Epiphone Dot

In the very first band I was ever in, back in the mid '70s, the guitarist had an Aria copy of an ES-335 in red and I was just fasinated by the great crunch and controlled feedback he could get out of that hollow body. That same year I saw Ted Nugent live and decided I had to have a semi-hollow body!

Well, other things got in the way and it just never happened... until the Dot.

Mines the gloss cherry finish. Bought it stock brand new. Came with the guitar, a chord and a use & care guide in a cardboard box. Bought it over the net. No issues with the condition it arrived in - factory sealed. No a whole lot of features - semi-acoustic with asian made pickups and a 3 postion selector switch. It is what it is - a ES-335 like electric guitar. I didn't expect any more or any less.

This guitar does have good tone and sound when the tone knobs are set to at least 1/2 way or more in the treble range. Any less and the sound gets muddy, and all the way into the bass range gives an almost muffled sound. Could be that higher value caps on the tone pots would help. If there is a weakness with this guitar, its the pickups. Mine are marked "HOTCH(G) LP Bridge OR Neck BHC" on the back and I point this out because I've found different designations marked on other Dot pups while searching the web. Maybe Epiphone uses different suppliers, I don't know. As I said, these are capable of producing the sound that I was looking for, it's just that I would like a wider range of sounds to go along with it. I have heard other ES-335s and they don't suffer from this issue.

The toggle switch also does not work all that well as you have to "jiggle" it sometimes to get both pckups to work in the middle position. I thought maybe this was gunk in the switch and would go away with time but it hasn't

All the controls were loose when I got it but that's what you get when you buy mailorder on a product from China. No big deal as a couple minutes with a wrench had them tightened up. I thought at first that the frets were rough and a couple almost seemed marred and I chalked it up to a cheap guitar but at the first string change I cleaned the fretboard with 0000 steel wool and then some lemon oil and no more rough anything. Again, no big deal.

The fit and finish is very good for this price range - I have no really complaints there. I could not find any flaws. One small nag is that the side edges of the fretboard could have used a little more dressing on the one or two fret ends. A few seconds with a fine file fixed that. Very minor though. I have to remind myself how low cost this guitar is when I pick at such things.

The bridge was too high out of the box and a couple minutes with a steel ruler and a screwdrive easily fix that. Probably knocked out while on the water in shipping. Intonation was about spot on. The neck as it should be. Very nice actually.

A little better QC on the cleanup by Epiphone would solve all these.

This seems solidly build. Nothing loose or badly put together. If not for the suspect toggle switch, I don't think there would be any trouble ahead.

I like this guitar and I would buy another if it were stolen. I bought it to play and can't justify the price tag on a real ES-335. I think the Dot is a really good value and - remember the price point here - is well put together and finished.



NOTE: After owning the Dot for 5-6 months, I recently broke down and replaced the pickups with a pair of Seymour Duncan '59s and replaced the toggle switch and pots. Now it does give me a wide range of tones and sounds. Really makes me glad I bought this - but remember it did cost me another $200 to get it to where I wanted/needed it (now it sound reminds me of a '60s era ES-335... just about perfect). -- I didn't include these mods as part of my ratings.

The Finish is a beautiful blonde natural color. i got it at First Quality Music Supply today. the body is a gibson 335 pretty much. the bridge is great and it doesnt knock it oout of tune. the tuners are awesome looking/working Grovers. the neck is flawless. it comes with a chord and manual you will need a case. you can pull out Rich Robinson/ Keith Richards tones to Clapton to BB King tones. its amazing. the body is laminated maple i beleive. 2 volume, 2 tone. 2 awesome humbuckers. it has an awesome mahogany neck too.

PERFECT. i can get an eric clapton Cream sound perfectly. i can get a good Keith Richards sound too. and Rich Robinson stuff too. has a thick bluesy rock n roll tone. on clean, its a Chuck Berry/Beatles guitar sound. its deep and soulful sounding. and sometimes bright. doesnt get too much feedback. i use a Peavey Valveking 112 and an Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer, and the go together like a dream. has a good acoustic sound too.

