Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500RC 12 Fret

Satin finish,Advanced Jumbo(slope), tuners generic. The neck is intriguing. It isn't rounded but more like a roof. 12 fret short scale.No pickguard.

The AJ series of Masterbilts have a very rich bass. The mids and highs perfect for my type of music.

Action is nice right out of the box.

The guitar on all appearences looks like it will last the test of time. I plan on buying Waverly machineheads. The generic are ok. Studio use only but her sister the DR500 I gig with. The only reason I won't gig with it is I spent 2 years trying to find one of these.

I love this guitar. If it was stolen I would put out a contract on whoever took it.I've been playing 35+ years this is one of my favorite guitars ever.

Masterbuilt line from Epiphone - made in China. AJ means Advanced Jumbo body shape (slope shoulder) and RC means Rosewood/Cedar. The top is solid cedar (some are lighter in color and spruce was listed on some web sites - it's cedar). Satin finish overall and the rosewood grain doesn't show through like it would on a gloss finish.
Nut measures a bit over 1 3/4 inches and the bridge spacing is about 2 3/8. The scale length is about 25 5/8 to the bridge at the high E string. 20 frets. The neck joins at the 12th fret, obviously, and has a rounded V profile. Some will find this neck big, but I like it. The arrangement of the slope-D body and the 12 fret joint places the bridge well down on the body in the lower bout. The design contributes to the warm and powerful tone of the instrument.
4-point pearl star inlays on the fingerboard with old style Epiphone script in pearl on the headstock. Some sort of "toothpick" or elongated shield design inlay between the tuner slots. The headstock is bound w-b-w; the neck isn't bound. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Synthetic nut, saddle and pins. No strap pin for the neck. Gold tuners much like Grovers or Waverlies (but generic).
High rating for features as the only other way to get a guitar with this vintage design is an expensive Martin, Collings or Santa Cruz (or custom from other builders).

I was intrigued with this guitar when I first saw it advertised at NAMM January 2005. I got one of the first available, to use in a Newgrass band. I was tired of beating on my Santa Cruz to get the big sound needed. I use "bluegrass" gauge strings (heavy bottom / medium top).
The AJ 12-fret often surprises us with how great it sounds: loud and rich. It holds its own during practice against a mandolin, upright bass and banjo - and these are power players. I use the K&K Pure Western Mini (three little sensors) system on stage. Almost every time someone comes up and asks, "What kind of guitar is that?" "An Epiphone!?". They always say it sounds real good out front (though they never say anything about my playing!). I use a heavy flatpick and this guitar does fine.

The action was pretty good from the factory. I work on my own stuff and added the pickup, a strap pin, an endpin jack and refined the nut and bridge setup. The generic tuners are OK. Overall quality is good, exceptional for the money.

OK - here's the rest of the story - this is my second one of these. The first one developed loose braces inside the back. It would have been an easy fix to glue them down, but since it was under warranty, I sent it to Epiphone / Gibson in Nashville to determine what they wanted to do about it. They sent me another guitar! They kept the Grover tuners I put on the first one (only about $35 and not much better than the stock ones) and my strap pin. No biggee. The second guitar is a bit better than the first. Have used it on the road for a year - no problems. I like that it works well and isn't a priceless vintage irreplaceable thing to worry about.
Only wear factor is, without a pickguard, the top finish has turned from satin to gloss where my hand rubs!

The experience with Epiphone / Gibson was fine. Made contact via email. Shipped the first one to them and the second one came in about three weeks. They kept the parts I had added to the first instrument, but I'm over it...

I've had music in my life for, gawd, 40 years. I've been focusing on acoustic instruments for the last twenty or so. Mandolins, tenor banjo, archtop guitar too. I got this Epiphone for a specific use and it's been great for that. Otherwise, I play my others including a Martin, Santa Cruz and recently, a D`Aquisto (Aria) electric.
Also used the Epi in the studio for the latest CD, along with the other acoustics.
This is a surprisingly good sounding guitar. Like I said above, you would have to spend five times more to get something of this configuration custom made.
After I got mine, I saw one at a music store for $450 on a blowout sale, because it is such an unusual (archaic?) design. That would have been a fantastic buy for someone!
Also - the case is very cool; it's a foam structure covered in cloth, with a plush lining and humidity gauge. Sort of a hard gig bag. Shoulder straps make it easy at airport and it fits in the overhead.

