Epiphone Dot

I have no idea what year this dot was made in. I bought it used and it was in gorgeous condition. The day I saw it I had to have it. It has 22 frets I think... I'm too lazy to get up and look and such. It has the standard gibson set up. Two covered humbuckers and the toggle switch and the 2 tone 2 volume knobs. Once again I'm not sure what kind of pickups these are. They sound REALLY good and they may be epiphone stock pickups or they could have been replaced. It has a SUPER nice sunburst finish which I usually don't like but this was amazing. It's a reproduction of the classic Gibson ES 335 semi-hollow double cutaway. It has a tune-o-matic bridge and a stop tailpeace with chrome hardware. And I'm not sure of the tuners but they certainly get the job done. Classic features... nothing overly new

I play a lot of heavy stuff. And I play a lot of poppy stuff. I'm not sure how this guitar holds up to the really heavy stuff that I play because I don't like to tune down on it. I haven't gotten my larger strings for it yet and intonation goes all to hell on guitars with light strings when you tune down. It has a really nice clean tone that I like quite a bit. The rhythm has a deep bluesy tone and the treble kicks out the twang and both together make a pleasant medium. With effects like delay this guitar is great. It has very nice sustain and the full sound helps. Run a little reverb and put on the treble and you've got instant classic surf music. It's great.

Well... having not known the factory settings I'll have to ignore that. When I got it I had to fix a little problem with the b string sounding flat on the 1st fret. Then I had to raise the pickups a bit to accommidate... but it was still all good. I think that the pickup selector feels a bit flimsy, but I'm never rough with it so I'll live

This guitar will stand live playing... it'd better anyway cause I intend on using it just for that. The hardware is good and if you treat your guitars with respect (or like children for that matter). Strap buttons are solid, I depend on it to at least keep my strings alive for a while... I can't afford new ones right now :) And I would gig without a back up but I intend on having one anyway...

haven't dealt with them... it's a used guitar but the store gave me a month warrantee.

I've been playing for only 2 years... seems like just a short time but I've amassed a small arsenal of 4 guitars. 3 of those are Epiphones and the only ones worth mentioning. I have an Epiphone AJ-15 12 string acoustic and I have an this Dot (ES335) and a Les Paul 100. I also have a 5 string fender jazz bass that I'm learning on which I borrowed from a friend. If this guitar were stolen I'd cry. This is the first guitar I got with (fully) my own hard earned money and I totally love it. It sounds better than my other two guitars that I got for the same price. It's amazing. I'd pay full price for this anyday if I had the money to do so.

I just wanted to follow up briefly on my 9/19/2000 review below.

Right off the bat, I changed the pickups on my Dot for Gibson 57 classics - a move I highly recommend.

I spent a few $ to have the guitar set up. It was fairly well built from. I use Ernie Ball .11/.48s. This guitar stays in tune just fine and plays great.

From experience, I accept the fact that I am going to have to eventually change the pick-up selector and the pots. I had eventually had to on every Epiphone I own. You need to know this up front when you consider putting money into one of these.

Nut, tuners and bridge are certainly not top quality, but they work perfectly. No problems here at all.

See my comments in prior section above. I have played it fairly extensively for the last 10 months without any problems. Experience with Epiphones (I own 4) teaches me that failure of the electronics is the most likely problem I'll encounter. I'll change and upgrade these components when necessary. I have no plans for replacing the bridge, tuners and nut. They work fine.

I have tons of gear accumulated over 22 years of playing. I own or have owned Fenders, Gibsons, Rickenbackers, Parkers, etc.

If you understand what you are getting into - a guitar that is going to require some outlay for improvements - the Dot can be an affordable alternative for the player who wants a decent semi-hollow body but who does not want (or can't afford) an instrument that costs more than your house.

I looked at Guild Starfire IIIs and IVs, Washburn HB 35s, Ibanez AS series (80, 120 and 200) and just about everything else you can imagine in a semi-hollow body. From all of these manufacturers, I was really surprised at the inconsistent quality control. I came to the conclusion a few years back that quality control at Rickenbacker is the most consistent in the industry.

