Epiphone Dot

Standard Korean made Epi 2 tone 2 volume and a 3 way slector... pretty much identical to a gibson 335 for a fraction of the price wonderful guitar...

I play alot of blues and this guitar fits it perfact. hell it can fit into any styles includeing metal witch is weird haha. i play it through a Vox amp. I bought the guitar used and i got it for a steal of 300 bucks and the pickups and severl other of the crappy cheap products were replaced and my pickups were swaped with some Gibson pickups and it sounds sweet much better than the other ones ive played at stores makes a world of differance the tone is amazing!

The action of the guitar was flawless i love it so sweet and smooth

Ive played this guitar live before and it sounded great so if you are wondering if they hold up trust me it sounds fantastic... alot of the factory hardware was replaced on my dot before i bought it including the tuners,pickups,pickguard,and the bridge and it really makes the world of difference in the guitar with the changes its a completly reible guitar but since ive olny ever played a factory one just for a bit i cant really tell

Never had to deal with Epiphone

Ive been playing for 4 years and this is my main guitar i love the tones you can get out of it i love every bit of it...if it was lost or stolen i would cry my heart out cause id have to spend a fourtone to get a new one and get it upgraded... this guitar sounds feels and looks like a gibby 335 or even a little better in my own mind if u change some things...one word of advise to anyone looking to buy this guitar is use some thicker strings ur sustain and tone will sound great and another thing is to do the "texas stringing method" witch is where you String the string backwards and wrap it around the tail peice instead of stringing it through stright makes any guitar with a tailpeice sound a world better sustain is great and it hardly goes out of tune this way just a bit of advise

My wife got me this Dot for my birthday - source was Musician's Friend. Not sure what the price was. Black finish with rosewood fingerboard. Looks drop-dead gorgeous out of the box, but was a little surprised at the uneven coloring of the rosewood. It was pretty severe, but did not impact playability one bit, so I overlooked it pretty quickly.

Otherwise, nothing too special about the features.

As good as this guitar looked was as bad as it sounded when I plugged it in to my little Fender Champ. Pickups sounded muddy. Having read a few reviews about it, I wasn't entirely surprised. I eventually brought the Dot to my local guitar tech and had him drop in two Seymour Duncans, an Alnico in the neck position and a Pearly Gates in the bridge. I also noted that the pots and pickup selector felt cheap (I was already starting to get noise from the selector), so I had replacements thrown in there while I was at it.

Voila!

Great sounding guitar. Yes, it was a fairly large investment for an inexpensive guitar, but in my case I thought it was worth it. The thing positively sings now. The rating reflects significant upgrades. Without them, I'd give it a 6 at best.

The guitar was very playable out of the box. The action was a bit high for my taste, so I had it lowered. New strings are a must. The finish was flawless, the binding was put on perfectly and I really could not tell that I was handling a very reasonably priced guitar.

I've had the guitar almost a year and have had it out of the house only on a few occassions. Otherwise, its in my office hanging next to the amp for daily sessions. So far, so good. It hasn't developed any buzzing or electronic problems, but its pretty much been handled with care.

Never had a problem that I had to call Epi on. That always beats the alternative no matter how helpful the customer support folks are.

If you want a guitar that you can customize without alot of guilt, this is one you should definitely consider. If you think about what a "real" 335 costs, even with the costs of new pick-ups, pots and selector (and virtually anything else you please), you're still MILES ahead of the game. And once you've set it up the way you like, this truly becomes YOUR guitar.

Late Chinese made Dot (Epi??s "335") , 2008 , Natural finish , pretty thick poly (searched long time to get a natural finished one !). Bought it from England in january-february ??09. Body is maple laminate (with maple center block), neck seems to be something like mahagony?... Poor man??s gibson ES-335, nice playable (and affordable) instrument :-)

Well, here??s a small story. I kind of liked the sound of original pickups, but hated the muddiness (you know - when you roll down the volume pot which has no treble bleed). Tone pots were pointless - from " mud" to " more mud" ( sorry - I am regularly a fender guy :-), its my one and only HB instrument). So I firstly planned to change out the pickups for better ones, got a set of Seth Lovers ( SH-55 - the replica of the HB Grandpa). While tearing the wiring out of it, I discovered a very weird wiring, which was not a Gibson-like at all to my eyes. Made a proper 50-s style wiring with 4x 500k audio pots , 2x 0.022 tone caps , and added later also the treble bleeds. Well - believe it or not - the original pickups came to alive , sounded now better than the SH55 , with a proper wiring! So, I left on the originals (if i remember the neck one was around 8.9k, nice creamy sound, and bridge one about 9.1k - pretty sharp ??snapper?? if you??d like it to be - they are kind of Epi??s interpretation on Gibson 57 classics, I would say). Btw, the treble bleed caps sounded more natural/warmer when i used 0.002 instead of the common 0.001, so its got 002-s now. Would have given 10 if it??d sound as it sounds now ??out of the box??

