Epiphone Basher

24 Frets, Laminated top, 1 Volume and 1 Tone (3 way selector) 2 Gibson 56 Humbuckers installed (custom) Ebony fretboard, blood red finish, Tune o matic bridge w/ a stop tailpiece, Locking tuners (Gotoh custom). I loaded the guitar with Ernie Ball Super Slinky 10's and never have they snapped on me within a year!

Awesome sound, made for metal. Switch to the bridge pickup and turn up the volume and tone max and you'll get a nice Metallica sound out of it. I use a Ranall 15 WATT, 3 way with an Ibnaez Tubescreamer TS9 and it sounds perfect. I keep it in Drop C tuning alot now thou. It has a nice rich sound but also a perfect crunchy distorted sound.

The action is perfect, the strings just barely rest upon the fingerboard. The headstock, thou, is really ugly and I wanted to get it choped to my liking. It has the Elist headstock shape. But there are no flaws at all, I had to adjust the truss rod to pull it to a reverse 190 degree angle like a Gibson Les Paul Custom.

This guitar has done me really good. Some people mistaken it for being really cheap until I'm up there and I'm soloing and bringing in fucking insane leads! I've been wanting to paint my guitar black thou, to bring out more of a Nu-Metal look. I can tell you one thing about the sound of it thou---IT PLAYS BETTER THAN THAT IBANEZ MATT PLAYS FROM SHADOWS FALL!!!!

Nope, not at all. Love this guitar!

FUCKING BRILLIANT MATE!!!!

Made maybe 2001? Im sure is asian. features are the same as all others listed. Id like seperate knobs for each pickup so that why its get a 7

The sounds is good. Im suprised at the quality of the asian cheap guitars nowdays. Its not noisy. The volume knob seems to have the common problem of either all the way on, medium, or silent (its not sensitive enough) I play most types or must except for country and rap only cause theres normally not guitars in rap. When i jam to Appetite for Destruction through my marshall vs100 head set just right with a cabinet with celestion modern lead 70s its sounds...I say its sounds damn close to slash's guitar

Bought at Mars music when they were around. Dont know if a guitar tech there sets up all guitars or anything but mine was just fine when i got it.

Origianally i got the bully (sg copy) and i would be playing through an (I tried plenty) amp and the sound would crackle/break up/staticky and i swear it wasnt the amp but i took it back and of course it plays perfect when i try to show the guy what was wrong and he got salty and treated me like i was some dumbass who bought a guitar, decided i didnt like it and just wanted to trade for a new one. He was pretty rude so i give mars music a 6, but what does that matter nowdays, right?

The have a 30 no questions asked return.exchange policy i believe, and even though i was treated like i was running a scam they did trade it out. Yea they did what they said but it wasnt pretty so i say a 7

all the other reviews said em...

play allota rock...i guess it kinda suits it...usin a 120w crate with it...man frekin the damn nut rattles like a bitch and the 3way frekin echoes through the amp when you switch and you have to mess with it sometimes...well i guess the humbuckers give that beefy sound, i like that...but that damn plastic nut and the 3way...wack...

man...when it came...one knob was like bent so like when you turn it, it would grind into the guitar...the input was loose...pickups where either too low or too high...rattlin noise from that damn plastic nut...the wood to me seems very soft...it looks good...but its seems fragile...

haha...geez ive dropped this bastard so many times...so yea i guess its pretty damn durable...the nut will not last...HEEEEELL no it wont...bottons are solid...and no i wouldnt gig without a backup...maybe when you first get it you could...but in the long range..capital N-O

heres that catch...when i got the guitar i didnt no squat heck about them...as well as warranty and all that other jazz...so i hella regret not callin in to shove in their face how poorly the factory makes these...

been playing now for 3-4 years i think? own a crappy yamaha and an ESP Ltd Viper, got 3 amps...crappy 10w epi...haha...25w fender..and the 120w crate...uh..if it were stolen or lost...i wouldnt get it again...IM SERIOUS...i really hate the nut, the selector, and that ugly bent knob...and well i cant just fix the guitar because i have NO money...which leads to the only good thing about it...the PRICE$$...i was on such a budget that i guess it was KINDA worth it...the price for a guitar, strap, tuner, gig bag, picks, and an amp is crazy cheap..i just wish the nut wasnt plastic and that the damn selector was more friendly...id really wanna buy some new pickups for it...but im a bum...

