Epiphone Dot

I'm not going to get into features they standard Gibson features 2 humbuckers 3 way toggle 4 knbs 2 vol 2 tone 22 fret neck:
Recently traded up a 1986 Ibanez as 80 for a 2003 dot. The playability of the dot is much better, however the PU's compared to the Ibanez are lacking. Overall, like the dot better. It is much lighter and plays much easier. It is hard to believe that Gibson can produce such a high quality guitar in a Korean factory for 400.00. They really did a good job bringing a classic guitar to common guitar player. The one I got is natual...I like this look alot, it reminds me of John Lennons Casino in later years. I does not have a pick guard, and I think this look s really cool this way. Anywho features are standard.

The sound is good, of course the cheaper PU that are stock in Epiphone and lacking compared to standard Gibsons. I am playing mine through a Fender 4X10 Blues deville and it sounds great. I also use alot of delay all kinds, U2 to indie sounds. I use a Rat 2 for dirt and it sounds great (this pedal would any guitar sond great) The Dot is pretty versatile. And unlike other hollow bodies it is easy to control how it feeds back. Overall I like the sound , however I am considering upgrading the pickups to Possibley P-90 or classic 57' maybe even pearly gates who knows.

The action is ths guitar is stellar, I think it plays almost...almost, as good as my rickenbacker 480, the ric has suprior playability to any guitar I have ever touched Gretsh, Hofner, Gibson, forget...so in this respect the Dot will never truley live up to being the ultiamte guitar. As I have stated earlier it is amazing for a 400.00 korean guitar..I plays like more expensive guitar...Not as stiff as a real es-335 more fluid. can't find a flaw with it other than who ever had it before me decided wrap the strings a round the stop bar...it is not wrap bar I know what those look like. Anyway I guess what it comes down to is that for the money, you can't beat it!

Havent had it for more than 2 weeks but I have gig with it twice and have sort of worked in as my main guitar...sort of alternating between it and my ric. Right now I guess I'm just trying to settle in with this...Learning all it CAN do. I could easily make this my main stay...and I have all intentions on recording with ths on our next record (maybe if I upgrade the Pu'S) i don't know yet. The guitar is great quaility even if it was an 800.00 guitar I would feel the same way...the binding looks great not cheap the tuners are groover and excellent...alothough I may put shallers white buttons on it for a vintage look. Bottom line the guitar is great...again for the cost you would be a fool not to get one.

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Although not everything about this guitar is a 10 collectivley it is...once again for the money. This is my first Epiphone and not i have intentions on picking up other. Epiphon several cool modles that gibson doesn't...I'd like to pick up a casino, or a shearton, maybe a zephyr...got to hand it to epiphone they make great guitars at a great price.

I bought this guitar new in 1999. It was manufactured the same year. I wanted a semi-hollow for looks and sound, but I walked into the music store that day with an open mind and tried a ton of guitars. I was about to leave without one until I saw an epi dot sitting in the consignment corner. I played it and was hooked. I ordered a new one on the spot. It's a standard dot, with 2 epi humbuckers, the old-style tune-o-matic (I believe epi has a new, smaller bridge on current dots), standard tuning keys. Laminated maple body and center block, with a maple neck (FYI, gibson 335s and epi elitist 335s have mahagony 1 piece necks). The neck has a scarf joing near the headstock. Don't listen to "gurus" who claim to know better. I can't tell the difference between the 1-piece and 2-piece necks...and the 2-piece wastes less wood and is stronger. I didn't buy this guitar hoping for a Gibson ES-335 (I'll buy one later), I bought it because I liked the guitar I played in the store. My dot is cherry red.

Okay, let me say this again. You'll read over and over how someone bought an epi dot and it sounds just like a Gibson, especially after some hardware swaps. It may sound like a Gibson to them, it may not to you (and vice versa). Just go out and get the guitar you want that's within your budget. Otherwise, you'll never be satisfied with it.

My epi dot has a nice, woody midrange sound to it. The midrange notes are really accentuated on this guitar. The bridge pickup is veyr dark and I prefer to play single notes rather than chords with it (the bass is too much). The bridge pickup is very aggressive when strummed hard but also has a sweet (albeit bright) sound when strummed lightly. My only gripe sound wise is that the neck pickup is much louder than the bridge (despite pickup height) but that is to be expected.