Flawless clear finish, the adjustment is great. its glossy and pretty. no flaws at all! absolutley perfect.

this thing should last forever.

buy it. you will love it for blues/rock.

regular korean 2001 bouoght in 2001 - cherry' two humbuckers.

the sound of the guitar is good, the unfortunate downside is the intonation. perhaps i got a defective guitar, but even with the octaves set up properly, the guitar doesnt seem to be in tune across the neck, which makes it upractiacl and unplayable. Also, even with a new nut and grover tuners inslald, it doesnt stay in tune.

i give it a 3 coz i can hear that it actualy can be a nice sounding guitar, but with the intonation so awfull, its unplayable.

I had the guitar brought over from canada (im not from over there), bought new at long and mcquade toronto. unfortunatly, the person who got it for me isnt a guitar player, so we relied on the salesperson. unfortunatly i got a guitar poorly set up and buzzing, badly intonated - maybe because of the flight, or again, maybe coz i got a defective guitar, or maybe coz its just a bad guitar.

solid guitar, but unplayable because of the poor intonation i mentioned. i give it a generous 4 coz its actualt built well.

n/a

if you are thinking about buying one, make sure its playable - tune it, play bar chords across the neck and listen if it sounds and FEELS in tune. pull strings, be very suspicious about this guitar. mine is a complete dissapointment, i never enjoyed it and its just in its bag waiting to be sold to another poor felow.

2006 Chinese Dot...Sunburst finish with the usual controls. Grover tuners. Purchased new from ebay. Not used or factory second.

Delivered the hollow body tone I was looking for... playing it through a Vox AD50VT or Fender M80.

I read many reviews before opting to purchase and it arrived in the condition anticipated. All pots, the switch, and input jack were flopping loose and the control knobs had not been fully set on the pot stems. Perhaps they purposely do this to account for changes in the wood during shipping(or the guy in China who assembles them goes for coffee and forgets to tighten them...who knows...a quick bit of work with a socket and they are good to go. The three way feels quite cheesy and I'm betting it will be the first component to fail. Pickups were screwed down tight and required adjustment...action was set to specs and trussrod adjusted appropriately. Uneven 13th fret required leveling. The fretboard was rough in the high registers and needed a wet sand to allow string bends. Tuners are actually pretty good. Plastic nut must be replaced.

With the exception of the three way switch it all seems solid. Rumor has it the electronics are dodgy so...we shall see...

Playing for 30 years now and no longer doing it for $. Own 2 strats, a tele, and a Dano 12 string. Can't justify the extra bux for a Gibson and not willing to risk off-brands to get the hollow body experience. I have refinished and rewired several guitars but I will not attempt to replace any of the components on this unless they blow up. If you have big enough hands to play the fat neck on this bitch you surely can't get your fingers in the f hole to work on it. In spite of the tweaking needed, it is still good value for the price and even if you don't win the fight they do have an office you can phone and scream at if something goes wrong.

This Dot was natural finish, grover tuners, probably 2006-2007.

I think this guitar really needs to be played through a nice tube amp. With a low gain rhythm setup, you get a VERY unbalanced sound. Very absent on the lower-mid and low end, the upper mids and highs are OK. When you kick in the boost for a lead line (here's where your amp comes into play), this guitar shows it's stuff. Specially on the neck pickup. It sings with lots of sustain and a fairly good tone. I preferred the mix setting next, then the bridge alone last.

Clean - very different sounds based on pickup selection. Pretty distinct and good sound in the middle "both" position. Got a little twang and nice treble bite. This is my preferred position for clean, then neck, then bridge.

Overall these pickups are not very good at all. With the right tube amp, you can get a nice lead out of them, but they leave a lot to be desired.

