Epiphone PR 775-12

From the abalone(plastic really) inlay around the soundboard and sound hole and fretboard to the flawless finish , this is feature rich guitar! I give it a 9 , only for the lack of a pickup system which would have made it a 10.

I play country/folk/bluegrass and it fits that style very well.
It's a little midrangey for a rosewood drednaught(rates a 9) but with a pickup and an amp , it can be E.Q.ed to perfection!(that's a 10!)

Only 2 items worth mentioning , 1 action is a little high (both expected and easily fixed) and 2 , one of the fretboard inlays was very thin and lifted but a little crazy clue and problem solved.

With the quality of mat. and workmanship I am confident this guitar with proper care will last a lifetime.

No Need ( that should be the norm for a quality guitar

If price was no object and I payed $1500.00 to $2000.00 for this guitar I would rate it a solid 9 , but for this price( I payed $350.00 for it used!) I rate it a 10+

This review concerns an Epiphone PR-775-12 (twelve string) acoustic which I bought new in a popular music store in Oklahoma City. This particular model was discontinued in 1996 and I know the guitar had spent some time in the store, so I'm just guessing it was built in 1994 or 1995. I had gone into the store looking for some volume and tone knobs for another guitar but this 12 string caught my eye. It's a full-size, dreadnaught 12 that has a solid, book-matched, beautiful, close-grained (premium) spruce top, the back and sides are solid, book-matched rosewood of very beautiful grain. The neck is mahogany, with an ebony-veneered head face. The tuning machines are gold-plated, premium Gotoh tuners (which I know cost over $100.00 because I priced some). The fingerboard is premium rosewood with mother-of-pearl and abalone parallelogram inlays (large ones). The neck is also bound in white. Around the soundhole and body binding have mother-of-pearl and abalone mosaic inlays. The guitar was marked with a "discount" pricetag of $209.00. It had been marked down from just under $800.00. I asked the salesman "What's wrong with it? Did a fat lady sit on it?" He replied, "No, we just had a sale this weekend and we went around every hour and discounted random items 70%. That guitar is one of only a few items that survived." So I got the guitar down and REALLY looked it over. I even used an inspection mirror. All the premium construction items were there: Mahogany kerfing, straight-grained spruce bracing, mahogany endblock, etc. The workmanship was top grade all the way. There was not a speck of glue "ooze-out" visible anywhere. It was like looking at a premium Martin guitar. In fact it has ALL the features of a Martin D-45. It uses all the same woods. Yes, the guitar was "assembled" in Korea, but the woods come from the same countries and places that Martin (or any other premium company) get their woods. Mahogany, spruce and rosewood do NOT grow in Korea. And I've found that Asians seem to take more pride in their work than most Americans do anyway. Look at all the most popular cars, cameras and electronics -- all from Asia. So I bought the guitar. When I got it home I removed all the strings, which were dead. I figure this is reason #1 that the guitar didn't sell. I also cleaned it up really well. It had lots of fingerprints on it (but no scratches or blemishes at all). This was reason #2 it didn't sell. Lastly, I removed the bridge saddle (typical plastic of some sort) and carefully sanded down the bottom side of it to lower the string action. I'm very skilled at this and have done it numerous times for myself and for friends. This was the biggest reason why the guitar had not sold. The action was too high, as many "bargain" guitars often come from the factory.
When I strung it up and played it, I was delighted at how truly wonderful it is. By the way, the "Gibson" name is on the truss rod cover. Something Gibson doesn't always do on all Epiphones. I've looked and searched the internet (and written to Epiphone) and haven't seen another guitar like it. I think they made very few of them. I think they realized that they were selling a very expensive guitar for too low a price and that not many people would pay more to get an Epiphone.

I play all the 60s tunes and really like a 12-string. I have 3 12-strings (a Martin, a Rickenbacker 360-12, and this Epiphone). I like acoustic blues and that sounds great on a 12-string. This Epiphone is a 100% professional, world-class guitar. It's just good for almost any type of music. And I used the word "music," so that excludes things like Rap, and grunge.

This guitar needed the bridge saddle "customized" by milling it down a bit. That's "normal." It's like adjusting an electric guitar bridge. The materials are all SOLID WOOD, TOP-GRADE, AND WELL BOOKMATCHED. This guitar rivals a Martin D-45 (except for the price). One way to judge spruce soundboards is to look at the wood grain. It should be arrow-straight and the more grains-per-inch the better. This one is well over 100 grains per inch. It's VERY tight grained. Fit and finish are professional and world-class. The mother-of-pearl and abalone inlays are beautiful and very expensive looking.

This is a solid guitar, made to be tuned to pitch. I take care of my guitars (almost as if they were museum pieces) and I expect to have it all my life. The strap buttons are gold plated (like the tuners).

I've been playing guitar for over 35 years. I'm 54 years old. I've played professionally and also for fun. I've played several times on local television and have played at clubs and for large functions (for as many as 2,000 people). I'm a professional-grade player who could play with any band out there. I love this guitar. I wouldn't sell it for $5,000. It's every bit worth what a Martin D-45 is worth. It's exactly the "same" guitar, except it doesn't have the Martin name on it. And it has a much nicer-designed headstock too !!!
The music store had no idea what they had when they thought they unloaded it on me. It's worth a LOT of money. As I said, the tuning machines are worth over $100.00 retail alone.