I play my guitar without amplification or with a home-built amp. It's a two channel (one fender deluxe, one hot-rodded JCM800) tube amp with a single EL84 pushing put 5 watts into a 1X12 combo. With this guitar both amp channels sound fantastic. I occasionally use a Danelectro Pastrami Overdrive or Grilled Cheese to get some cheesy effects.

This guitar is very versatile and will work in a lot of situations. It was exactly what I was looking for, so I'm going to give it a 10.

The dot I took home is the second one my dealer ordered. The first had a messed up neck, so they sent it back for a better one before I even saw it (try that at your local guitar megamart!). The neck has a good feel in my hand, I never get tired playing. The guitar plays very well and the action was set up at the store to my liking. One problem with the guitar out of the box was the action was a litte off. The store I bought it at filed down the high E saddle way too low, so now I have to replace that (I'm swapping out the whole bridge).

The neck pickup "chrome" started to peel off at one corner. A quick coat of clear nail polish stopped any further peeling (it's been 6 years now). I was annoyed at first but I rarely see it any more. I'm planning on swapping out the pickups for some PAF clones (toss up between Stew-mac's Golden Age and Gibson's '57 Classic), just to experiment. I like the stock pickups and I figure if I don't like the new ones better I can always sell them on eBay for 90% of the original price.

The finish was nice. Not perfect, but for a $600 guitar it's fine for me. I love the cherry look.

It's six years old now, and no real issues. A common complaint is the selector switch. Mine started to go out on me but I looked inside and saw a big piece of dust caught between two contacts. A puff of air later and the switch is as good as new. I replaced the tuners with Grover Rotomatics and the guitar stays in tune better. I may replace the nut but it's been 6 years so why mess with it?

The tone control on the neck pickup doesn't work. I suspect it was never wired, but I've never bothered to check it out (I rarely use the bridge tone control, and then usually to take the knob down to "9").

I don't play live and I take care of my stuff, so my guitars tend to last.

I've never dealt with Epiphone, so I can't comment. The music store from which I bought the guitar were great (even though they messed up my saddles!) and my current guitar store techs really know their stuff. Be careful: a lot of "pro" techs have no idea what they're doing. Get a book, read up on it yourself, so if you can't do it you'll be sure that they can.

I didn't buy this guitar as a poor man's Gibson ES-335. If you want the Gibson, save up for it. I love my dot and I think it's a great guitar as is. To be fair, I am planning on buying a Gibson ES-335 in the next year or two, but that's because I want a different guitar, not a better dot. One of the nice things about the epi dot (other than the sound, which is tops) is that you can swap out some hardware to experiment...something you might not do on a $2500-3500 guitar. One caveat is that you have to play them in the store, the variability on ANY guitar means you're taking a risk buying one without playing it.

hey now,, this is my first reveiw for this site. lets start by saying
dont belive everything you read .and dont forget that these reveiws are only opinions.. and also take into account whoose opinion your reading.. i have read a lot of reveiws on this and many other websites including the opinions of pro and semi pro muscians that i talked to personally about the intrument in question.. first off lets just say that i value everyones opinion...but i would put more stock in the opinion of a more seasoned musician with experiance in the game than say someone who is new to the scene.. there seem to be more quality reveiws on this site than most of the others out there. but beware there are also a lot of BS reveiws out there, by people who claim to be knowlegable and are really full of sht. i know a few of them that claim to be more than they are and even though their reveiws seem intellingent they wouldnt know the difference between a dimond and a dogshit. im saying this to try to set the record straight for the people who may spend the time to read this.. what i seem to come across a mostly are the reviewers that will claim that that their 300 dollar guitar blows away the 3000 dollar model... basically this is unbelivable, and mostly represents the opinion of disgruntled people who probobly cant really afford the 2000 dollar model and are venting their frustrations in the only place they can... its like comparing a new jaguar to a new kia.. you can save a lot of money.. and if you put a jaguar moter in the car it will go as fast, but does that make it a jaguar? most of them seem to think that the guitar produces the sound when really most of the sound comes from the amp, combined with the pickups. the amp is the key factor!!! you can put a 59 les paul through a cheap amp and it will sound close to the same as a cheap epiphone.. through the same amp... if you put the same two guitars through a quality amp (fender, boogie, marshal among others) the difference in aparent.. also build quality is another factor.. the less expensive korean, mexican, asian guitars that are built these days are much better than in the past, but does that make them the same as a hand built collectors piece? come on do people really think that something built for the cheapest price on an assembly line that produces 1000 guitars a day can be the same as something hand built for weeks or months with loving care by someone who has been at the craft for 10, 20, 30 years be the same? if that was the case than why bother with benedtto, custom shops, or even prs..we could all just buy a 300 to 500 dollar import guitar with different body shapes and that would be that. the reality is play what you can afford and sounds good to you.. but lets not mistake a 57 tele rented for the day from a high end studio to an 04 mexican at guitar center for 400 bucks. even though they may be compatable they are not comparable... im sure this reveiw will spark many heated comparisons and probobly piss some people off.., im sure if they had the "real thing" they would not be so quick to dis it... im sure there are many crappy gibsons and fenders out there that will help prove their point but then--dont buy them!! call them what they are..
a good guitar is a good guitar!!! even ibanez has a high end line and custom shop.. that builds stuff that can and does blow most of the american stuff away, but a toyota is not a cadolac! and never will be! ..anyway whatever you play, play it with your heart and soul-- and that will ALLWAYS be heard !!!rock on brothers and sisters!! now heres the reveiw......
2002 epiphone dot 335 copy.
i bought this new for 400.
i didnt want to spend another 2000 for a gibson
cherry red, gibson designed pickups, volume, tone pots,, you know the deal. grover tuners, nice guitar, decent fret job, looks like "the real thing" (gibson 335) two humbuckers..bla bla bla its the same as the rest..