Sustain is very long. If you??d want you??d get that nice feedback whistle as well, which is nicely controllable (I play it through Laney VC15 and modded Peavey Classic 50 410 plus some funfactor-toys like Roland??s MC, Vox??s DA5 ...)

Sounds very nice as well unplugged.

Again - 9, not 10. Pretty good but not perfect ??out of the box??- nut??s string slots needed to get a tiny bit deeper. Btw - nut is not cheap soft plastic, if it??s even cheap, it is very hard, reminds something acrylic.

Action itsself was perfect btw ??out of the box?? and the quality of frets finish smokes the guitars twice the price.


Btw - The late Chinese Dots are know for their junky neck profile, but my Dot has got it a little thinner than for example a cherry one in my local music store - my Dot??s neck is just perfect, not thick and not thin.

Absolutely flawless finish. Mine is worth at least a nine on that ! would have got 10 if the nut would have been perfect and the neednt to be attached better :-)

Nine again - that is mostly because of the legendary design weakness - the glued-on headstock with 14 degree angle - one careless drop/ fall-over and we??re done ...

no bad notes on hardware - even the tuners work perfectly (somebody has mentioned them to be crap, i cannot confirm it)

Absolutely usable on stage, without any problems, everything is intact, ??sound?? solid on my Dot - from strap buttons to tuners.

No deal with them so far , cannot assess

Solid 9 , no doubt.

I am more an hobby player but played 25 years .

If stolen I??d cry, probably buy the same again ( although there is a risk related to the Epi Dot??s variable quality - so better to not buy online, which I still did and got lucky :-))

My favorite guitar is Fender Telecaster. But I wanted an HB instrument to ??balance??. I am not in the masses of liking LesPaul. I looked more towards either the " 335" or the "SG". My Dot makes me happy when i just sit on the sofa and have it on my knee :-)

Current Chinese-made Epi Dot, all laminate, basic ES-335 feature set. Horrible tuners, horrible pickups, horrible nut, hardware.... you get the idea. Basic Epiphone.
You buy this guitar for the neck & body, and should eventually replace everything else.
Mine's black with a polyester finish. It's a big fat neck, different than the Korean-made dots. It's rounder whereas the Koreans were flatter.
I gave it a 9 for features because it has all you need- 2 pickups, a 3-way selector switch, 2 volumes, 2 tones, and an adjustable bridge with a stop tailpiece. Anything more than that deducts points. Less adds. Less is more!
These guitars are totally worth tricking out.They should just sell these guitars blank with no parts and let you fill in the rest.

Once you upgrade the electronics, pickups, and hardware these guitars sound great! The stock pickups are shrill and bright, the stock hardware is cheap pot metal that absorbs tone. Same with the plastic nut that's incorrectly spaced. Oh, and same with the cheap pots and tone cap.
I play this guitar through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a pile of pedals. Sounds killer with a Gibson '57 Classic in the neck and '57 Classic Plus in the bridge. That plus a bone nut, new Gibson keystone tuners, Tonepros bridge, new lightweight Allparts tailpiece, new CTS pots, Orange Drop caps, and braided wire.

Sounds thick, rich, but still jangly and totally alive and very responsive! Great controllable feedback if you leave your effects on!
I play atmospheric rock stuff like Radiohead, Doves...
Rated 8 with upgrades.

I bought it used so I can't comment on the factory setup. Usually the Epi's come virtually unplayable with tiny strings and super high action or a totally backbowed neck. Any decent brick n' mortar shop will probably make a few adjustments before they hang it up or set it up for you when you buy it. The nuts are just generic and don't fit the neck width or saddle spacing.

The finish is usually inconsistent with paint over the binding and weird blobs n' globs. Who cares? Play it, beat it up!

The frets are usually unlevel and need a good fret dressing. The black neck binding is lame and hidden under the paint. Why not just make it white like the rest of the guitar? It would look 100 times better.