Understand what you are buying with a Dot and you can be very happy with it. If you don't know what you're getting into, those extra $ in mods may leave you a little short on $ and a bit disappointed.

This is pretty stock stuff and if you're looking at reviews you probably know that this is a cheap version of the legendary Gibson 335 "dot-neck" guitars. Typical gibson style 2/2 volume and tone controls, 3 way pickup selector for 2 epiphone humbuckers. It has a stop tailpiece and an Tune-O-Matic type bridge. It has metal sealed tuners and a cheap plastic nut. For a guitar that's less than $500 (roughly - prices change at different places as sometimes they include a case - which isn't high quality by the way) you have to expect that you're not getting high-quality parts. You're getting something that mimics the real thing. In terms of the type of features you're getting, I'd say it's a 10. 335's have been around for a good 40 years so the type of features must work. However the actual QUALITY of the features is not particularly high, so I'll give it a 5.

Well, with stock parts this guitar mimics a real 335. For a year this was good enough for me. I love the bluys and wanted a 335 because I wanted that 335 sound. I'd just seen Otis Rush, my favorite bluesman, in concert and he plays one, and has often used varying models of semi-hollowbody, 2 humbucker guitars over the years. Gibson ES-345's and Epiphone Riviera's are the others he's most pictured with. Anyway for a jazzy, bluesy bag, playing through fender amps (vintage mid 60's piggy-back bassmanm, fender blues junior, all original tweed champ) it sounds sorta sweet and mellow, yet full. However something was missing. I knew I had to change the pickups at least. After reading the Tonequest Report (great reading and ideas and info!) I decided a complete overhaul was needed.

So what did I do? Well I had a guitar tech I trust at a local guitar store help me out. We replaced the tuners with Gibson Deluxe Kluson-style ones, replaced the nut, replaced the tailpiece and bridge with proper nickel Gibson parts, put in a new high-quality switch and upgraded all the pots, and put in Gibson '57 Classic Humbuckers. I say "we" because I asked the guy to do it, but we agreed on what to do.

So I go in to pick it up and I usually get ribbed about stuff. Another guy in the shop says "you should hear what this guy did to your Epiphone" and I was expecting some jokes but all he said was "it sounds AWESOME!" and he was right. This guitar now has a complexity, a sweetness, and a fullness of sound and tone that was not there before. Apart from saying Epiphone on the headstock, and on the sticker inside the body this is, for all intents and purposes, a Gibson 335 now. And parts, labor, and the guitar total to about $1,000. Gibson Re-Issues of the 335 run about $2,200. How does this guitar sound out of the box so to speak? Maybe a 3 or 4. But with the electronics and ANYTHING that touches the strings upgraded a 10! This guitar can do it all! Blues, rock, jazz, and all points in between.

From the factory this guitar was decently set-up. But since I play 11's (most guitars ship with 9's and sometimes 10's) a set-up is always in order. But with all the changes I made a pro set-up was included and it does make all the difference. If you buy by mail order as I did you should always expect to have the guitar set-up. As for the finish and all there's nothing noticeably bad. With all the work done a little lacquer came up near the bridge (not visible). The guitar's color is a cross between your standard Gibson cherry red and a deeper wine red. With black knobs, and the new tuners and all it's a beautiful looking guitar now from far away, and it sounds beautiful too! But for a discriminating player the finish and all, and the set-up from the factory are not of the highest quality, so I will rate is a 6 from the factory.

Hard to say. Have I dropped the guitar a few times? Yep. And it still works, but I've replaced nearly all the parts with high quality ones that I am confident will stand the test of time. They're replicas of parts used on guitars from the 50's. Many of which still work today. As for using it on a gig without a backup? Well I don't think one should ever play a gig with just 1 guitar, but would I need a backup for this guitar? No way! I'm the kind of guy that wants different guitars for different sounds. No backups. Varieties. Just don't do any Hendrix or Who stuff to a guitar.