the sound is ok. i wanted an archtop for blues and jazz,, but the sound really doesnt compare with the higher priced gibsons. if it did do you think gibson could get 1700-3000 for their model.
yeah if you put 57 classic gibson pickups in it it will sound the same as a real 335 but come on, is it really the same?
for the money its great and with the gibson pickups it will sound the same. if you really want a 335 but cant afford it this is great but its still not a real 335. not even close.....

as with most factory setups it was playable.. but with a little tweeking it was ok. setting up a guitar is not that hard a little common sense and a screwdriver is usually all that is needed. most people are just afraid of screwing things up. spend 15 dollars on a guitar book instead of the (LOL) "professional" (lol) "guitar tech" and you can do the same setup yourself...

the guitar is as solid as most of the others out there.
unless you really get a piece of crap most guitars made these days are about the same. a lot of them are even made in the same factorys with just different names on the headstock to make the difference.
as long as the guitar stays in tune of course it is gig worthy..
the finish is good..but what does that have to do with gig reliability??? without a compensating nut half of the open chords are not really right.. but that is true for most under 1000 dollar guitars...so it depends on what your playing and the sensitivity of your ear..

unless the guitar falls apart they arent going to do much for you..
that is really all the warrenty covers.. even then youll have to prove you didnt break it..

over all.. this is a good guitar you can compare it to anything and it will hold up, the build quality is good, sound quality is ok, with certain modifications it can even be great. i have been playing for 24 years ive had a few other epiphones some good some great. overall this is a good buy for the money it all depends on your personal choice and buget.. if you try to sell it youll be lucky to get 200 for it so its definatly not a good investment.. just buy it, play it,
and love it.....

2004 Korean-made, 24-fret, laminated top with natural finish. Very classy looking. 3-way pickup selector, 2 volume and 2 tone knobs. Two humbuckers, made by Epiphone I believe. Body is mahogany, neck is maple, I think - the Epiphone website is not terribly helpful when it comes to details like these. Tuners are Grovers, which stay in tune pretty well - requires minor retuning maybe once or twice throughout the course of a gig. Neck has nice thick feel to it but is very playable. Rosewood board.

This is really perfectly suited for my playing style - classic funk (not like the shredding going on in modern funk), soul-jazz, afrobeat, etc. I've been a strat guy for the better part of 15 years, and this is really a better fit for me. You can get strat-like tones out of the middle and bridge positions, and it's incredible for single-note lines. I use it through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp, with an EH Small Stone and Budda Bud-Wah - don't like too many effects on the sound. Nice full, warm, mellow sound - others may not like the stock Epi pickups but they're staying in for now. May eventually put in a Duncan Phat Cat in the bridge but that's further on down the road. Believe it or not, you CAN get beautiful, jangly chords out of this with character and articulation. As you can imagine, sustain is great.