This particular guitar was supposed to be new from our mail order musical friend, but it arrived with the fretboard covered with grime, big cosmetic scratches over two frets, and two pots that were so loose that you couldn't actually turn them. (the WHOLE POT rotated in the body instead.) I cleaned it up and tightened down enough to give this a solid test over a week.

Action was fairly high, but that was easy to dial down at the bridge. Intonation was a tad off (yes before the action change).

The fretboard was a mess. Poorly filed fret wire gave it a very rough grinding feel. Just felt cheap. I'll ignore the scrapes which probably happened post-production.

The natural finish looked pretty decent, no real complaints about the body. Sloppy work around the F-holes, but not enough to send it back for.

The pots and 3-way switch will need replaced fairly quickly. They are complete crap. Scratchy and loose.

Grover Tuners are probably OK, but know this. THIS IS IMPORTANT... Many complain about the inability to tune this guitar. This is correct that's it's very hard to keep it in tune or even get it in tune. But, this is the fault of the cheapest nut I have ever seen in my life. I think it's made by Fisher Price. The NUT is the reason for the tuning instability, not the tuners themselves. The grovers feel very solid and do not have any play, so I imagine with a simple nut replacement, tuning issues would be fixed.

You could try some graphite (pencil lead) in the nut slots, but I think replacement is in order.

na

Player of 23 years and have some pretty good musical skills. I own an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Cherry Flame as my main guitar, pickups replaced with SD JB and Jazz. Amp is a Traynor YCV-80 (all tube). I play rock (classic/modern) as well as blues. Influences are Hendrix, Page, Clapton, David Gilmore, Buddy Guy, BB King, and SRV. (yes I've got a strat too :-)

I bought this guitar because I could get it for $300, which is a great price. I played it and tested it for a week solid, many times directly comparing to the Epi Les Paul. Not that I want it to BE a LP, but with the same setup it was a good way to reference what I was hearing.

What this guitar did best for me was a neck pickup lead tone. It actually sounded very similar to my Paul bridge lead (and the Paul has Seymour Duncans in it). But the rest was cheap, plain, and unbalanced.

After a week, I debated long and hard if a Sheraton was a better route than a Dot with upgrades. Lets face it, this Dot needed some work if I was going to hang onto it. I went out to the store to test a Sheraton and wow, NIGHT AND DAY...

I knew the Sheraton II would be better, but I was surprised how much better. The Sheraton was much more in line with my LP Custom in terms of quality, what I had expected from Epiphone in the first place. Yes it has things like binding and inlays that were completely absent from the Dot, but it also has much better hardware, looks gorgeous, and has pickups that sound so much better than the Dot. They are much more balanced and offer good tone all around. There is not a rough grind from poor fret wire like the Dot. The Sheraton is smooth and easy to play. Sings with a lead tone and sustain. Clean is very nice and balanced, it actually HAS low end unlike the Dot.

I think that it's the Dot that is far below what it should be rather than the Sheraton is far above what it should be. From comparison to my Epiphone LP, the Sheraton is on par there and what I expect.

Here's what it all comes down to. I would rather have a STOCK Sheraton II than a Dot which has had it's pots, switches, nut, and even pickups replaced. How's that for putting it in perspective.

If you are learning to play, I think this would be a good guitar for you. If you like the semi-hollow style, you can't beat the price. I forgot to say that the wide neck makes it very easy to play, almost like an acoustic. You can pound out full cords and have some fun.

If you are a musician, don't waste your time. It's only a good deal if it's a good guitar. For the extra money, a Sheraton II is a no brainer after my research and testing.

I like Epiphone a lot and am disappointed in them for the Dot. I am very very happy with my Les Paul as described above.

The Dot has been returned and a Sheraton II is in my future.

I won't go over the top on features as it's all been mentioned before. My 'Dot' is a 2007, made in China, cherry red with USA designed pick-ups and Grover machine heads. The feature that made me buy this particular model was the inclusion of a hard shell case.In my opinion it's 2 weaknesses are the cheap and nasty looking translucent amber control knobs and the black, plastic nut.