This is a slope shouldered dreadnought with a 12th fret body join. The solid cedar top is a fantastic, near flawless piece of straight, close grained cedar. The back and sides are solid rosewood of very high quality. The open, gold tuners look great and work well. The neck is 1 3/4" wide at the nut and the saddle string spacing is 2 5/16" (perfect for fingerpicking). The neck is a "soft" V neck, not as pronounced as on some vintage guitars I've played. Based on my reading research, I expected the neck to maybe feel a bit big and chunky, but big and chunky it certainly is "NOT". I have slightly smaller hands for a male, and I find the neck to be EXTREMELY comfortable and it's also comfortable to thumb fret (many fingerpickers thumb fret). On this V neck there's less neck mass where the side of the neck meets the fretboard (compared to a C or D shaped neck), and this makes it a bit easier to slip the thumb over the neck and onto the E bass string.

The finish is a satin finish and appears quite thin. This is the way I like it......the less finish on a guitar then the better it sounds. The cedar top collects finger smudges quite easily, and you'd need to be careful because cedar dings quite easily.

I had this guitar shipped from the USA to Australia. I bought it secondhand and it's just several months old.

The ONLY problem is a slightly lifting bridge. I have read about this happening with other samples of this model. While it's an annoying thing to have happen, the fix is straightforward. I will get the bridge taken off and re-glued by a competent luthier; I'll get the finish on the soundboard beneath the bridge taken off, so the bridge will now be glued onto bare wood. This will provide a good, permanent grip. It'll cost me a bit of money, but not too much. For a guitar THIS GOOD, it's worth doing. In spite of this, the guitar still deserves a "10"

I fingerpick, and never flatpick or strum. This model has a reputation as a fingerpicker despite it's large size. I have found it to be FANTASTIC for fingerpicking. While the guitar has a lot more bass than the usual smaller sized fingerstyle guitars, the mids and trebles still ring out loud and clear........ it's a more balanced sound than you usually get on dreadnought sized guitars. This is probably because of the light construction of the guitar, and of course the 12 fret body join. A 12 fret guitar has a sound all it's own. A lightly built 12 fret guitar is even better. This guitar has tons of volume and sustain and it sounds like a well "opened up" guitar even though it's near new. It's tone loses NOTHING when compared to Martin, Guild, Taylor, Gibson etc etc.........absolutely NOTHING.

I fingerpick blues, ragtime, Celtic and folk song accompaniment. The guitar responds well to fingerpicks, and while the bass is strong it's still not overpowering. I feel it is not suited for "heavy" flatpicking or "heavy" strumming...........I think it's best for people looking for a BIG fingerpicking sound.

The current lifting bridge does not seem to impact on the tone. This guitar sounds FANTASTIC as is.

Other than the lifting bridge, everything is perfect about this well made guitar. I've examined it thoroughly and it appears faultless. The workmanship is flawless. It would be a "10" except for the bridge.

The tuners feel a bit "light", but in reality I think they'll last the guitar's lifetime. The finish is thin, but like I said that's "good" as I'm more interested in tone. The guitar appears to be VERY well built, and if well cared for, should be as durable as any well made guitar.

Don't know. Never had anything to do with them.

I've been playing acoustic guitars for about 40 years and I know a good guitar when I play one. This model is not just a good guitar "for the money".....it's a good guitar FULL STOP.

Is it a "great" guitar (when compared to the best of the best)? Probably not......but give me $5,000 and I'll find a great guitar; but even at $5,000 you'll still get some duds that won't perform nearly as well as my Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500RC 12 fret guitar.