much but it takes away a lot in terms of sustain and tuning stability. The G400 is a good guitar overall so why bother getting one with a bunch of crazy add ons that take away from the goodness.