How much did you purchase this item for? $413 USD
Where did you purchase this item? The Woodwind and the Brasswind (
link)
Is this item new or used?I purchased this item new
Features: The model that I purchased was made in 1998. Made in Korea like most Epiphones these days. Trapezoid inlays, 22 frets, two humbuckers...pretty much just like its Gibson SG counterpart. Came with a hard case, which was nice.
Construction: I was pleasantly surprised how well finished the neck was. Very straight, never needed to adjust the truss rod. Fret wire came nicely rounded at the edges. The fingerboard came rounded off and well lubed up. The neck had a very soft feel, thus increasing the playability of the guitar.
The neck is set into the body. Epiphone claims this is better than bolt-on because more of the neck comes in contact with the body, thus increasing resonance. Well, if that were honestly the case, I think Gibson would set all of their guitar necks. But I do have to say it was a very nice glue job! No mess, no smearing, very clean.
The body was up to par. Just like its Gibson SG brother. No complaints, other than the strap pin screw in the tail stripped out after about a year of playing. But that's an easy fix, just put in a bigger screw and take a dremmel tool to widen the pin's hole to fit the screw. So no complaints about that.
The bridge came at the right height, though the tailpiece came a hair bit high. But that was an easy fix. So no complaints there.
Now the inside of the guitar where all the electronics are was attrocious. Very messy soldering work, very dusty inside as well. This became a big problem, but I'll discuss this in the reliability section.
Overall I'd have to say that the guitar was either average or just above average for a $400 guitar.
Sound: The sound leaves a lot to be desired. The pickups seemed very muddy through the various rigs that I got the chance to play it through. From what I can remember my G400 had been played through a '94 Fender Blues Deville 2x12 (tube), '99 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 1x12 (tube), '77 EMC 4x8 aluminum cone hybrid (solid state), '72 Peavey Vintage 4x12 (tube), mid 90s Fender Ultrimate Chorus 2x12 (solid state). It also got some play through a Sovtek full stack, Crate half stack, and various other amplified rigs.
Ease of Use: NA
Reliability: This is where I have a lot of complaints -- a LOT of them.
Electronics:
As aforementioned, the soldering job on the electronics was very shoddy. And it doesn't seem that the inside was cleaned very well. Found a lot of sawdust in it. My biggest gripe is with the pickup selector. After just a few months, the pickups started to phase in and out. Especially the bridge pickup. I couldn't figure out what exactly the problem was until I took it into a local guitar shop to have it looked at. We took it apart and concluded that the pickup switch was very poorly put together. Now it's a good thing that the the selector's internals don't have a metal housing, like some do, so that you can clean it if necessary. But the problem is that the inside was left so messy the selector (and the input jack) became almost defective. After finding this out I had to carry a can of contact cleaner and a piece high grit sandpaper with me. The cleaner was to spray on the wiring and the sandpaper was to roughen up the jack contact points. I was glad to find that it was nothing major -- but in the long run it's a real pain because I don't like to have to spray the thing down practically every time I need to play it. Plus the soldering was extremly messy, which also effected the pickup wiring contacts to the switch and possibly caused that muddy sound I got -- at least when the pickups worked.
The nut:
This agrivates me more than any other problems I'd had with the guitar, If it wasn't enough that the pickups and wiring were shoddy. I decided to up the string gauge from my normal .10s to a set of .11s just to see if I would like them better. Unfortunately after about a week, the nut split at the A-string. This is rather infuriating considering the nut on this guitar is supposed to handle up to heavy .12s. .11 gauge string sets are pretty standard. I took it in to a local professional to get a new nut. Total cost of nut, workmanship, and new strings ran me $60. I never had a nut problem after that. The stock nut should be sturdier than what it turned out to be. And I'd hope that it would at least live up to its rating. I don't abuse guitars by any means and I'm not a heavy player. But the nut is integral and it's the highest stress point on the guitar. I'd think that Epiphone would live up to its nut rating, but it didn't. Just a little tweak and I payed the price (a $60 price).
Other:
Although it doesn't really bother me, I do have to say in retrospect that it's a bit disappointing that something so simple as a strap pin screw stripped out. I'm not too hard on a guitar, but one would hope that a the original drill job would be good enough to hold a screw. They build thousands of these a year and it's just a screw, but an important one at that. And furthermore, after examining the screw, I think it should have been a lot longer than it was. The tail strap pin is a heavy abuse point on a guitar, so I'd think that Epiphone would at least put a quality screw in or do a better drill job in order to prevent defects.
This doesn't bother me much, either, but as mentioned before the stop tailpiece was a bit high when I got the guitar. So I had to tweak it myself in order to get a decent amount of tension on the strings. After fearing I may mess something up, I brought it to a professional to be restrung and mentioned the tailpiece needed lowered and he agreed.
The machine heads weren't up to par, but that's to be expected from a cheap guitar.
Overall: To date I have played guitar seriously for 7 years. I've played a lot of Epiphones and Gibsons in my day, and even own a 1975 FT-150BL flat-top acoustic which is amazing. I really like Epiphone products, but was extremely disappointed with the G400. I purchased the guitar in 1999 and sold it in 2002. From so many gripes and problems with it, I'd since stopped using so figured I may try and cut my losses. I got $150 for it, and I wasn't disappointed. If the guitar were stolen, I'd laugh at whomever stole it because if they want it for playing, they're going to be disappointed. They'd be stuck with a bad guitar and I'd collect on the insurance money I'd make off of it (yes, I insure my guitars).
I bought this guitar because I was on a budget and always liked SGs and Epiphone products. I'd played a lot of Gibson SGs and Epi Les Pauls and was very pleased. However, I was highly disappointed with all the problems I had with this guitar. It's important for a solid-body guitar to have decent electronics because it lacks any workable acoustic resonance un-electrified. It's also important to have durable parts (like the nut). It's a small thing, but crucial. I don't think this is too far fetched, but I also expect the little things to be done from even a cheap guitar. Decent screws and drillings, decent soldering jobs, and at least clean around the vitals.
Here's a list of my gripes with the guitar
- bad pickups
- bad soldering
- bad switch
- bad input jack
- bad tail strap pin screw
- bad nut
Now even though the finished parts of the guitar were pleasing (i.e. rounded fretwire, nice neck, etc.), all the intricate and vital parts (most of which are essential for a solid body electric) were shoddy and this is highly disappointing.
This guitar was a pain in the butt and I'm glad to be rid of it. I would only recommend this guitar for those who don't want to spend a lot on a nicely built guitar body and neck, but are willing to dump $200+ to replace all the electronics in it and are willing to keep an extra $50 handy to get the nut replaced if it needs it. Otherwise, I advise that you pass on this guitar and look for something else. I thought I was getting a very good deal on this guitar, but it ended up being more trouble and more expensive than it was worth. I'm not forever going to badmouth Epiphone. But buyer beware --- you get what you pay for.
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