N/A

If you want a Gibson 335 but don't have $2000, you could do a LOT worse than buying an Epiphone Dot and upgrading it. It's fun to do as well. I went with Gibson humbuckers but you can also choose to try Harmonic Designs or Antiquities or whatever floats your boat. You're not compromising the future value of a guitar that's stock for those who might resell later, and the guitar isn't a collector's item itself so much less likely to get stolen. I am SO satisfied with this guitar and if this was somehow lost or damaged I would do it again unless I had won the lotto. Gibson charges too much for its guitars. But when you can get essentially the same thing for $1000 less, what's not to love? If you dig 335 tone but don't have the clams for the "real" thing, do what I did and roll in the tone.

Manufactured maybe '99? I lost track of how the Epiphone serial numbers work. Anyways, it was one of the Mars Music blow-out deals so it's probably leftover stock. Two of the newer Gibson designed HBs, Heritage Sunburst finish, set neck, cheap pots and switch, blah blah blah... You know what they look like, right? Give it a 10 since it is what it is.

Sounds great through a POD 2.0 going direct. Very close to my Gibson Les Paul, but a little thinner. Perfect for me since it adds to my tone arsenal. I like this guitar in a clean sound since it has a little more "twang" than the LP. I also own a Fender USA Tele and a Ric 330 so I have a lot of twang options now. The great thing is that it sounds good distorted as well, adding another layer of versatility. Also, it has a lot of sustain. I give an 8 since it may not be perfect as an "only" guitar. But damn close.

Buying it new, I expected to spend a week setting it up. I was pleasantly surprised to find it playable right out of the box. Nice action, intonation set. I found a little blemish in the joint of where the neck is glued to the body, but too small to make a big deal. So far so good.

Looks pretty solid to me. I worry a little about archtops anyway, so if this was a real Gibson 335 I'd have the same concerns. I'd use it without a backup. The strap buttons are standard, replace with straplocks immediatly!

Never dealt with Epiphone, but Gibson pretty much sucks as far as customer service.

This my 2nd Epi Dot. I traded my first one for a Fender USA Strat and regretted losing it. Saw these on a blow out at Mars and decided to buy another one. This brand new one was less expensive than buying the first one used. Anyways, I wondered if the quality would be the same since the first one was a nice guitar (but who could pass up the trade?). It definately holds up, and I would guess from the other reviews that they are nice guitars as a rule and mine wasn't an exception. Bang for buck at it's finest. I give it a 10 for being worth twice what I paid for it.

I believe it was made in 1997,but I don't know where. It is the vintage chocolate burst,I think that was the name of the color. The construction seems to be reel good, I don't see any flaws. This came with a hardshell case. It's nothing fancy as far as features go, but, it has everything I need.

I play a lot of Beatles stuff and anything else I can learn. I use a Marshall JTM 30 and a Vox Cambridge 30 Reverb Twin. I have a Boss DS1 and have used a Ibanaz Tube Screemer. I guess I have been real lucky with this Epiphone. Other people I know that have them say they sound muddy and have the pick-ups changed. I have a Les Paul Elegant (a $2100 axe)and believe it or not, this guitar sounds almost as good as it. I enjoy playing it.

I am from the Kalamazoo area and had a guy set this guitar up who use to set up Gibsons when they were built here in Kalamazoo. He did an excellent job! The two main things he did was put on a new nut,the hi E needed to be seperated more. I think they are called the saddles? The things on the bridge that the strings set on. He put Gibsons on it, which are smaller. This guitar plays like butter on a hot day. Sometimes it's hard to put down.

I bought this guitar new and have played the crap out of it! I have had no problems at all. My sons and I both have used it at small parties here and there and it performed very well. A very dependable axe.

Never needed it.