I play semi-pro rock/punk/blues in a function band all over the UK and mainland Europe and the 'Dot' suits the music I play perfectly.
My set up is:- Fender Deluxe - Marshall 2x12 - Marshall GV2 - Behringer UF100 Ultra Flanger - Boss SD1 - guitar. Played cleanly this guitar offers such a wide range of tonefull, usable sounds that go from jazz to rock and roll to blues to country to rockabilly and back again. When overdrive is added the Dot really changes character. The sound is huge, ballsy and bassy. Compared to my Gibson SG Standard the Dot is much louder and fuller but lacks the complexity and smoothness of the Gibbo. The controls are reasonably sensitive and the switch feels remarkably solid.

Out of the case this guitar was very playable, the strings were clean and not overly nasty feeling and the action was medium-low, fully intonated and relatively buzz free.
The pickups were set a tad high for my taste but 10 seconds and a small, phillips screwdriver sorted that.
The finish is stunning for a guitar of this price tag. Very glossy lacquer and neat routing, hardware fit and binding all add to the 'quality' feel of this instrument.
The only flaws were that horrid plastic nut - it's not a great fit, a slightly chipped fretboard edge on the bass side of the first fret and evidence of a fairly heavy sanding re-shape where the neck meets the body. The re-shape is actually a good thing in my opinion as it shows that the guitar has not been 100% machine produced.

It's a great live guitar. The 'big' sound really jumps out and the pick-ups deliver a fantastic amount of tone. Controlled feedback is so easy with this design and the sustain is superb.
The hardware is in need of a tighten ( I've had the guitar 2 weeks and used it a lot!) but that's not unusual for any Gibson/Epiphone in my experience. Things loosen naturally when you start using the thing.
I think that the finish will age quite nicely, it's not overly thick so I may have a convincing 'relic' on my hans before too long.
The strap buttons went on day one to be replaced by Schaller strap locks.
The dependabiliy of this guitar initially feels extremely good. The tuning stability is superb. Only time will tell if the electrics are up to the job but it does generally feel extremely solid.
I never gig without a back-up. This guitar will generally be my back-up (when the 'new guitar' novelty dies down)

Never uset them so "no comment" !

I've been playing for 20 years and have bought and sold lots of decent guitars guitars over the years. I currently have a 2005 Gibson SG Standard, a Fender Classic '60's 'relic' Telecaster, the 'Dot' and a Washburn EA10 electro-acoustic. My amp is a '96 USA Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and I use a few run of the mill stomp boxes.
I was originally after a Sheraton due to the tone the guy out of Kings Of Leon gets but was frightened by the mellow pick-ups so I saved ??100 and got a Dot.
If lost or stolen I'd get another one, and pray it was as nice as this one.
I love the case, I'ts essential for any archtop electric and fantastic at the price. The general feel of the guitar is fantastic, it really sings ,even un-amplified and it looks the business . . . . . . . . nearly!
I aint sure about the headstock size, it seems massive.
I wish it had a bigsby. It'll probably end up with a bigsby - more expense!!
Seriously, if you like the sound of a semi - feedback/growl/blues-tone; just buy one. ??339.99 - the best value for this quality I've seen for a long time. It aint a Gibson, but it aint ??2000, and it sounds and looks like one.

Gloss Natural finish, Semi Hollowbody, F holes, Non Locking Tuners, Standard Neck(feels wider than a strat) No Accessories Included, 2007 Chinese, Solid top, Two tone controls two volume controls, HH config.

I like a variety of music. This guitar, well it has an absolutely different sound than my strat knock off yamaha. I love the sound of this guitar. I practice with my guitar through a smokie amp, with headphones. When i use it like this i hear a buzz. Playing with the volume/tone controls i can get a bright sound with depth and a heavy richer sound. I have an affects pedal and a cheap randall amp.

Guitar was set up pretty good from the get go. Pickups were set up fine. Bookmatched fine brige routered well. This is supposed to be a blem. But i could find no major . really no minor ones either. The closest thing to flaw is that the F holes are not round at either end.