22 frets, 3 way pickup selector, HH pickups, transparent red finish (aside from some imperfections, it looks pretty cool from a distance), les paul shaped, relatively fat and heavy neck with medium-jumbo frets and rosewood fretboard. Overrall, the features are pretty basic (which isn't bad thing if you're a beginner). I bought it for my son from sam ash and it came as a whole combo (10 watt amp, cord, picks, strap, gig bag, video, and tuner). Obviously anything that came with the guitar is pretty basic stuff except the amp which is actually pretty cool cause the overdrive/distortion sounds on it are surprisingly nice for rock/punk/blues and the amp is very compact. But anyway, i wont take the amp and other things into consideraion cause this is supposed to be a review of the guitar.

I tried the guitar out on both the amp that came with it and on my amps. With the little amp: clean sounds are hard to get unless you have the volume on the guitar turned down to 3 or 4 and the volume on the amp turned all the way up (so that the amp could at least be heard over the strings themselves). It's impossible to get a bright clean sound with this guitar and amp. The amp and guitar do work surprisingly well for punk, blues, and some hard rock though. The pickups are generally muddy and i recommend using only the bridge pickup for distorted sounds. the neck pickup isn't bad for slightly overdriven blues but thats about it. So, in general, with the small amp the guitar sounds acceptible for a small variety of sounds. With my amps (fender hot rod deville 212, Peavey studio pro 112, behringer vintager 112) which are all very nice, the guitar obviously sounds better. i wont go through how it sounds on each amp individually. Ill just say i was able to get bright clean sounds (using the bridge pickup with the guitar volume up high, the tone knob at 10 (treble) and the eq's on the amps set towards a treble. So, if you place a lot of emphasis on treble and you have a decent amp you can get the muddy pickups on this guitar to give you some decent bright sounds. On a decent amp, the guitar continues to make good blues/punk/rock sounds. Bottom line: with the right settings and amp, the guitar can make some decent sounds.

the action was set up as well as it could be. I tried messing around with it but could never totally get rid of the fret buzz without making the action too high. Everything else was adjusted fine. The tuners keep the strings in tune for the most part (the D string is the only one that seems to give me trouble sometimes). It has a plastic nut. The finish looks cool if you dont look too close. It's transparent on the front and back but solid on the sides. On one of the sides, the the paint seemed to have dripped as it was drying because you can see where it was running down the side of the guitar. The fretboard is reasonably smooth but the neck is pretty thick and heavy as well which leads to another problem (the weight is poorly balanced b/c the neck greatly out weighs the body and tends make it a little difficuly to play in a comfortable position). Also, this isn't the lightest of guitars to play especially for young weak shoulders. Finally, my biggest grievance is the pickup selector. It gets noisy when you use it and many times when i switch poisitions on it the connection seems to get lost altogether. It doesn't always happen but it does occur pretty often. Many times it can be fixed just by messing around with the switch a bit, but it can still be annoying.

I have no doubts that the guitar would withstand live playing. with the exception of the pickup selector the guitar seems very solid. the hardware seems like it will last forever (so far it's been almost a year and no problems yet). The finish, though transparent, looks thick and doesnt scratch easily. The strap buttons seem very firmly in place. If i didn't have a backup i would use this guitar on stage but wouldn't dare touch the pickup selector.

Ive never dealt with epiphone but they offer a lifetime warranty on all their stuff which is really cool.

ive been playing for about 13 years and have the 3 amps i mentioned earlier, a gibson standard LP, gibson sg, and a semi-custom solimar guitar from route101guitars.com (check em out). This guitar isn't bad for the money (i think its being sold for $130 individually w/o the combo). Actually, its the best deal i could find in the price range. The one thing that pisses me off the most is the pickup selector. aside from that, the design is basic, the finish and playibility are sub-par but with the right equipment you can make it sound decent and it seems like its built to last a long time (and if not theres always that lifetime warranty). This guitar has everything you need if you're a beginner. It has imperfections but nothing too drastic that its not worth the price.