Again, very reliable once you ditch the crappy electronics and tuners.
The finish will probably survive a nuclear attack, unfortunately. They should use half as much finish, it will improve the tone twice as much!
I always change out the strap buttons for Schaller Strap Locks.
The hardware will last, but the chrome plating will eventually flake off. If you're a heavy strummer than plan on some serious string breakage with the stock bridge since the strings will cut nasty sharp grooves in the saddles. Swap out the bridge for a Tone Pros, they make a Nashville style bridge that fits the import specs. Maybe even put some Graph Tech saddles in there too if you're prone to string breakage.
So 2 for stock components, 9 for upgraded.

Bought used. I'm sure it sucks.

Been playing for 17 years, gig once or twice a month and practice & record constantly. The Epi Dot doesn't hold a candle to my Gibson 335 but it's still a fine guitar in it's own right. It's brighter and snappier feeling due to the maple neck and poly finish.
I'd buy it again and perform the same upgrades, it's worth it- but I'm a 335 fan and I'm lucky that I can do the work myself. Getting parts at a discount helps too.
I'm not super-into the elongated headstock shape, and the body is slightly clunkier than a real 335, but overall it's a cool guitar.

Obviously if you just play casually around the house then you can leave this guitar stock and still enjoy it. The switch & volume pots will eventually crap out on you though.
If you're a gigging musician than this baby will need a little love.

You have to play a few before you'll find a keeper. Make sure the truss rod works and that the bridge isn't all the way down with high action.

Brand new Epiphone Dot, in Natural finish. Looked nice enough, but horribly Quality Control problems. The finish was a little uneven in places. It is being shipped back to the store immediately.

Never even plugged it in. It's going back to the store and they're going to have to ship me out a new one. I loved the sound of my early 2008 Dot, but that doesn't count for this review.

The Natural finish Dot arrived with the D string tuner bent at an angle, but was still solidly held into the headstock. There was no obvious damage to the exterior of the Epiphone box, so it must have left the factory this way. There was a hole drilled in the proper position, however the tuner itself appears to have been screwed in at an angle.

There was no "100% set up and inspected in the USA" sticker on the bad of the headstock, as was the case on my older (early 2008) Dot. Only thing on the back of the headstock was a "Hand Crafted in China" sticker, and an "Inspectioncard QC" sticker, with no QC inspector number.

The finish itself was a bit uneven in places, and there was a very small circle on the front of the body where the finish was matte instead of glossy. It was about the size of the head of a pin.

The truss rod cover had a light scratch across it.

All things considered, the finish and truss rod cover problems were acceptable for this price range. The tuner problem was completely unacceptable from any guitar manufacturer. I'm pretty sure even a blind person could have felt how wrong that tuner was installed.

As evidenced by the lack of the "100% setup and inspected in the USA" sticker on the back of the headstock, apparently Epiphone's QC for the Dot is no longer occurring in the USA, and it shows.

I have pictures to show just how bad the tuner was when the guitar arrived. Email me, if you'd like to see the pics. I am not nit-picking or being finicky - it was glaringly obvious something was very wrong with this guitar, and it came from the factory this way.

Arrived with a terrible tuner, so durability and reliability are irrelevant - I got a lemon.

Epiphone Customer Support will surely be hearing from me about this disappointment. No guitar manufacturer should ship guitars that look like this.

Unfortunately, this guitar gets a 1 in this category. My 2008 Dot would have gotten a 9. I loved my older one. The Natural Finish I just received is totally unacceptable.

The usual ES-335/Epi Dot features.

Grover tuners, Samsung (according to dealer) pickups.

Made in China in 2005 and bought that year.

I hope some readers here are old enough to know what I'm about to say. I play in an oldies band, and we do everything from folk to blues to melodic rock.

We wanted to get that Justin Hayward sound for songs like "Story In Your Eyes", "Rock & Roll Band", etc., and were having a tough time getting there with Strats and LPs. Rather than invest in a 335, we decided to try the Dot. Good decision. We saved a ton of money and achieved the sound we wanted. The Dot is played through a variety of amps, but most often a Peavey Classic 50 4x10.

Our lead guitarist even uses it for Stevie Ray's "Mary Had A Little Lamb" even though he has a Strat on a stand right next to him. He says he likes the blues tone of the Dot better. It's also great on Skynrd, particularly "Simple Man".

This guitar can basically sound like whatever you want...just tweak the amp settings.

My dealer set everything. I'm not sure what it was like from the factory.

It's the Cherry model, and it is stunningly beautiful.

We haven't found any fret flaws or any of the other things folks have mentioned, but again I'm not sure how much our dealer's luthier had to do.

This guitar has traveled all over the U.S. in its standard Epi case, mostly in airline baggage holds. No problems.

I always use it without a backup.

Broke the phenolic nut by placing it wrongly on a Hercules stand. When it fell, the stand grabbed the low E string and snapped the nut.