I expected a soft light guitar. I got a hefty peice of musical instument. I think the gloss finish will be dainty, but this guitar can take some punishment.(not that i will give it any) I dont gig so i dont have a backup (not sure my yamaha is even in the same class as this intrument)

N/A

I been playing for about 20 years. I own an Alvarez R20 Accoustic, A Martin 15E-000C, and a yamaha 312( something 12) I have a multiple affects pedal, Randall 25 Watt amp, and a smokie amp. I would purchase this guitar again. I was going to get a Dot studio and took a chance on this guitar. If this was stolen I would replace it with the same or similar one. My yamaha is like a toy beside this. I wanted a unique guitar that gave me better sound than my yamaha. If there are more updates, I will let ya know. I purchased this from musicians friend after ordering a studio twice and waiting almost a month and not getting one.

This is a Cherry Red ES-335 copy, you know all the features, made in China...

24.75" neck scale, humbuckers, 3 way switch, 2 volume, 2 tone, blah blah blah...

I give it an 8 because it has the features you need, and they work.

Full, rich, clear sound. Sure, it's not as responsive as an actual ES-335, but it's also at least $1600 less. And, let's be real, in a rock band, while having the dynamic range and versatility of an actual es-335 would be nice, the Dot does quite nicely.

Pickups could be better, but they sound like humbuckers. Because the body and neck are maple, the Dot sounds brighter than the es-335, but I prefer that myself.

Here is what freaked me out a bunch. The action, fit and finish on every Dot I played, felt roughly the same, pretty good, needs some tweaks. I think Epiphone has improved a lot over the last 5 years. Bot my Korean made Casino, and Chinese Dot played pretty good, right off the wall.

The actual ES-335's I compared it too didn't. Some had horrible set ups, all had some issue with the jack, or the pots. All the Dots had everything screwed in tight and working, the Gibsons were missing knobs, had bad jacks, or loose pots that were falling into the bodies, or some combination of the above. What's up with that?

This guitar feels solid and totally dependable. Sure the tuners could be better, but whatever, these work. In a few years of heavy use I'll see how it all holds up!

This guitar feels just as solid and sturdy as the es-335's and it actually seems put together better than some of the 335's I played at a few shops.

No idea, I can fix the guitar myself, or send it to my luthier.

I've been playing since the 6th grade (1980)... I have many rickenbackers, an Epiphone Casino (the cheap korean one, quite a great guitar IMO), and some others.

I would buy it again if it were lost or stolen. One thing I can say is that all the Dots I played, felt pretty identical. In a good way.

I love the headstock shape, much cooler than the gibson shape.

I wish the neck was slimmer, like the ES-335's. I may have my luthier reshape it.

The lowly DOT compared quite favorably to the ES 335, sure, the 335 is a nicer guitar, and I would consider it a great value at like, $1000 - $1200. But at $2000 - $2600?!?!?!?! NO WAY! It's not that much nicer!

It is ridiculous too that these 2 grand and up guitars all had various flaws where the $400 cheapy was spot on. I don't get that at all.

Yeah, someday a 335 would be nice to have, but the Epiphone Dot does 75% - 90% of what the ES-335 does. For a boatload less cash.

I've read revues saying how much better the 335 is, and they are right, but they are missing the point here. The Epiphone Dot is a great guitar and value, that with just a few minor tweaks, is awesome.

