Cheap OD Addiction

I have a problem with buying cheap ODs. I have a drawer full of them. Actually like 2 drawers full of them. 2 drawers with like 40 pedals each.

Suddenly I feel like I need to qualify that last statement. I also have my “good” OD pedals too. In fact, I currently have 2 boards built. One is my mini board and one is the more full board. The mini board has a Wampler Germanium on it. The bigger board has my Klon KTR on it. Also, no, I bought them both brand spankin’ new, so those two cost me regular retail and not the insane used-market prices. The other pedals on both boards are a good mix of pedals like those and cheap pedals. For instance, the compressor that I run on that board that has the KTR is one of the red Behringer pedals because that’s the one that I like.

But the cheap ODs. They started off in a couple of ways. First, I have a tendency to get on a kick with a pedal and try to buy a bunch of copies of it to see if they are good copies or not. For instance, I never got a real TS808. I have a TS9 and a TS Mini, but no 808. However, I have been through probably 20 TS-type pedals. I currently have probably 10 or 12 over there. Klons, same thing. When the EHX Soul Food hit and everybody started releasing their own K-type, I probably had 12 or 15 at one time.

In fact, my most recent pedal kick has been the Bluesbreaker type pedals. Just over the weekend I added that new EHX Spruce Goose to my watchlist on Reverb. Put in a couple of offers on a couple, but they were shot down. And I refuse to buy a used pedal at only 25% off the new price. To me, that’s just insane. My offers were right about 40% off the new price. Add in shipping, and that’s still more than I want to pay, but it’s a LOT better than 20% off plus shipping, which gets it back into new pedal pricing. But I digress.

Which brings me to the second reason I have so many. I was on an afford-a-board kick for a while. I wanted to see just how cheaply I could put together a board for a little dinero as I could. So I was trying ALL the cheap pedals (not just the drives). And some power supplies. Heck, at one point, I had a looper on my board that cost me $100. It cost more than the other 5 pedals I had on that board combined.

Buying all the cheap ODs that I’ve gotten, I’ve gotten some real dogs. And some real gems.

Many of the bad ones I remember being bad, but I don’t remember what they were exactly. Should I rephrase that. There is a point where, if the pedal is so bad, I will definitely remember it. However, if the pedal doesn’t cross that line of being just terrible, it tends to just fade into the group above it which are the not really good, not really bad, but it’s not something I’m going to keep. That’s where a lot of them fall.

Here are a couple of the most terrible ones. Also, I’ll link these on Amazon just for reference. They’re not affiliate links, so I get nothing if you click on them and try them.

The Caline Pegasus. I never got rid of this one. I still have it just because of the artwork on it. It’s a half-Pegasus, half-centaur playing an electric guitar. Imho, the graphic is so over the top that I’ll keep the pedal. The pedal, however, sounded like a can of angry bees. I didn’t get a bad pedal. I’m sure of that. It was just a bad sounding pedal.

The Nux Horseman. I actually pre-ordered this pedal, and I was super excited when I finally got it. But it was just so underwhelming. It didn’t sound bad, but it didn’t sound good. It just sounded like an OD. It has a feature in it that allows you to switch between the gold-Klon and silver-Klon sounds. There was a definitely a difference. The silver sound (I think) was a harsher drive sound than the gold sound. I just couldn’t get a sound dialed in that I liked. It may’ve been a good klone. Maybe I just didn’t give it enough chance because, overall, I am a fan of Nux pedals. Just this one didn’t do anything for me.

And here are a few standouts.

The Nux Ace of Tone. See? Fan of Nux. This is a two-sided pedal. One side is their Morning Star. It’s a Bluesbreaker. The other side is their Tube Man. It’s a TS-type. If I needed a one shot drive pedal to fit anything and everything, this might be the one that I grab. Turn the Shine feature on for the BB side to throw a little extra high into the tone, and I totally dig this pedal.

The Tone City Durple. This is the Danish Pete pedal that Andertons/Tone City does. I actually run this pedal on my small board in the place of a TS-type. It’s a little different from a TS pedal. Truth is, I think it’s based on the Kalamazoo Love pedal, which, oddly enough I have one of, but I’ve never tried them side by side by side. I dig this pedal.

The Amumu Hot Summer Overdrive. I don’t really know what camp to put this pedal. It’s an overdrive, but I can’t really put into any of the big OD-types. From that perspective, I’d almost compare it to my Thorpy Gunshot (which is definitely NOT a cheap OD) because it doesn’t really sound like anything else. I don’t run it on either of my boards, but it’s a fun pedal to play with. Turn the comp switch to compcut, raise the level, gain and tone at about noon, and this pedal is a heck of a good time.

The Donner Dark Mouse. All I’ll say about this one is that, when I reach for a RAT pedal, this is the one I grab.