Sent it to Gibson, who called me three times to let me know the status, and they replaced the nut with a bone one for an extra 10 USD.

I've been playing for 44 years.

My background was mostly acoustic until the last ten years.

I love the Dot because it can be used as a 335 at a fraction of the cost. I'd buy another if necessary.

Basically new, but with reduced price by store because it was preowned. Recent model 2008 Epiphone Dot with a natural finish. This guitar is basically a Gibson 335 at one third the price. It features a rosewood fretboard. Pickups are a '57 in the neck position and the Epiphone "Hotbucker" in the bridge position. Silver hardware. Only real "cheapo" part was the gaudy plastic "E" on the pickguard, but that can be easily peeled off without damaging anything- which I did. Epiphone is a great value for many of their models, and even beat "Gibsons" many times. I used to completely discount Epiphones like the plague but now realize that was a major financial mistake.

Sounds like a fantastic Gibson 335 at a third of the price...the 335 lies between the Les Paul sound and a full hollowbody sound. I love it because now i don't have to keep switching guitars during my gigs unless i want to. The pickups are pretty high output- I feel no need to change then at this time. I need to gig with this guitar a little but more to know for sure about the pickups.

The finish is absolutely gorgeous- it looks much better in person than what you see in the catalogs. No complaints in that dept. and many compliments from people when they see it.

I expect many years out of the guitar. The toggle switch will probably have to be upgraded at some point, and I may decide to upgrade the bridge, but overall a great value.

Haven't needed it yet except a call to Gibson to find out what kind of pickups had been installed- the tech I talked to was extremely nice and very helpful.

Overall, I would give this guitar a solid 8.5 rating and highly recommend this model to those who play Blues, Classic Rock, Jazz and Country.

Features

I think this is an '04, from the serial number. I'm assuming it's from China or Korea It doesn't really matter if the manufacturer is using the correct materials and watching QC like hawk.

As somebody already said, we all knows the specs on this guitar, how close the important bits are to a real 335. For me, this baby knocks out the mid-70s 335 I owned years ago. I never expected the vintage prices to increase as they did, but I also never dreamed I'd be recommending an Asian-made copy.

My suggestion is to look at as many as you can until you find one with a neck that you can live with, but more importantly find the one that sings. You'll know it before you even plug it in. You'll find this guitar has a wonderful "bite" to it's tone, regardless of which pickup you are using. The stock pickups put this sound across beautifully.

The woods used on this guitar appear flawless. I'm told maple top, back, and sides -- all laminate like the originals. But mine seems to have a maple neck, doesn't look anything like mahogany, and the guitar weighs more than any 335 I remember, so it may be true. The tuners are adequate and so is the nut, there's the odd creak when bending higher strings, but the guitar always returns to correct tune, provided you stretch your strings after changing them. (!)

I think this is a guitar you should definitely ckeck out if you're learning or playing electric of nearly any style. And you'll find this is no Ephiphone Les Paul with a bolt-on neck, this is a fully playable GEM at a steal of a price. Professionals will find these to be excellent work horse guitars requiring little mods that will delivery solid, dependable performance every night.

Better than my 70s 335 that never had a very distinctive tone for lead work. The Epiphone Dot has a more distinctive biting tone, especially from the bridge pickup -- it sounds almost like a Les Paul. The neck pickup gives a much fuller tone, but still cuts through for lead work. Can't go wrong for such little money. It'll feel every so slightly (watch out for unpolished frets) cheaper than a 335, but if you're a player, you'll realize this is one of the best electric guitar deals on the market.

The feel of the guitar was terrible at first, but only because the original owner had never really played it much; hence, the frets were unpolished. Half an hour of playing and the frets were transformed. Pickups need adjustment, mechanism was smooth, gave me no problems, I was done in minutes. The action is beautiful, with no buzzing when bending the higher strings. The fingerboard is very good quality rosewood, surprising. The tuners are fine with no slipping noticed so far. The peghead is nicely inlaid, and the truss rod cover said "Gibson" -- which seems unusual, every other one I've seen has "Dot" on it. The finish remains to be seen, I suspect it is not as tough as the old Gibson finishes, but I have no intention of bashing it around.

I've no doubt this guitar can stand up to years of hard club playing, although maybe not as much as a Les Paul or Strat. I'd gig with this one, no problem. But then ALWAYS carry a spare. Hardware looks decent, but can all be placed if need be. So far so Good.

bought used -- so no warranty, but this didn't affect my purchase one iota, the way the thing played in my hands before plugging it into an amp was enough to convince me..

