Epiphone Dot
Welcome back to my ever-so-occasional blogging here. The occasion is that I just picked up a new Epiphone Dot—the low-cost knock-off of a Gibson ES-335. Natural finish, mine looks just like the one on the Epi website. It cost a little over $400 CDN.
I've been wanting one of these for a while, as this kind of guitar is kind of the other end of the spectrum from my Strat (which I have been playing, and loving, ever since I got its pickups sorted out). The 335/Dot-style of guitar is a lot more about wood and air, whereas a Strat is a lot about copper wire and springs. I read a lot of reviews online, and the general consensus is that this is a great value... the Dot delivers a good deal of the value in an otherwise very overpriced Gibson 335 (circa $2400).
And indeed, my new guitar is beautiful, well made, and the fit and action are exceptional. Unplugged, it rings beautifully. I have been enjoying playing it unplugged!
Plugged in, however, is another story. You have to work hard to get this much guitar to retail for a less than five hundred bucks, and clearly, Epiphone has cut some corners with the electronics. This thing sounds like mud through my `62 tweed Champ. I read various forums online, and spent a while tweaking the pickup height—even the polepieces themselves—and while it made some improvement, it's still pretty underwhelming.
I reminded myself that I went through this with my HSS Strat; it was a lower-end model (though it cost a fair bit more than the Dot), and the pickups were the weak link. It took me loads of experimentation before I got both the singles and the humbucker where I wanted them. At $400, the Dot is likely going to need some attention in this department too.
My theory is that lower-end guitars are marketed largely on what they look like and how they feel in your hands. So it makes sense for a manufacturer to spend lots of time getting the guitar to look good in the store, and to play well when you take it off the hanger and strum a few chords. Plugging it into an amp happens much more rarely, and when it does... how many times does anyone really A/B test guitars before buying one? So cheap pickups and electronics don't particularly hurt a guitar's sales.
When I got the Seymour Duncan '59 into my Strat and wired up properly, the thing that impressed me immediately what the huge increase in dynamic range. The guitar was so much more touch sensitive, and there was a ton more harmonic richness; I could hear—and play with—every scratch and pick movement. That's what the stock Epiphone pickups are lacking; they sound blunt and flat. I can adjust my playing to try to get more dynamics from it, but when I go back to my Strat, I'm immediately struck by how much more expression I get from my picking.
So, new pickups and pots are on order. The job of swapping the electronics out of a hollowbody is a bit daunting (it involves picking the bits out through the f-holes, as far as I can tell), but what the heck? If I can make the Dot sound as nice as it plays and looks, I will have achieved something. Stay tuned.
I've been wanting one of these for a while, as this kind of guitar is kind of the other end of the spectrum from my Strat (which I have been playing, and loving, ever since I got its pickups sorted out). The 335/Dot-style of guitar is a lot more about wood and air, whereas a Strat is a lot about copper wire and springs. I read a lot of reviews online, and the general consensus is that this is a great value... the Dot delivers a good deal of the value in an otherwise very overpriced Gibson 335 (circa $2400).
And indeed, my new guitar is beautiful, well made, and the fit and action are exceptional. Unplugged, it rings beautifully. I have been enjoying playing it unplugged!
Plugged in, however, is another story. You have to work hard to get this much guitar to retail for a less than five hundred bucks, and clearly, Epiphone has cut some corners with the electronics. This thing sounds like mud through my `62 tweed Champ. I read various forums online, and spent a while tweaking the pickup height—even the polepieces themselves—and while it made some improvement, it's still pretty underwhelming.
I reminded myself that I went through this with my HSS Strat; it was a lower-end model (though it cost a fair bit more than the Dot), and the pickups were the weak link. It took me loads of experimentation before I got both the singles and the humbucker where I wanted them. At $400, the Dot is likely going to need some attention in this department too.
My theory is that lower-end guitars are marketed largely on what they look like and how they feel in your hands. So it makes sense for a manufacturer to spend lots of time getting the guitar to look good in the store, and to play well when you take it off the hanger and strum a few chords. Plugging it into an amp happens much more rarely, and when it does... how many times does anyone really A/B test guitars before buying one? So cheap pickups and electronics don't particularly hurt a guitar's sales.
When I got the Seymour Duncan '59 into my Strat and wired up properly, the thing that impressed me immediately what the huge increase in dynamic range. The guitar was so much more touch sensitive, and there was a ton more harmonic richness; I could hear—and play with—every scratch and pick movement. That's what the stock Epiphone pickups are lacking; they sound blunt and flat. I can adjust my playing to try to get more dynamics from it, but when I go back to my Strat, I'm immediately struck by how much more expression I get from my picking.
So, new pickups and pots are on order. The job of swapping the electronics out of a hollowbody is a bit daunting (it involves picking the bits out through the f-holes, as far as I can tell), but what the heck? If I can make the Dot sound as nice as it plays and looks, I will have achieved something. Stay tuned.
posted by jmax at
4:21 PM
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