Epiphone AJ 18SCE

This is an update to my previous post

Sounds great...I'm spoiled. I play a Taylor 810, and I have access to many Boutique/Vintage guitars. This thing sounds really nice. I have Medium strings on it--THAT"S THE ONLY WAY TO GO WITH THIS GUITAR. When you read "7" as my rating bear in mind the my frame of reference.

I'm gonna give this rating based ONLY on playability as an acoustic after a good setup. This guitar is so nice to play. I've had it about a month. After a good setup I foumd that I began to dislike playing my Taylor because the Epi action was like butter. If an instrument can be well set up--some cheap guitars can't(some expensive guitars can't be well set up) I think it's an indication of underlying quality. Sure, they couldn't add the man hours to tinkering with the instrument at the price point. But if you buy one of these you're a 30-70 dollar setup away from something really great to play!

Wow!!! At 185 this is great. I don't worry about my kids dinging it...it plugs in. I'm BIG HAPPY!

Bought it used on Ebay with a repaired crack on the top which kind of explains the super price. A solid spruce top with cutaway. Rosewood fretboard and mahogony neck which is very thin. Mahogony (laminated) sides and back. Nice binding all around and split diamond inlays on neck. Wide rounded frets. Active electronics with 6 way EQ. Sealed gotoh tuners. Very unusual saddle (presumably for the pick up) which I hadn't seen before. A very attractive guitar which is why I bid on many before I got this one.

Sounds very nice - bright and full (solid top). Not that impressed with the electronics though. Kind of twangy sounding on some strings. Might need to be set up or repaired. Has an anti feedback switch which could be useful. Acoustic sound 7. Plugged in 5. I'll average it out to a 6.

Action is wonderful. Nice thin neck makes it a joy to play. As good as my strat. Need to get some Elixir strings on it though to really sail. Appears to be pretty well put together, but there are places where the mass production is apparent. Small cosmetic flaws, but what do you want for 80 bucks. I might have been more particular if I had payed full price. The top is a nice match and real "purty" despite the crack repair. Tuning pegs are very smooth and stay in tune. EQ is functional enough, but there's that twang (kind of a buzz) I mentioned. OK it's not a Martin or a Larrivee, but for a lower priced guitar it's all right

Just got it so I don't know. I hope the top crack is not an indication. It feels extremely light so I handle it with care. I don't think it will take much abuse. I'm already noticing little cracks in the binding in places and I don't think it's very old. I would use a back-up if I was playing live. I've seen a lot of these for sale (auction) with repared headstocks that have been glued back on. With the super thin neck I'm not very surprised. Handle with care.

No warranty (used) but Gibson are always helpful and answer my e mail questions promptly.

Playing about 35 years. Have three other guitars. Play many kinds of music - jamming, etc. I had my eye on this model for a long time before I found one at a price I couldn't refuse. It sounds great and plays great (better than my PR5E). Love the action. Hate the big crack repair on top and the cracked veneer on the headstock. If I lost it I would try to get another. Wish the elctronics sounded better. Bought it at Ebay (very cheap)and was a little worried I wouldn't like it when it came......Wrong. I can see people paying $300 - $400. for these. Despite the fact that it's made in Korea it's a really nice instrument. Definately one of my favorites.

Dreadnought cutaway, Solid Spruce top, some nice fretboard cosmetics. One 1/4 inch pickup for plugging to an amp, and an additional "microphone peg type" plug slot for going direct to a sound board. Go to the Epiphone web site. Nice neck-1.68 inches. I bought the instrument as a quality second guitar that I could carry around without any bood and tears about travel dings.

I hade a good setup--more on that later--and changed to medium strings. Big, big improvement to the instruments playability and sound. I'd say it's a good solid 7 now unplugged. I'm comparing it to my Taylor 810 which is pushing a 9. My friend's 41 Martin is a true 10. I wouldn't play it with the factory lights. Plugged in it provides a very nice variety of adjustments with the on board equilizer. Perhaps plugged it's an 8. I'll stick with a 7, which I feel is very good...and bear in that I'm matching it against my 810. The instrument sounds great !

As setup from factory---UNPLAYABLE. This is the undisclosed cost of low catalog price. I have a good friend who "Luths" all my stuff. I'm sure his expert work would've cost $75 bucks on top of what I paid. The fit and finish are good, despite the fact that I bought it as a blem. I feel sorry for a young player/new player unaware of issues of setup who trys to teach himself to play on a guitar setup as I received this one. I'll give it a charitable 4 based on the set up.

It's solid--usually guitars are. If you don't beat up your instrument, you'll be fine. Has a nice gloss finish.