2002 korean made 21 frets 2humbuckers 3 way selection les paul style tune omatic bridge non locking tuners fat ass neck came with chord tuner strap tiny amp and gig bag

sound is pretty good but is to low it i always have to have the gain up to make it sound decent.but i can pay anything from chili peppers to metallica

on the first one i got something was wrong with the 9th fret so i returned it and this pack had a broken tuner but i didnt realy care ihad a quik tune its better anyways

ive hade for about 7 months and its still perfect exept for some scratches on the back. the button straps sucked so idrilled the strap into the guitar.ive giged with it once and it seems to work fne. but the drummer in my band has a squier standard strat which in my opinion is a little better only cause it dosent get out of tune after one song

never bothered with epiphone but the people at sam ash seemed to care more about playing the guitar rather than fixing it

dont get the pack becauseyou WILL need a bigger amp

22 frets
1 volume
1 tone
3-way pickup selector
dual humbucking pickups
stp-bar tail piece
non-locking tuners
included a gig bag, TINY amp, tuner, picks(3), strap, video, and the guitar.

its pretty good all around. i play metal and punk and it sounds pretty extremmly good for the price.the only dislikes is that the amp is so thin it has a little kickstand thing on it so it wont fall backwards and if you have it up loud enough you can faintly here a local radio station. when you are playing you cant hear it.Very nice sound though,you can make it clean or very distorted.Good output.

Im not some guitar pro but everthing looked great nice and shinny, only problem was it was in need of tunning,which was easily fixed with the tuner. No scratches ,but theres a really tiny dent but i think i did that.oh well.

pretty solid.i dont know if it would withstand live play.it has to be strong because in the sum 41 video "still waiting" he was using a white one and took him a while to snap the neck off when he breaking it.one strap button is alittle loose but its staying in good enough,though.

havent had to deal with that yet,it has a liftime warrenty.its an epi,baby!

wish the amp could stand up on its own but overall you really cant lose.its epi,baby!

I've just began playing about 2 months ago and this is a great beginning guitar. Everything seems really good.

I play many types..BLUES, PUNK, ROCK! It pretty good. As far as pickups go..It's goo for the price you paid but sugeested maybe buying new ones if your really picky...Hey it's using your money not mine.

Action-Great. Set a little high but that's not bad and anyway thats how i like it. Finish is great.Blood Stain loos great so does black.(SEEN BOTH) It feels great and is a natural fit.

Only a few stratchs from me being a little rough but hey i was angry that day....HW seems good and so do strap pegs...Great guitar for such little price.. Feels like a real les Paul..weighs less and also fells like a 600 dollar one...An okay 600 dollar one.

Never dealt with them, but right now they seem really nice and generous

Great deal...For any one who plays any type of music. But if you got 1000 dollars and know guitars probably if you wanted a new one to hold you for 1 million years buy it. If you got no 1000 dollars then yeah this is like a dream and a miracle combined.!!!

2002 laminated alder/mahogany body, maple neck w/ rosewood fretboard, NOT made in the USA, 2 humbucker pickups, black finish, stop tail piece, chrome plated tuners...includes strap, picks, cord, tuner, video, gig bag, 10 watt Epiphone amp

This guitar would be good for many musical styles especially rock, punk,metal... even blues&funk . This guitar can pull it all off decently. Pickups are pretty quiet considering the budget price. It's got a nice thick les paul sound perfect for power chords. I like the clean sounds as well as distorted tones out of this guitar.

The guitar was set up great right out of the box, and the finish was just as good as any guitar costing 3 times as much.

This guitar seems pretty sturdy. The hardware isn't the best(no locking tuners), but what can one expect from a guitar that costs less than some effects pedals? It stays in tune, and I'd never play out at a gig without a backup guitar, so that's not an issue. This seems like a rock solid guitar, and reliable compared to say a cheap squire bullet strat.

I've never had to deal with Epiphone before, but their lifetime warranty seems very nice if they do actually honor it. The 10 watt included Epiphone amp has a five yr. warranty which is decent(My $1,300 Mesa Boogie only had a 1 yr warranty!). The little amp in this package really surprized me. I was expecting it to sound horrible, but amazingly enough, it was fun to play through.