Guitar was purchased brand new from Guitar Center and was set up very well. Just raised the action a tad to my liking. There were a couple other Dots there that were in terrible condition, so be sure to shop around. The neck is in great condition, very straight, frets are set very nicely. Tone/volume knobs are in good shape; one of them is a bit uneven but doesn't affect use at all. The pickup selector feels a bit loose, but works fine for now. The "E" on the pickguard will slide off easily if you peel it, but no matter, I took the pickguard off anyways before this even happened. Aesthetically, it's really a beautiful instrument. Only workmanship flaw is on the headstock - the black finish on the front smudged a bit. Besides this, in really excellent condition. The guitar feels very solid and is feeling better by the minute.

I have been and will continue to gig without a backup - don't have the scratch for that yet. Seems very sturdy, although being a semi-hollowbody, I take good care of it. Finish seems good. Chrome hardware which I like better than gold.

Haven't used them yet.

Overall, it's really a great value. I am very quickly getting over the fact that this is Korean-made. Really, who cares about that if it feels good to you and sounds good to you. I was looking at this and the Sheraton II, and honestly, I didn't care for the extra cosmetics on the Sheraton II - the gold hardware, fancy headstock inlay, neck inlays, neck binding - the Dot just looks more no frills and a bit more badass if you ask me. Also knocks down the price a couple hundo which never hurts.

2004 Epiphone Dot in the natural finish with a mildly quilted maple top for the front of it.
22 Fret neck in the Classic Gibson style but with the slightly more elongated classic Epiphone headstock to it.
2 Epiphone USA Humbuckers (probably actually made in Korea with the rest of the guitar, but at least they use Alnico Magnets).
IT COMES WITH ORIGINAL GROVER TUNERS!!!! Result!! I just wish more middle of the range guitar manufacturers would use Grovers as they are so damn good. Suprise, suprise it stays in tune.
Cheap Epiphone hardcase included. It does the job, but may I suggest ditching it in favour of a decent hardcase if you're going to do any serious work with this guitar.

How many wanabee Indie/Thrash/Metal players are out there buying this guitar and slagging it off?? Have you muppets no idea what this guitar is for?? Ever heard of the Blues? Its the music that your distorted sh*te evolved from. The pickups on this guitar are not weak, they're bluesy. Sheeesh!!
There is a reason why Gibsons and ALL other top end guitars use Alnico magnets, and there's a reason why all you metal-heads put sh*tty high output ceramic pickups in your guitars. If you want to play overdone, high output, distorted, talentless cr*p why on Earth did you buy this guitar?
**************Rant Over*****************
I've played this through my live rig (PA with a Boss GT6 effects processor) alongside my Tele, and my Gibson Historic 58 and it held up well. OK so it's not going to beat their sound, but it only cost #400 rather than #2000+. Its another sound to add to my instrument collection and gives me something that my Les Paul, my Tele, or my acoustic can't give me.
Leave the pickups in and just enjoy playing the thing.

I had it tweaked by the shop that I brought it from, but only to lower the action to one more favourable to me. The intonation was spot on.
I always say that if an electric guitar can sound good unplugged it'll be a good guitar. A good acoustic sound is a good sign of high quality woods; if the electrics turn out to be dire you can always change them. This instrument is no breaker of that law.
The high quality of the wood is visible straight away in the lovely piece of quilt maple used for the front of the guitar. It looks great, is finished great, and plays great.

It's been solid as a rock so far. No complaints.

I NEVER gig with a backup, and I do gigs on my own with just my voice and my guitar. No band, no drum machine, no backing tracks. Live music with no safety net. If you break a string..............hey........at least it proves you're live! And if you can't change a string in under two minutes you shouldn't be allowed to play live!!
By the time you've picked up a 'backup' guitar, checked the tuning, and got it plugged into the rig you could have got at least halfway through changing a string.
The finish seems to be holding up well to the rigours of live performance, no blemishes to speak of yet.

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I've been playing ten years now, and am a big lover of classic rock and the Blues from which it sprung from. From Robert Johnston, to Led Zeppelin, through to Guns N Roses I love the sound of a good bluesy riff.
As I'm primarily an acoustic artist (I love my Takamines) I play directly through a Phonic Powerpod powered PA mixer. This powers a pair of Peavey Pro12 speakers which give a wonderful richness to my sound when playing live. Into this mix is added my Boss GT6 pedal for electric overdriven sounds. It's no tube amp, but at the lower volumes I play at it works beautifully.
This Epiphone is a lovely guitar, and the best thing I can say about it is that I don't think it'll end up as so many of my guitars have, and be sold to make way for something else! Unless someone offered me a Gibson ES335 for a good price!!