I have been playing for over 30 years. I bought my first guitar in 1968.I have'nt owned an electric guitar since 1972. I bought an Epiphone accustic in 1976 and have only played it until buying this in 1997. A mail order company was having a blowout sale and I was going to get one but was'nt really sure if I wanted it. A friend, who has more guitars than he needs, said he was going to buy one. When he came into work with it and opened up the case, I wish I would have bought one. He said if you want, you can buy it from me. So I did!! I would buy another one in a minute!! I have always wanted a 335 style and for the price and with a little tweeking, you can't go wrong. It has been an awsome guitar for the price.

I purchased a 2001 DOT and "love it". It is very versatile and the action is very low. I play it through a Line 6 Spider 210 and shreds. I was going to purchase a ES 335 but y Vaughn. The guitar I found to be the best was the Epiphone Dot, to play better for some reason. I asked the sales person to hand me guitars (hollow bodys) and I did not look at the price or manufacturer. I picked out the DOT and I only payed $ 399.00 for it. My music ranges from Rush to Nugent to Stevie Ray Vaughn and so on.

This beaut was made in 01, and everything else you already can discern from previous reviews.
However...the pups are designed by Gibson, which I hear are a great improvement over the Samsung' which came standard on prior models.
Oh, by the way, it is a cherry finish.

Blues and rock are a mainstay for me, and this axe delivers nicely.
The chords really made a great impression on me. Distorted or clean.
This was unexpected as I thought that being a semi hollow-bodied instrument, it might take some tone tweaking to get a shimmer out of the treble strings. Not so. A very nice suprise.
This is a very well balanced sounding guitar.
The tone controls are around 300K, and have been switched to 500K, as well as the volume pots.
This gives the guitar a bit more sweep on both the volume and tone.
The knobs have also been replaced with the much easier to read black speed knobs.
The white on gold knobs that are standard were just too hard for me to read.

The frets will have to be leveled and shaped to my liking. Too many filing marks on the frets on this one too. Oh well, it is a small matter after all.
The nut seems to be well slotted, but it also will be replaced with a bone nut, as bone nuts are the only type that I prefer.
Otherwise after some tweaking (which is performed on any guitar to get it where you like it) this guitar is a very welcome edition to my arsenal.
Really a great product for the price.

We'll just have to see.
It does come with a limited lifetime warranty tho.

Don't know.
But if they read any of these reviews...
Your Q.C. Dept. is getting better all the time.
Just have them check and recheck the fret leveling and filing marks.

It is everything I had expected from Epiphone.
I happen to like thier bang for the buck ratio, and will consider purchasing more from them as time goes by.
I am not a guitar snob. If it sounds good...it is good.
I've been playing way too long to be taken in by thinking you haven't truly got a great axe unless there is a big brand name on the headstock.

Everyone else has explained the set up really nothing I can add.

I play all types of music it sounds an plays great
I have a Vox Cambridge and a Peavey MarkIII head with two twelves
Mine sounds great read on.

I have 5 Epiphones none of them have been set up good I've had to tune them all up my self, but when you do there as good as a Gibson
for a lot less! The fit & finish were fine

Well hear is where I differ the pickup switch went out in mine in about a month I had it changed, and used a gibson switch.Then One of the Tone Pots went out about 2 years later, but I will say the guitar
got wet playing outside in a pouring rain storm,anyway, the piont is I change all the pots to 500k's replaced the resistors with .2k mylar film capacitors Which is what they used in the old Gibson 335's nowdays they use 300k pots and this baby sounds as good as any real 335 you ever heard, I don't think the tone in them has any thing to do with the pick-ups. You can buy the whole kit from setward mcdonald for 30 bucks.
The body and neck are great on mine, and with the new pots and switch it will last longer than i will,but you can't use it for a club. And as far as the tuners they have adjustments so they don't slip unless you just want new ones!

Life time warranty people at Gibson have always been helpfull& nice to me.