I've been been playing guitar for 8 yrs. and I bought 2 Epiphone Basher packages for my niece&nephew as a Christmas Gift(1 black& 1 blood Red). I tested everything in both guitar packages pretty thoroughly before I shipped them off. I have a Gibson Les paul Custom, a PRS, and a G&L strat &several other guitars, so I was mainly looking for great sounding starter guitars, without the hefty PRS/Gibson price. The Epiphone Basher kicks any Fender Squire's lame single coil butt. The quartz tuner, 10 watt amp, cord, video, gigbag, picks, strap were all just a great bonus added on to a nice guitar. I was blown away by this guitars small price and great sound&value. I 100% recommend this guitar for someone needing a nice guitar for not a lot of $$$$.

i bought just the guitar, not the package. dual hums, 3way toggle switch... came with like. a 5 foot thin crappy cable that i threw out.

i play punk, and dungeon metal, and its perfect for these styles..

factory set-up was good, everything in place were i like it, i replaced the strap buttons with a strap-lok system, no flaws when i got it out of the box, nothing has gone wrong with it yet,

ive played atleast 15 live shows with it and nothing has gone wrong with it, its very dependable, everything seems to of lasted well, only thing ive had to replace was strings, and that was my fault

i got a 12 month standard warranty with it, epiphone is part of gibson, so the customer support is really good.

this is my third guitar that ive purchased, and i plan on keeping it for awhile. ive been palying maybe... 2 years, and im impressed, its great guitar.. buy it

This review is direct and pulls no punches. However, the numbers I give it also take the price into account... read on...

Blood Stain Red model - basic features as listed in other reviews - 2 double humbucker pickups, bolt in neck, rosewood fretboard, adjustable bridge saddles, etc. Came as package deal with practice amp, tuner, gig bag, "how to care for" video, picks, cord, strap - everything needed to play except for electricity and the hot chickie they show on the box top. (Well, I guess you don't NEED her to play, but everyone else asked the same question... "so where's the girl?"
Finish was nice and clean out of the box. No mars or scratches. Color was pretty even on the body. Frets could have used a little fine sanding on the ends. Strap buttons solidly in place. Pickups still had the plastic wrap on them.
The wood may be a little on the soft side as I could screw right into it to attach my GK2a hex-pickup for my VG88. The screws are barely in and holding well, however, so my judgment here may be incorrect.
The 3 way selector is a knife-blade type that was not quite working right - I just took it out and bent the blades so they connected as required and it worked fine after that.
Guitar setup out of the box was atrocious but quite easy to correct - the bridge was screwed ALL THE WAY DOWN. Those strings were sitting at a 30degree angle!! So I raised that up a bit to relieve that. Had to reset the intonation as well - that was no problem. The nut does not appear to be seated flush against the fingerboard, but it is solidly in place - that will be the next upgrade. This is not too surprising on a guitar of this price range, but not the best thing you want to see ever. Still, it is easy enough to correct and I want a bone or tusq nut there anyway instead of the plastic one.
The original strings... well, ick. Maybe they just got that way in shipping but at least they are the first thing you expect to replace on any guitar you buy.
Tuners, non-locking not sure of brand, were for the most part decent, but the 4th string tuner is giving me a bit of a problem with staying in tune - and I don't think it's because the string is stretching. They are pretty capable and are ratioed pretty well - you can fine tune fairly well but not so fine that you get hand cramps when installing new strings.
I have small hands and fat mongoloid fingers and I have no real problems with this neck except at the top frets - which is usual with a standard bolt-on neck anyway.
The amp is VERY SMALL which is great if you just want to lug this thing around to play about town. It is big enough to give you some sound and all things considered is actually a decent little amp. I mean, let's be real here, it's tiny, but it was included!
The original gig bag (See service below) was slightly flawed, I think, as it was very difficult to fit the guitar in it - so tight that it bust one of the zippers. The bag itself had that new-vinyl smell in spades and wasn't very well padded - but, what gig bag is? The bag they replaced it with fits much better.