This is a good, well-apointed ES-335 clone (VERY surprising, since it was made in China). Two Alnico humbickers, 2 volume & 2 tone pots, 3-way toggle pickup selector, grover tuners (VERY smooth, accurate action on these tuners), laminated maple top back and sides, center block, f-holes, tune-o-matic brige (good quality, not a cheapo), chrome hardware. I believe the strings are Gibson brite-wires 10-46 ga. It is advertised as having a maple neck; mine came with a mahogany neck. I prefer a maple neck for stability, so it loses a point for that, and loses one more point for the cheap knobs,pickguard, and incorrect truss rod adjustment. But, what do you expect for $400? The binding, finish, etc. are all beautiful: I got the natural maple finish. The toggle switch and tone pots are very quiet. ALL IN ALL A WELL MADE ES-335 COPY, WELL WORTH THE PRICE. I'D PAY $600 to replace it, actually.
**NOTE: This guitar came set up with perfect intonation; HOWEVER, there was a very nasty twist and dip in the neck between the nut and 5th fret. A simple adjustment (loosening the truss rod) corrected the problem, but it SHOULD have been caught AND CORRECTED at the factory). The frets are slightly larger than Fender Medium-Jumbos, but not as large as Ibanez Jumbos. The fret edges need a little re-dressing when you get the guitar (no biggie: a little 220 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper and then buff with 0000# steel wool).

THIS IS A VERY GOOD ROCK AND ROLL AND BLUES GUITAR. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR HEAVY METAL OR THRASH. I play blues, 60's & EARLY '70s classic rock, jazz rock, Santana, and late-60's early 70's Psychedelic. My amp is a Crate V-15, with a JAN GE 5751 preamp tube (V1), a Penta 12AX7C tube in the reverb driver V2), an Electro-Harmonix 12AX7A in the Phase-Splitter (V3), and Electro-Harmonix EL-84's in the power section. The amp is tubed for a clean, chunky, fat rhythm with gain settings 4 and under, Rolling Stones to Cream overdrive for gain settings 5-6, and Billy Gibbons, Leslie West, and Carlos Santa overdrive at gain settings 7 and above.

This Epiphone Dot has very quiet controls (pots and toggles) with no scratching or other unwanted noises. It comes with 2 Alnico humbuckers. Don't kid yourself into thinking you are going to get original spec '57 PAF's at this price. But SURPRISINGLY, they sound very close to the original; not quite as smooth, and a little bit brighter on the top end than the original '57 PAF's. These 'buckers are VERY good for the price of this guitar (I SEE NO NEED TO UPGRADE THEM). If you want super-clean jazz tones, clean but chunky '60's rhythms, mild Stones crunch, Clapton style woman tone or Leslie West style woman tone, as well as Santana's searing smooth overdrive, they are all in there. You just have to twiddle with the controls to find them (I have marked my settings with a Magic Marker).

The bridge pickup will give you a dark to medium clean or crunch tone. This is the first guitar I have played where I can attain the dark snarl that Hilton Valentine of the Animals got with his ES-335. The bridge pickup will also give you a slight Fenderish out-of-phase tone (but not the full-blown Strat Quack) with the tone control set around 3-4.

I prefer to use both pickups for my rhythms, and then toggle to the bridge or neck pickup (depending on whether I want a dark crunch or a smooth overdrive) for my leads. The two pickups together give you lower gain than using one pickup at a time, so if you like clean to chunky rhythms with overdriven leads, this guitar can do it in spades!.

The tone pots are smooth, but not very effective in the 6-10 range; most of the boost or roll-off occurs in the 1-5 range, so I have used a magic marker to make it easier for me to find my settings quickly.
THIS IS NOT A GUITAR ONE SHOULD BUY IF YOU INTEND TO DO A LOT OF MODIFICATIONS. THIS GUITAR SOUNDS FINE JUST THE WAY IT IS.

For the most part, the cosmetics are flawless. The wood is beautiful. As discussed above, I was not expecting a mahogany neck (prefer the stability of rock maple). And the neck needed a truss rod adjustment (nothing major). The pickups are set up well and evenly balanced (no major volume changes or surprizes when you switch toggle settings). The strings were set VERY low (4/64"), so I had to raise them a tad. The fret wire needs a minor dressing (nothing major, just a little rough on the edges). Tone pots are pretty good, but I have seen much better. The Grover tuners are great, with very smooth action (was not expecting that on a guitar in this price range).