I've been Playing 30+ years I just went to WB&BW and played a $4300
Chet Atkins Tennasean WHAT A DISAPOINTMENT!!!! Everyone in this review almost, says chane the pick-ups, well there was an Epiphone Alley cat there And 3 other pertty good players there agree the Epi sounded and played better than the Chet Gibson but if everyone wants to pay 200 bucks for pick-ups who am I to say.If mine were lost or stolen I'd sure buy another one And just change the pots and switchs

I have owned this guitar for a little over a year now, and have decided that it was time for a review. It was purchased from Musicians-Whore (Friend, to some), via mail order for $469.00, which was before they lowered the price to $399.

I am not going to sit here and constantly compare
this to a genuine ES-335, because that would be silly.

Where does everyone think all of that extra money goes on the real Gibson anyway? What do you think, that at night, at the Gibson factory, they close all of the doors and roll around naked in all of the money they are making?

Real Gibsons come with better wood, better electronics, better finish and they are made by our brothers and sisters that have to be paid well for their skills.

This is the authorized Gibson ES 335 semi-Hollow body copy, with two humbuckers and a three way togggle switch. Mine came equipped with the "el-cheapo" Sam-Sung humbuckers, that like the guitar, were made over-seas (The pick-ups were changed at a later date, read on).

The ratings for "features" I guess should be a 10. I mean it is a copy of a guitar that was designed about 35 years ago, right? So it has the same features that it had back then, which were pretty high tech for that time.

I use this guitar for Rock type music. Before I purchased it, I read all of the reviews on Harmony Central and decided that I should give it a try. Everyone had said that the pick-ups had to go, so I was already expecting some form of poor sound quality when I first plugged it in. Much to my surprise, the guitar sounded pretty good, probably good enough for anyone buying a mass produced guitar.

After playing it for a month or two, I decided to try different pick-ups just as an experiment. After some research, I decided that I wanted to try a true vintage sounding humbucker in it. I wound up purchasing a set of Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" model Humbuckers because they are supposed to be one of the most accurate replicas of the early style humbucker(right down to the non-wax potted, real nickel covers). These pick ups were expensive, but I figured that if they were not worth it, I would trade them in or perhaps sell them on EBAY.

The new pick-ups, compared to the Sam-Sungs, were incredible. It really sounded like a different guitar. With an over-drive pedal on, the guitar took on a raw classic rock sound, very similar to some of the famous rock records of the sixties/seventies. Keep in mind, I am using a thirty year old all tube amplifier, which really helps a lot.

Overall, the gutiar has a well balanced sound. It can be very bright, or you can warm it up by rolling back the tone-pots a little. I guess for sound quality I would have to give it an 8-9. This rating is very subjective, because we all hear things a bit differently.

When I received it from the "Whore" via UPS, it was in perfect condition. I think it had 11's on it, the action/set-up was fine, and it was still in tune! The ebony finish on it was remarkable for such an inexpensive guitar. The only problem that I had was that the nut needed a little bit of lubrication.

Now lets get to the tuners....yes, they are cheap. I can not understand how they can put such cheesy tuners on these things. They should just "jack" the price of the guitar up $30, and put high quality tuners on it, which would make such a difference on first impressions. The tuners do work, and they do their job, they just have a crappy feel to them.

Now to the Nut, which is made of some type of plastic. I have spoken to a hand-full of luthiers on the subject of replacing it with bone (about a $60 job) and they all pretty much had the same answer, which was to leave it alone. When I tried to rebutal them, they did not seem to think it was even worth the argument. Go figure.

The toggle switch feels a little cheap, but works fine and has never failed in a year. The tone pots seem to work fine as well, but I am doing research to see if replacing them with higher quality pots will effect the sound of the guitar.

I play this guitar on average for a couple of hours a day and it seems to be doing fine. The hardware is chrome plated and has a decent finish to it, however, time will be the only thing that will determine how well it will hold up. As far as the strap buttons are concerned, I replaced them with a strap lock system, like I do on every guitar that I have owned.