Bought this Dot last year for AU$900 with a Gator hardcase. I think I got one of the first Chinese Dots to land in Australia, all the others I'd seen before had been Korean. At first I was concerned, but then I figured they'd be pretty careful with the specs because it's a big company with a reputation to protect (you reading this, Exxon?). Why should I think the Chinese sweat shoppers should be more inept than the Korean sweat shoppers? I shouldn't. Epiphone, I never want to find out to run sweat shops, orright mate?
Do a speed read of the other posts for the features of the Epi Dot, though I should confess mine came with set of BB King trousers, which I now use as a sleeping bag.

I only play blues with the Dot. I'm in a working blues band and all my guitars get a thorough workout. I was happily wanging away on a '95 US Tele when I picked up a mate's Dot one day and diddled away an afternoon. I'd never really played with humbuckers before and decided I had to change tack. I haven't regretted it, and the Dot fits my bill perfectly. The other guitarist in the band now uses my old Tele on stage, so I need not weep about that poor blonde child feeling inadequate and hating me.
I run it through an old Twin that looks like it's been dragged by a goat through the bush for 20 miles; it's really a spongy old thing and the Dot sounds nice and oily through that. It sure can't cut and slice the way the Tele can (or the Strat, which I use for all my slide stuff), but I don't really want it to. I occasionally step on an old Boss OD2 for some ginger, or a wah to make the women dance better, but other than that it's usually a straight signal which suits me fine.
The sound is the main reason I bought the Dot, the second main reason being the price was within my grasp.

Mouldy coconuts here. I got the Dot a bit cheaper and with the case virtually thrown in because I was dicked around a fair bit by the retailer. The Dot had arrived from Asia, presumably, in need of a good rest and a visit to the chiropractor and this clearly had not been done. I'm not scared of doing set ups myself, but I don't expect to if I'm buying a brand new guitar. In short, the neck was twisted like an old guy's wanger and the neck pup would not communicate with the rest of the guitar. This was all fixed once I'd left the shop for the last time (with a frown but with a few extra pesos in the pocket thanks to the crappo service), and other than that I've had no real dramas. I've since spent about $100 on getting the tuners replaced with some GTs (factory ones a little sloppy for mine) because I'm a fairly physical player and where we play it's always hot and humid.
That reminds me to say that if you sweat a lot (I do), the cherry finish will really show the tracks of those salty rivers winding on down to the bridge. It's worse under stage lights, which is what makes me sweat in the first place, because you can really see where my arm's been smudging all the . Sorry, I'm not going to elaborate on this.

I've played the Dot in well and truly and it's already picked up some good dings from collisions with the mike stand, some cymbals and some blues fans with granite heads (we play on some small stages here). It's been reliable and now stays pretty much in tune most of the time. I've had no dramas with the selector, and I think some of you other people didn't make the right animal sacrifices before you bought the guitar, or you'd have no worries.
Really, I've got a choice of other guitars - '69 Strat and a the Tele - which are much tougher but I choose to use this one because I like the sound of it right now. Guitars are tools and they get a bit knocked about - especially in some of the pubs I play in - and this one was good value and still is. If it stays in good playing condition, I don't see why I can't keep playing it. I recommend always having a backup wife; don't worry about the guitars so much.

The original set up problems were handled by the retail guys, as they should have been. Australia may as well be in outer space when it comes to getting any attention from multinational monsters, unless they want to mine our uranium, so I don't expect to have Mr and Mrs Epiphone round for a beer and a game of cards any time soon. The Dot is cheap enough for me to feel comfy doing my own mods anyway and if the sander or drill goes a bit crooked and gouges a channel somewhere, well that's sad but so long as it plays well I'm happy as a pig squelching around in its own mischief.

I've been playing for about 25 years. All my gear is bought for the road, and the Dot is the first "cheap" guitar I've owned, and I continue to be impressed. I haven't got time to do AB tests or comparisons with other Gibsons or Epis or anything like that. It just sounds good to me and I certainly haven't noticed any punters taking a dive for the exit because the sound is horrible. On the contrary, I think the Epi delivers a very warm and human tone. On top of that, it's a very *physical* guitar - big and heavy in your arms so it feels like you're flinging a woman around up there. I like that sensation and it pulls tone out of me, I'm tellin' ya.

This is a Cherry finish Dot from 2003. All the usual features.