Emailed epiphone 1x. Emailed back to me same day

Bought as a blem--$185 for all that !!! I love it at that price. Frankly, I don't know how you buy a guitar by catalog without your own personal Luthier. If you factor in a good setup and new strings, all of which you can probably negotiate on a 300 dollar Seagull bought from a shop, I think it's a tough choice. When you don't pay for the setup and get the guitar at half price as I did, and it comes with neat electronics...well--that makes you me. Very happy ! When this axe is $330 , you add $50 to set up and it rates a 7 or 8 To me it's a 9

6 string acoustic/electric made in Far East, set up in USA before shipped to me. Active on board electronics/preamp, has 1/4" guitar plug and XLR mike plug also. Solid spruce top, mahogany body/neck, set neck, rosewood fretboard, neck/body binding, snowflake inlays on fretboard, natural gloss finish, nice hardshell case fm Musicians Friend. Made in 2000

I play rhythm guitar/bass in a band, if it's not rap/disco, we play it at some point in our show, sometimes I go solo-my other guitar at the moment is a Danelectro Convertible.
I play thru a Carvin AG100 Combo or SX100 amp, for small gigs right thru the mixer.
Unplugged, I think this has a great, balanced tone, not quite as bass heavy as my former Seagull S6 or a Guild or Takamine, but for $329.95 really nice. Action medium to medium low-not a big deal as I don't bend a lot or play a lot of single string runs. Plugged in, the electronics let you make this sound many ways-still am exploring the available tones, I use a Danelectro CoolCat Chorus, and some times thru a ToneWorks Bass effects pedal, this has lots of potential, and feedback is easy to deal with due to the feedback switch and sub-base slider. Will restring with Carvin white bronze acoustic/electric strings to lighten up sound on demand, playing closer to bridge gets a dobro/banjo vibe going.
Nothing to not like tone-wise:only annoyance is must have 1/4 plug in if using XLR connection to avoid lots of noise like an open mike. Using the 1/4 plug by itself is quiet as it should be.

Set-up great right out of UPS truck it rode in on. Spruce top again, in line with price, nice, but not great.
The plastic wire bundler inside guitar has come unstuck already after 5 weeks, a little super glue will put that right.
No loose controls

After 4-5 weeks, input for 1/4" plug quit, would just light up battery light during insertion, but not make connection on full penetration.
Called Epiphone Cust Svc-they provided the ph# for local service agent who diagnosed as same problem in one of every three or four low end Epiphones, ordered new part and had repaired in 4 days at no cost!
Would never play a gig with no backup regardless of make if battery used in instrument.

Epiphone support good, local music store had no problem in me having bought from Musicians Friend- I support them for lots of peripheral items, Firey Brothers Music in Tulsa, OK. Epiphone/Gibson would get my vote again, quick fix/order/repair to make the instrument right impressive, honesty from my tech that once a good unit found, will last, just happened to get a weak one initially.

Look forward to lots of song writing/playing on this, nice balance of sound/quality/price, after looking at reviews of Sigma/Rogue budget guitars, this or a Samick was the two I had to decide between, I think I would have been happy with either, but the flexiblilty of the two outputs and the review of Guitar Player giving props to this as a Best Buy made my decision. I would recommend you find who your local factory authorized repair shop is and ask their opinion on reliability-I would have still bought this unless they told me not to.

Its a good guitar. I got it in 1999, october I believed, it was used but didn't have any flaws...Features are nice, with The EQ, and the feedback switch thing...good features.

Sounds great...suits my music perfectly....I use this guitar with a Marshall AS80R Acoustic Amp, sounds amazing....

Set up good, the only problem is that plastic Stable on the rear bridge broke, but thats all that is wrong...frets are placed good, tuning sticks were you put it..everything looks good...

Its my not be reliable, but I haven;t had any problems yet, I guess i am still waiting.

N/A

playing for awhile, and it suits me well, it was a good buy.

Features are great. This was rated as Guitar's Top Ten best Acoustic buys for 1999. It is beautiful, but deeply flawed.

Sounds kind of limp unplugged. I used a Fender Twin Reverb to test out the electrics first. But when I took it to practice with my band, I plugged it into a Fender M80. The twin sounded a little wierd, but I think that was the amp. I never heard the M80 sound because it broke the electronics after I took the jack out of the 1/4" input the first time.

The 14th Fret where the neck/body joins is screwed up. Whether it is mfg wrong or the fret is too high I don't know. Impossible to get a decent note on the 13th fret. Beautiful finish. Few defects, considering that much more expensive guitars have many more. Although when I sent it back to Musician's Friend they were unable to get me another Vintage Sunburst in my lifetime. I definitely would not reccomend buying a guitar from these jokers. The rest of the action seemed OK. But one bad fret on a brand new guitar is deplorable.

It didn't make it through one practice. Not one chord. Not one note through the amp. Nothing. Everything else seemed attached ok...

Emailed them today. I doubt I will get much beyond lip service. Musician's Friend has said that Epiphone is unreliable in their shipments and delivery dates. I have been told several tentative dates for my replacement but every single one has been missed and I recieved not as much as a phone call. I will never deal with either company again.

