Posted by a craig on December 10, 2006 at 11:12:32:
In Reply to: Re: mysterious guitar EPI d-10 and D12 posted by Brad Hanson on February 28, 2006 at 21:54:52:
Wow, I thought I was the only one going nuts. I was looking for a new guitar for a friend a while back and we started making the rounds of pawn shops. He was drawn to the new shiney overpriced crap guitars, but I saw this aged dread at the end. I knew what Epi was. When Gibson went through a bad time, the Norlin years, Epiphone went to Japan, and for an even cheaper tradename, Epi was chosen for supposedly bottom of the line guitars out or Taiwan. Funny thing. A lot of the early Jap Strats are better than their American counterparts of the same time period because the workers were ultra competitive. I think the same thing happened with Epi. I bought this D-16 for 70 dollars. I'm sure the sides are laminate, but the inside of the back matches the external pattern and it sure looks like rosewood. The thing has fake MOP purfling, is nicely bound everywhere, doesn't have any finish crazing, even though it's obviously been bumped hard at the heel. It's a nice looking old guitar, and I guess a top of the line taiwanese EPI. The magic though is in the tone. I've owned some guilds, played a lot of guilds, gibsons and martins, and folks, this thing is not quite up to J45 or D28 status, but it can stand right alongside any Yairi, I think, and a lot of the lower priced guilds. Better than a lot of the new low end Martins too. And the neck is sweet, with great frets, perfect action and still no buzzing after 25 years of service. I don't know what the knock really is on these. Much better than the old Epiphone dreads I've played and half the weight. Much sturdier than the old Alvarez's and Taks of that period. There's some sloppy gluework, the grain of the top, which is definitely solid spruce, does not scream "high quality" and the tuners look like suck, but they all still work and work very well. Not the greatest guitar I've owned, but the best bang for buck purchase I ever made. Hold on to those EPI's. Maybe somebody from Norlin will finally tell the story one of these days. I'm dying to hear. Nothing on the internet but what little we've got gathered here.