One "beef" that I had was with where the guitar cord plugged into the guitar. It was just a 1/4 inch jack, seated right into the wood of the guitar, sticking right out the front (I think this is the way gibsons come too though?). It worked fine, but it was one of those things that really got on my nerves. The solution was to install a recessed, angled strat type jack plate. Yes, a hole had to be routed in the front of the body, but who cares. Its not like Korean Epiphones are known for their collectability or resale value.

Lifetime warranty...never had to deal with them.

Overall, I give the Epiphone DOT a 9. Keep in mind that all of my ratings are for a Korean made, $400 dollar imported guitar. They are not for a $3000 hand made Gibson ES-335. I know that I have invested some money into the (a new) guitar, but the total cost is still below any new Yamaha or who ever else makes a clone. Plus, its a lot cheaper than buying a beat-up used Gibson ES 335 for $800-$1000 bucks with a broken neck that has been repaired etc etc.

For the money, this guitar is a pretty good value. You have to stop and think that if you are paying $399 (the new price), the mail order house or local music store is probably only paying $275, and it probably only costs the factory over-seas a $100 bucks to make the darn thing!

I think that for average player, the Epiphone DOT is well worth the money and will provide years worth of enjoyment. For anyone who thinks the DOT is too cheap or the Real Gibson too expensive, I have one piece of advice. Sit down and build one yourself, then see how it comes out and how much it cost.

2000 model, Korean made, two humbuckers, hollow body, passive electronics (very passive to the point of being dead - more on that later) laminated woods, natural finish. ES-335 style body. The body appears to be maple, as does the neck, which has a rosewood fretboard. The tuners are the usual total garbage that Epiphone puts on their guitars. Surely there's a Korean tuner manufacturer that can do a better job than whoever they buy these "Instant-Slip" units from. There are times when I think open-gear Waverlys would have been a terrific improvement. The neck has medium-large frets. I ordered this from Musicians' Friend and the first one they sent me had a badly warped neck. I sent it back. The second one wasn't warped, but you definitely can't get the action as low as you can on a Gibson ES-335. You are always going to be doing some wrestling with this guitar. The natural maple finish is nice, and it's one of the good things about this guitar.

The new Epiphone "Designed By Gibson" pickups are a big improvement over the old ones. They lack a little finesse, but you have to have a really good ear hear it. In most applications you'd need humbuckers for, they'll come through fine. The guitar is noise-free. It has a very full, well-rounded sound, and sounds good whether I'm playing it through the Vox solid-state Pathfinder or the tube Ampeg Jet II. The pickups and the sound are by far the best things about this guitar.

This is where it gets dodgy. The guitar showed up from Musician's Friend and it wouldn't stop buzzing no matter how I adjusted it. It turned out the neck was twisted. I sent it back and to their credit I got a new one. The pickup switch went out the second day I had it, but fortunately contact cleaner made it work again. However, this has spooked me; how long is it going to work before it goes out for good? I don't have time or patience enough to worry with a guitar that's going to keep breaking down, and I am strongly inclined just to send it back to Musician's Friend and get my money back. For the record, after setup, the action is OK. Not great, just OK. I have several other guitars that play much better than this one. The overall finishing work on the second guitar that I recieved was better than on the first one, which had poorly painted soundhole edges that bled on to the body. The hardware is very shiny, but a close look reveals that it's not the best quality. It'll be Oxidation City in a couple of years. The wiring, pots, and switches are, to be kind, junk. The nut is plastic, which isn't too cool. I mean, come on, bone is NOT expensive, nor are the better plastics like Corian, and they're not hard to tool. I don't know why Epiphone refuses to make this little change, which would improve their guitars a great deal. Put a decent nut on the damn things!