I have been playing stringed instruments for 17 years. Guitar for about 8. I wish I had found this site before I bought this guitar, because I see I am not alone in my dissatisfaction. If it was lost or stolen I would not notice because it is March and I still do not have this Christmas present. I love the look of the Vintage Sunburst. The allocation of electronics, but that scarcely matters because they were assembled by incompetents. I compared this guitar to comparable Yamahas, Takemines, Fenders, Ovations, etc... The main deal was this guitar had everything I wanted in an acoustic-electric at a great price. In fact I have not found a comparable model with these features. I guess it was stupid to think I could get all of these things for $329.

This guitar was built in Korea, and set up and inspected in the USA according to the sticker on then headstock. 21 frets on a rosewood fingerboard that has some pretty good inlay work. The top is solid spruce and has a fairly nice grain pattern, there are a few inconsistencies in the pattern but for a guitar that costs under $300, I can overlook that. This particular model has a Shadow preamp with I'm assuming a parametric EQ, volume and feedback switch. This works in conjunction with a piezo pickup mounted under the bridge. The back and sides of this guitar is made of Mahogany. Mine came in a natural gloss finish. The tuners are Gotohs. I bought the Epiphone case with the guitar.

I was looking for a cheap accoustic/electric guitar that I could use on stage for a few songs. Since I don't have any other A/E guitars, I can't really compare it to them. I can say the parametric EQ can alter the tone very well and is very useful. I got a full range of Acoustic guitar sounds that worked very well. The little feedback switch also gets rid of the howl very quickly if you happen to go into feedback. Unplugged the guitar has a sound similiar to a gibson J-45 that my best friend owns. I really think this guitar shines when played through an amplifier with a little chorus and delay.

The Action from the factory was excellent. The strings were easy to bend, and stay in tune well. No fret noise at all anywhere on the neck. I couldn't find any flaws at all on this guitar. No filler around the inlays, the binding on the neck and body is smooth and looks very good. I couldn't find any extra glue around the bracing. The frets were dressed and polished perfectly. For $300, You won't find a prettier guitar.

Well this guitar has already been to one gig, and will find it's way to several more I hope. It has already fallen off it's guitar stand, and didn't even get a scratch. I think with age this guitar will rival any Martin you care to put against it.

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

I've been playing for about 15 years. I own 5 acoustic and 12 electric guitars, and this guitar is comparable to any of the acoustics I own, and surpasses several of them. I bought one of these guitars after looking at them in Musician's friend. If this guitar was lost or stolen I would definitely buy another with no hesitation. I really love the way it sounds plugged in, and my favorite feature is that it's a cutaway acoustic. (gotta love that Wanted Dead or Alive riff) The only thing I don't really like about the instrument is the tone when unplugged is a little on the thin side. If you're looking for a good acoustic guitar but don't have the cash to spend on a Taylor or Martin, I would definitely recommend this one.

Six string acoustic/electric. On board pre-amp with volume, sub bass,bass,mid,treble and bright sliders with anti-feedback switch. Easy battery access.Epiphone Gotoh tuners. 1/4" and 3-pin lo-z balanced outputs.

Sounds delicious (with new strings). The strings on it when I picked it up were like rubber bands. Plugged in the pre-amp lets you shape the sound the way you want it. Un-plugged it has a very balanced sound that will probably get better with age.

This catagory disapointed me. 4 of the six tuners are screwed in crooked, not a problem functionally but it still bugs me. There is a slight hump in the fretboard at the 14th & 15th frets where the neck meets the body and to stop the buzzing of the strings I have to shim the bridge so high it is almost unplayable. This guitar is going back and I'll probably have to wait another 2 months for the replacement.

Only had it a week so I don't have an opinion here

We'll find out in a couple of days

I bought this guitar because of a magazine rated it a great bargain and if the neck had been flat I would have been very happy. I'll let you know when it gets replaced.

Made in Asia, 1999. Has 20 frets. Solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides. Rosewood fingerboard, with body and neck binding. Acoustic/ electric with cutaway body style. Gold colored hardware with Epi gotoh tuners. Epi Elector preamp with volume and 5 tone controls, ceramic pieso pickup.

Has a bright sound, not quite tinny, when played without an amp. Using through an amp(and I use a small practice amp in my home studio)it can sound terrific. The equalizer slides on the guitar allow you to shape the sound any way you like from thin to thick.

Factory setup was just right for me. Could find no flaws in the finish. Big problem: the first time I plugged the 1/4 inch plug in, then pulled it back out, the jack in the guitar broke. I was able to repair the jack with parts from Radio Shack but it wasn't easy. The jack used is not standard(it cuts power to the preamps battery when not plugged in) so if you have this problem and are not adept at this kind of repair, have it fixed by a pro. I would have but I like a challenge. Could have been a nine if not for this problem.

Its an epiphone. I have a 22+ year old epi acoustic thats still in pretty good shape. If this one comes close I'll be very happy.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years, but only for fun. I own a Peavey T-20 bass, Peavey T-26 electric, Epi Les Paul standard, and an epi Ft-130 acoustic. This is my first electric/acousic and so far I love the thing. I chose this guitar based on my experience with other epiphone guitars.