This guitar sounds VERY Good.
Let me give you some backround on myself and on my feeling on this guitar.
For a number of years I played Bass Professionally. I recorded for RCA Records in the early 70's and played thru out the country. First of all, I have to get this off my chest.....I ALWAYS laugh whenever I read you idiots on this site say.....
"never gig without a backup"......
Let me tell you, I NEVER had a "Backup" nor did either of the 2 guitarists in my band EVER have "backups". On a rare occassion one of them might break a string (which I never did on the Bass), BUT SO WHAT! Just play around it and change the string later. What, is the neck going to fall off???? But I digress.....
I own a Dot, as well as several other guitars, my good friend owns a number of guitars too. The other night we did a little comparison using some of the guitars we own and a Marshall AVT 20 amp. The guitars were:
PRS Custom 24 Brazillian, Gibson Les Paul Supreme, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Music Man Axis, Gibson Les Paul DC Standard, Fender 50th Anniversary Strat and a Godin LG SP90. A pretty good selection I would think.
Now all these guitars sound and play differently, BUT you know what, this Epiphone Dot really held it's own. I'm not saying it's better than any of these other instruments, but it really does sound good.It was NOT embarassed by any of these other guitars.
Once again, I have to laugh at those who say the pickups on the Dot ar "shit". I can only surmise that people who feel that way do not have a f'ing clue!
The Dot is a budget instrument and while it does actually look and play pretty well, it's certainly no PRS or Gibson, but then again it doesn't cost $2000 plus either.

Looks Good and the neck feels nice

I'd use most ANYTHING without an F'ING BACKUP!
And stop using the word "GIG", you sound like a complete IDIOT saying "Gig", that's another thing we never did back in the day and we ALWAYS LAUGHED at anyone who used that term.

A very nice inexpensive guitar, well worth your time and money

Classic ES-335 body shape with longer vintage Epiphone headstock. Very cool... Mine is the natural finish, which wasn't what I set out to buy, but I'm glad I did. A friend of mine has an old Casino (identical body/finish) which has aged beautifully, despite the bulletproof lacquer. Standard Grover tuners (big plus for me), 22 fret (small) neck, nice medium chunky feel to it, fairly crappy hard case thrown in.

Well, like so many of the people who buy these things, I love the vibe of the ES-335 but don't have that kind of money to spend on yet another guitar. The Dot is well constructed, sounds great acoustically and.... completely sucks when plugged in. I play a lot of different stuff, but mainly blues and jazz. There are some fairly good jazz tones to be had, but the p'ups are oh so WEAK!! I play through a Laney Class A with THD hotplate and BOSS compressor, and can get some awesome sounds out of my Strat (SCN p'ups) and old Les Paul Custom, and I guess in comparison to those, this was always going to lose out. So.... a matched pair of Bare Knuckle Crawlers have, after much cursing and swearing, replaced the laughably named Epiphone Classic '57s, and now this guitar really screams. You can get what you want out of her, I've even got some vaguely Strat-esque quack things going on with the coil splits! But with the output tubes just nudging into break-up, both humbuckers selected and a little tone rolled off, it is the sweetest sound you have ever heard. OK, so the BK p'ups if new would be almost worth as much as the Dot, but for my outlay of around #425 it's a steal! If you have a Dot get the Bare Knuckles! 11 with the new p'ups, 6 without.

The body is great, no issues at all. The action was a little high, but no problem to drop it slightly. The neck is straight and feels good, except for two things - first there is some kind of stain, presumably to make it look like a dark rosewood; this comes off onto your fingers every time you play. I guess it will wear off eventually. Second, the grain of the fingerboard is a little rough and scratchy. One of my many poor techniques is the way I sometimes play vibrato moving just my finger rather than from the wrist as you're supposed to - this means that my nail scrapes across the fingerboard, and on this guitar it snags on the rough surface. Which doesn't feel good. OK, my fault for the stupid way I play, but I haven't ever come across this problem on any other guitar I've played. Anyway, it's smoothing off already, so not a big deal. Other than that, beautiful. Makes my hugely more expensive Gibson look like crap in comparison.

I will use it live, no worries. The headstock/neck join looks a little fragile though - I wouldn't want to put that to the test. The great thing about it is that if it breaks, just whip out the p'ups and start again.

dunno, too soon to say.