I play rock, blues, alternative, Phish, jam, classical, folk, jazz. I just like to play. This guitar suits fairly well for the most part, but read on. As is, it suits rock - alternative - jazz - blues - Phish side fairly well.
The humbuckers give a nice clean sound, for the most part - or at least they did when I finally fixed the connection problem in the 3way switch. I have been using it with the included mini-amp, a Fender Vibro Champ, and a Marshall amp (not sure of model # - non stack, two speaker all in one unit) Guitar has a warmer sound than my tele, but not quite so crunchy as my Kramer 1984 Baretta (go figure). Sound up top is... fair to middling and gets pretty fat on the bottom. Switching pickup positions helps somewhat to bring out more top - but I think more adjustment to my pickups will change this again. SETUP IS KEY.
It suits my multivariate style of playing in most cases. I use it as the base for my VG88... and to be honest, I haven't used the included pickups much since installing the GK2a pickup for use as my VG88 guitar.
The pickups definitely require some adjustment as delivered from factory. And there is this bizarre flat spot on my 3rd string at the 12th fret. For some reason, on the 12th fret, that string would just not sustain much at all. 11th fret, okay. 13th fret, okay. All other strings on 12th fret, no problem. But 3rd string, 12th fret... the sustain just melts faster than butter on a hot biscuit. I checked the intonation and that seems to have helped quite a bit. So SETUP THE GUITAR. Then make the judgment. Sustain since then has actually been pretty decent since fixing the setup.
I had to raise the bridge on the bass side also - another setup issue - as the string would buzz when playing hard.
I really dislike the 3way switch. It isn't going to stay fixed - it feels pretty damn cheap. I don't like the original setup, obviously.
The frets are higher than what I am used to. Definitely higher than on my Kramer and Tele - but that's more taste than anything else. Have to get used to being able to bend a note just by pressing harder on the string - not something I had to worry about on the tele - again, this is a taste issue. It has actually become useful in one song so this is not really a minus at all.
Did I mention that the 3way switch sucks? Replace it with something better, is what I say.
Still, for the price, it's damn sweet.

Read previous 2 sections for real details.

SETUP SUCKED FROM FACTORY - read above 2 sections.

Finish - nut not quite flush with fretboard. Frets needed some sanding. 4th string tuning peg may need tightening up. Action and intonation needed correcting. Bridge set way too low. Pickup selector SUCKED COMPLETELY. Strap buttons solid. Paint/finish clean and unmarred. Pickups needed adjusting. Knobs work just fine. Neck and headstock nice and smooth. Pretty guitar. Strings have to be tossed (not unusual)

But, considering the price, you can't really complain!

I think this guitar would withstand some live playing. I certainly hope so cause that's my plan.
The pickup selector switch will NOT last. The pickups will be okay. The bridge and saddles are sturdy. The tuners will probably have to go - at least one of them anyway. Strap buttons are definitely solid. Finish looks like it can hold up to some dinging and remain though it does seem like it does scratch without too much difficulty. The nut... I am worried about it not being flush with all the tension it is holding up. I think I will have to replace it soon, but it is hanging in there for now.
I think I could depend on it for about a year before having to deal with most of these issues - that nut and switch will be replaced before then. After that, I think it will be fine.
I would use it on a gig without a backup - have no real choice as this is the only one I have that has a GK2a installed on it and that's the route I am taking.
Other than that, it really does feel like a pretty solid piece - they seemed to have saved their money on setup and on some of the pieces - like that switch I keep complaining about... :)

I had a problem with the gig bag 2 weeks after I bought it. I had not yet sent in my warranty card but it was definitely under warranty. I called in, the guy there was helpful from the getgo - didn't matter to him that I had just bought what was probably their cheapest guitar product. He hooked me right up into their system and had me hooked up for a new gig bag in no time - didn't even ask me to return the busted one... of course, it isn't a super bag or anything, but Gibson/Epiphone scores a 10 here, as their rep gave all the perfect responses for a customer with a problem. He was friendly and hooked me up. Warranty is limited lifetime for PARTS of the guitar (I believe mechanical parts and basic body parts) and 90 days for everything else... if I am not mistaken. Best read that in detail.

Have been playing off and on for about 23 years? Own a Kramer 1984 Baretta and a Tele-caster copy. Have a Palmer classical guitar. A Roland VG88 and several other effects.
Don't know I would have asked anything else before buying this guitar - can't beat it with a stick cause of the price of the package.
If stolen or lost I think I would buy another... again, for the price, it's golden.
I love the price. I hate that damn 3way switch. my favorite feature is that it's cheap enough for me to screw my GK2a pickup onto it without feeling bad about marring the finish.
Compared it to a squier affinity strat - that strat was more expensive but it really FELT like a starter guitar - know what I mean? This one... feels more like a 'real' guitar. Hard to splain.
I wish it had ... a winning lottery ticket stuck in the strings. Other than that... nothing really.
With some setup, this Basher really is a decent guitar... and for the price, you CANNOT beat it. Really. Unless you find a guitar that "dropped off the back of the delivery truck" this is the best buy you'll likely find in the land-o-guitars.