All fittings, strap buttons, pots, input jack, toggle were tight and of good quality. The plastic knobs and pickguard are a little cheezy, but Epiphone has to cut costs somewhere to sell this axe at this price (the major $ savings are the use of Chinese labor).
I played professionally for 20 years. Now I play for relaxation, and sit in on an occasional gig. This guitar, once set up properly, will withstand the rigors of the road, and no back-up is needed (unless of course you want to get a Fender sound, then you'll need a Strat or Tele as well).
** REMEMBER, this is a $400 axe, not a $2,000+ axe. As long as you treat it with the respect any guitar deserves, it should hold up a long time. IT IS A GOOD, SEMI-PRO GUITAR. People that play major gigs will not be shopping in this price range, to begin with.

Unknown. Never had to deal with Epiphone.

I have been playing for 40+ years. I own an original '62 Strat, a Squier Vintage '51 (set up for playing slide), and a 1980's Yamaha Acoustic Country Jumbo. (I have owned various Les Pauls, LP Juniors, Melody Makers, Fender JazzMaster & Teles over the years). My amps are an original '65 Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb, '67 Silverface Princeton Reverb, and a Crate V-15 all-tube 112 combo. I use a Behringer Multi-FX (great chorus, delay and tremelo; the tremelo is actually better than the Fender tube-driven tremelo).
THE EPIPHONE DOT IS A GREAT MID-PRICED ROCK 'N ROLL GUITAR; DOES A PRETTY GOOD JOB ON BLUES AND JAZZ. I compared it to the Gretsch G5120 (wonderful guitar, but not as useful for rock 'n roll as the dot; the Gretsch is more of a Rocka-billy and Jazz box), Several Ibanez semi-hollow bodies (all crap - bad tuners, nasty ceramic humbuckers).
The one thing I wish this Epiphone Dot has is a Bigsby Vibrato Tailpiece. Other than that, this guitar is an excellent value for $. I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE LOOKING FOR A GOOD MID-PRICED ROCK AND ROLL AND BLUES GUITAR. AND YES, IF LOST OR STOLEN, I WOULD REPLACE IT WITH THE EXACT SAME MODEL AND FEATURES.

Look...I am writing this to make a specific point about the Epi Dot. As far as the guitar is concerned it is a good semi-pro to pro guitar. A pro guitar does not have to cost over $1000 to say the least. As for the Dot, either you like it or you don't. Let's face it, if we could afford a Gibson ES 335 we would opt for one rather than a Dot...be honest now, huh? When I was a younger player I could afford Gibson Doves, 335's and Les Paul Customs...hell, I onced owned a 1952 Fender Esquire back in '70. Nowadays I cannot afford to buy these guitars so I am relegated to the Dot and guitars of that ilk...with one exception...I own a Godin Multiac Classical that now sells for $1300....so I do own a pricey guitar but other than that....most of my 6 or 7 guitars are in the range of The Dot.

Now, on to my point...I would have bought a Dot years ago if for not one "flaw": they never got (Korean versions) the body profile just right. The upper bouts were too large and the body waist too wide. It was a clubby guitar with fat MICKEY MOUSE-LIKE EARS.

Even non-Gibson makes were getting it right but Epi Korea just kept missing the point. Now I know that even Gibson issues varied SLIGHTLY over the years...but these discrepancies or variations were never as blatantly off keel as the Korean issues. But glad to say that is no longer the issue...at least not with the Chinese versions of late. They finally got the body contours right on. The newer ones match up very close to the 60's and 70's profiles by Gibson and Epiphone (Casinos, Rivieras and Sheratons). And that makes all the difference when having to settle for a "budget" version of a guitar...at least get the basic shape correct for Crying Out Loud.....
to offer us some hastily assembled facsimile is adding insult to injury....
But hey...they finally got it right....
now if this does not matter to you....skip this....but if it does....then know that they pulled back on the insults.......

and if you cannot afford a Gibson ES 335...you might want to take a look at the New Dots....
peace