Been playing for 99 and one half years. I would definitely replace this guitar if it was lost -- I can't afford anything better and it does me fine for what I need it for. I wish it had a bound fingerboard, properly done, they can give you a little extra fret to work with.

I am not going to list all the features again. Made in China 2007 Epiphone Dot stock standard.
The Grover tuner are excelent on this guitar and is probably the best hardware on the whole guitar.

I play mainly blues, rock, jazz and alternative music. I am playing through a Laney VC15-119 valve amp and a little Vox Pathfinder 10 for quite home practice. The trebble was the most pronounced sound comming from the pickups, the bass and high E were the least pronounced sound. The pickups sounded uneven in voloume. In general with distorsion the pickups didn't sound to bad but on the amps clean setting jazz chords diddn't sound full like the should be.

When I first got the guitar it needed a proffessional set up because the action was to high, the fretts had a buss in many spots on the fretboard. The paint finish could have been a little bit better because clear laquer is uneven in spots. All the volume, tone controls and input jack were loose and neede to be tightened as well as the pickups needed to be ajusted wich were to far away from the strings. The toggle switch fehlt very flimsy. Some frets needed reglueing because they came loose after a few hours of playing. The saddles on the bridge are very loose when changing strings and I guess would put the intonation out after a string changes. The parts are very cheap on this guitar. I've got a Epihone Les Paul Junior which was spot on from the factory in china, the only difference it stated on the bach of the headstock Epiphone Custom Shop.
But I ended up buying this particular Dot because it was the only one in the shop with a slimm fast neck and it sounded the best unplugged out of all the other Dots in the shop.

I ended up throwing out the pickups and replaced them for a Gibson black open coil 57 classic in the neck position and a Gibson black open coil 57 classic plus in the bridge position. I used also Schaller strap locks. Then I purchased a compleate rewiring kit with cts 500k pots for volume and tone, braided wire and a switchcraft toggle switch and input jack as well as a Tonepros bridge and stop tail. I gave the lot to my guitar tech who installed the lot for me. After having spent $450 Australian dollars just for the parts and another $100 for the tech I can honestly say that that money was well spent because now I can depend on it without a backup. After this complete refit of just about all the parts the Epiphone Dot is now worthy of a 9 out of 10 in sound compared to a Gibson ES335.

I never tried Epiphone customer support however the people at the Gibson service department were great and answered my questions in regard to pickup changes and some of the issues with the loose frets and pots.

I've been playing on and off for 12 years and these days I've got my Laney VC15-110 with a Laney 210 extension speaker which has a great sound and my little Vox Pathfinder 10 which is a great little amp with a better tone than the Pathfinder 15. I have no Effects anymore and just use the overdrive or clean channels on the amps. Now that the Epiphone Dot has been transformed with all its changes I love it even more, it now sounds fantastic and I wouln't change anything else on it. I love the slimm neck and did I mention that the Tonepros bridge and stop tail made the guitar sound even louder when not plugged in, it also increased the sustain when plugged in the whole guitar feels alive now. I also love the fact than you can almost hug this guitar when playing it unlike any other other guitar I ever owned and I used to own Fender Strats, Telecasters etc. but this guitar I love best out of all for feel, sound and playability after the changes. I would buy another one any day. Therefore my rating after the changes is a 10 and without the changes a 6-1/2

I bought my Dot about 5 years ago for less than ??300 new. Only grump was that I also had to buy a custom-made hard case for it, as none of my other cases would take it. The quality of construction is first-class, my only slight criticism is the graining of the wood, which in places is rather coarse. I've played it a lot since I had it, and there are no cracks, warps or anything. It keeps very good tune. Someone once told me that the Epiphone buckers are no good, but they're good enough for me. Once in a while I have to go around it to tighten things up, but this is no big deal.

I play mostly finger-pickin blues, and it's perfect for this style. I use a Marshall AS50 amp at home, and whatever amp is available when I'm playing away. Never had a problem. It always comes across very, very full. I don't mess around with the settings too much, as I have them where I want them for my style.

The set-up was fine as delivered, and I only had to make a couple of slight adjustments to the Tune-O-Matic stuff. As I noted above, the quality of wood used in the top could be improved, but for the price who cares? No-one comes up to me with a magnifying-glass to check.

It'll last me out, that's for sure.

Never needed to find out

I've played a genuine Gibson 335 Dot, and if anyone can convince me of any massive difference between these two instruments, then I'm listening. If it caught fire, I'd call the brigade immediately.

I love it because it sounds like I want it to.