This guitar is solid, or at least as solid as semihollowbodies can be. It will probably hold up under about five or six years of playing, but I can guarantee you that it'll have to have the pickup switch replaced, and maybe the pots too, within a couple of years. You'll have to replace the hardware within a year or two, as well; maybe sooner if you have sweaty hands. The tuners are so awful that it would almost be better if they sold the guitar without tuners, so you wouldn't have to go to the trouble of taking those buggers off and replacing them with Grovers or Schallers. A

At this point I'd have to say I wouldn't use it without a backup. The pickup switch has already gone out, and the previous guitar that I sent back had a badly twisted neck. I'm frankly doubtful about its reliability overall. I'd say this is a fine guitar for someone on a budget who wants the ES-335 sound, but it's definitely something that's going to wear out, bit by bit. It's just not all that great a guitar, in spite of the reviews you read elsewhere. Certainly not a professional-level axe. There are too many flaws and cut corners for that to be the case.

I called up Gibson; they were actually quite helpful in helping me figure out the problem with the neck. Nice people.

I've been playing for well over 25 years and have a lot of gear. Overall, I was very disappointed with this guitar. I read all the other reviews on here, and expected a lot more than I got. The first Dot I got was defective, so I figured I'd cut Epiphone some slack. The second one is still unimpressive.

This is NOT the same as owning a Gibson ES-335, and anybody who tells you so is either lying or still in the "honeymoon" phase that everyone goes through after buying a new guitar. This is a very average Korean copy of an ES-335, and it's no better than the Washburn or DeArmond 335 copies.

You can get it to play pretty well, and it sounds all right, but this is definitely a $400 guitar. And at that it might be overpriced, considering the cheapness of the switch, the bad machine heads, and the ridiculously awful nut. I have a Mexican-made Tele, and in some ways the build quality is better, which is a sad commentary to make.

I am very seriously thinking about sending this guitar back to Musician's Friend and getting my money back. I have many other guitars, including a Rickenbacker 330 and a Fender Jazzmaster. Both of these guitars play much more easily than the Dot. Quite honestly the Dot has a blocky, chunky, clumsy feel overall, and I don't find it all that enjoyable to play. It does sound pretty decent, and I suppose that if I were a beginning or intermediate player, and didn't have many guitars to compare it to, I might have a higher opinion. As it is I definitely don't think it's a professional-level guitar. I have been told that if I dropped a lot of money on the guitar, changed the tuning keys, put in new switching/wiring, etc. "you'd have a pretty good axe!" I think they call that "throwing good money after bad," and I don't see the point.

I want to emphasize that in spite of the glowing reviews on here and elsewhere, this is only a SUBSTITUTE for an ES-335. It's not really even close to the real thing. Even considered on its own merits as a $400 guitar, I think you could do better in this price range with another manufacturer. After this experience I honestly don't think I'll be buying any more Epiphones, and my advice to anyone considering buying one of these would be to save your money for the good stuff. Yamaha and Ibanez make some very nice 335-style guitars in the $700-$800 range, and used 335's can be found for around $1000 to $1500. Guild also makes the Starfire IV, which is a 335-styled guitar. In build quality it's equal to the Gibson 335, and it costs about $2000 less than the Gibson. The Dot might be useful as a "stopgap" axe, something to play while you're saving your money for a REAL guitar, but it'll never be anything more than that.

Saving money on guitars is overrated. I'm not a millionaire and I have to work hard to get bucks to get guitars with, but the adage "You get what you pay for," is true in many ways. Granted, I don't believe that Gibson's 335 is really worth $2000 to $3000; you're paying for the name. But even so, Yamaha, Ibanez, and Guild make 335-style guitars that run from $800 to $1700 which are just as good as the Gibson. And let's tell the truth. No $400 guitar is going to sound as good, or play as well, as a $1000 guitar. Period. The bottom line is, spend the money for the guitar you want, and don't settle for a substitute or lookalike. You'll only end up disappointed in the long run. If you've put enough time and effort into learning the guitar to where you deserve a nice guitar, then by God, save your money and GET A GOOD GUITAR. Leave these substitutes and copies to the beginners and the weekend noodlers.