Overall rating, for the money, has to be 10. Even if it came without any p'ups at all it is still good value. We'll see if the rest of the electrics are as unreliable as others claim. So far so good... I'm in love with this baby - if I could only keep one of my three electrics, this would be it. I guess the Bare Knuckles would sound great in most guitars, but the quality of construction of the Dot coupled with the sounds I can now get and the fabulous vibe means that I won't be saving up for an ES-335 any time soon. Now where's that Larry Carlton tab...

2003 ebony with chrome 2nd

This thing sounds great. Lots of midrange, which I like, usually play the neck pup, which has a nice mellow tone. The other guitarist I play with likes the middle position, and is constantly begging me to bring it to practice(he puts down his Les Paul Custom for this).

This was a second. Neck pickup was on backwards, I don't know how they could even do that because it was hitting the strings, easy enough to fix. There is a small drip in the paint on the back, virtually unnoticable. Wood showing through around f hole. With about an hour of work it was usable.

This seems well put together, although I haven't seen anyone mention the lack of kerfing inside the body, I am worried about that. Hardware is presumably second rate and I would expect to have a problem with the selector switch. My strap buttons have not come loose! I'd say this would be fine for gigs with a backup.

don't know although I will keep stock so if ......

This is a way cool guitar with the right sound, It is well worth the money. I've played for 30 yrs although a lot of bass lately. I have a 73 fender telecaster deluxe that I'm saving now as collectable. A homemade walnut tele thinline with squier neck. A couple of basses and acoustics.
If it were stolen I'd buy another just like it! I wish it had neck binding.

I've always wanted a Gibson ES-355 or -335, but since I don't have 2-3,000 bucks, I settled for an Epi. I bought this in mid-2004 brand new, so I assume it was made in 2004. It was built in Korea, and is the standard Epi Dot, 2 stock humbuckers, 4 knobs, pikcup selector, etc. Mine is in a cherry red finish with body binding that is really nice...you can really see the grain of the wood through the finish. Mine came standard with the Tune-O-Matic bridge and stop bar tailpiece, which I have since replaced with a Bigsby...this guitar looks HOT! It did NOT come with a case, which pissed me off, although I was able to buy the proper Epi hardshell case for 50 bucks.

I've been playing guitar for 15 years and have veered from playing Zeppelin/Who/Cream/Hendrix style hard rock towards more textured playing in the vein of the Beatles/Blur/Suede/Radiohead/etc, although I play both styles still constantly. I got this guitar because I'm already maxed out on solid bodys (USA Strat, USA '52 Tele, Gibson Les Paul Standard, Gibson SG) and I was craving that Bernard Butler sound and saw he plays Gibson ES-355's and 335's almost exclusively. This guitar doesn't sound just like it's Gibson cousin, but it comes damn close. I string all my guitars with Rotosound strings, and I play through a Vox AC30 or a VOX Pathfinder with a Vox Wah-Wah, MXR Stereo Chorus, Ibanzez TS-9, Dunlop TS-1, DUnlop Univibe, MXR Blue Box, and an MXR dyna-comp. I can get that rich, full, "tubey" sound I want from the Butler/Suede albums all the way to nasty late-60's tones and everything in between. I've found as long as I'm willing to fiddle with the amp, efects, and the tone and volume on the axe, I can get almost anything I want....a total bargain for the buck!

The guitar came set up with the action too low with lots of fret-buzz, but tat was easy enough to fix. The pickups seemed alright and the details that are usually lacking in lower-end axes (fret height, etc) were all done well. The binding also contained minimal showing of the cherry finish, certainly a lot less than I've seen on other Epis. The input jack is perpetually loose, and the pickup selector is kind of cruddy, but overall for the money, it ain't bad.

I'm pretty sure this guitar will withstand live playing, although I'm a pretty aggressive onstage guitarist, I certainly take care of my axes.The hardware and finish seem fine. The strap buttons are fine so far, althouh I've seen on here they have a tendency to loosen up prettyy easily. I never use ANY guitar at a gig without a back-up...even a 2000 dollar Les Paul breaks strings....however, I would use this without hesitiation.

N/A, although I know I am no longer under warranty since I slapped the Bigsby on this guitar.

I've been playing for 15 years, as I said above, and mentioned all of my gear previously. This axe stands up there with everything else I own...it's quality and sounds great. I would definitely replace this if need be. My next two purchases will be Rickenbackers, a 360 and a 360/12, and I know I'll still pull this axe out for that creamy semi-hollow sound, especially for soloing.