And, finally, I’ll mention the DemonFX DualGun. But I’m not linking it because I still have a bit of a crisis of conscience about this brand. For instance, from all I can tell, all the way down to the way the pedal looks, this pedal isn’t just a copy of, but it’s a direct rip off of the older version of the King Tone The Duelist (which I will link). I bought the pedal DemonFX on a whim, and I have been amazed at how it sounds. It’s another BB-type/TS-type pedal like the Ace of Tone. I’ve since picked up a couple of other DemonFX pedals (that also appear to be direct rip-offs of more expensive pedals), and they all sound really, really good. Makes me really want to buy the originals of what they are because they are such good sounding pedals.

Those are a few of the standouts. I’ve got all kinds. Caline, Amumu, Mooer, Flamma, Tom’sline, Amazon Basics, Behringer, Donner, Shark Chili, KLIQ… The list goes on. If I see a cheap pedal on Amazon, especially if it’s an OD, I’ll probably grab it and try it out. With the exception of the NUX pedals I’ve listed above (and that Thorpy), I don’t think I paid more than $50 for any of the ones that I call cheap pedals.

I’m trying to quit. Really I am. But it’s just fun to grab a pedal or two and throw them on the floor and see what kind of sounds I can get out of them. Thinking of that, it’s also time to either put a few up on Reverb or throw them in a box and carry them into the local GC and see what I can get for them.

My New Epiphone ES-355 – After 6 Weeks with It

I’ve had that Epiphone 1959 ES-355 for about 6 weeks now. In fact, I think it was an even 6 weeks yesterday. I think that’s plenty of time to get past the honeymoon period with it and be a little more objective about what I do and don’t like about it. So here’s my 6-week roundup of that guitar.

It’s that 335 size, so it’s a big guitar. Not a deep guitar, it’s just a long way across that bottom bout on the body. I know I’ve always heard folks complain about that about a 335-style, but that’s not something that has ever really bothered me. Maybe because I played only acoustics for so long and, by the time you get your arm around one of those, this doesn’t seem so bad.

Fit and finish out of the box wasn’t too bad at all. I think I tweaked the neck slightly to get it like I wanted. There are a couple of rough spots in the wood that you can feel through the finish. Nothing that was really bad. You can just feel a little roughness in the wood…it’s not smooth. There are couple of spots right at the neck where the red stain bleeds onto the binding, but it’s not really anything you’re going to see unless you’re looking for it.

It has that satin finish. I kind of like it. Back when Gibson was making those 335s with the satin finish, I had always said I wanted one. Long about 2016 I couldn’t find one anymore, so I ended up getting one that was wine red with black binding. It was an ok guitar, but, for what I spent to get it, I didn’t want it to be just ok. So I traded it in during the great gear purge of 2020. I like this one. You can see the wood grain through it a bit, especially on the back. I’ve got a satin Strat that, from playing it a bunch, the satin has kind of polished out to become a little glossy in a couple spots. I imagine that this guitar will eventually do the same thing.

Still not a fan of the gold hardware. This is the second guitar I have with gold stuff on it. The other is my 1962 50th Anniversary Sheraton. Not a fan of gold on it either. Both of these guitars come with gold. So they have gold. So be it. I don’t think it makes it look better.

That said, I have left the tortoise shell or whatever color it is pickguard on the 355. I think it helps the look of the gold hardware.

I dig the inlays on the guitar. In my head a Strat and Tele should have dot inlays. Guitars from Epiphone and Gibson are a little fancier in style, so they should have something other than dots. I know that doesn’t make a lick of sense, and I’ve got Fenders that don’t have dots and other Epiphones and Gibsons that do. But I really like the look of the big block inlay on the 355 and whatever the design is on the headstock.

I’ll also mention the binding. The only other guitar that I have that has 7-layer binding is that 1962 50th Anniversary Sheraton. I think it looks really good on that guitar, and I think it looks really good on this one.

Still a big fan of the 50s neck. Big fan. Huge fan. It’s probably 80% of the reason I wanted the guitar, and it has not disappointed.

Don’t really care about the Gibson-style headstock. That’s not to say that I don’t like it. It’s to say that I don’t care. It’s not great. It’s not bad. My opinion about it is kind of “whatever.” I never have been a fan of the that tall, thin Epiphone headstock that Epi has used in the past, but I really liked the new Gibson-inspired headstock that Epi started using a few years ago. It was kind of a nice middle ground between what Epiphone had been using and what Gibson used.

The pickups. Now the pickups I am a fan of. They’re supposed to be those Gibson Custombuckers. I don’t really know what that means other than they were going in some of the really nice Gibsons, and they are the latest iteration of the PAF-style pickups. But what does PAF really mean anymore? Everyone seems to sell a PAF-style pickup these days, and some of them sound wildly different. Heck, I’ve got Burstbuckers in a couple guitars and 57 Classics in a couple others. Those are probably the current most popular PAFs that Gibson, and I hear a difference in them. They’re not the same. Granted, I am pretty sure that I probably couldn’t tell the difference in them in the wild, sitting in the quiet the my little music room, I hear a difference all day long. I have become a big fan of the Burstbucker 1 that is in my Les Paul. It’s just super smooth.

I don’t know if the ones in the 355 are actually Custombuckers or not. I’ve not yet pulled them out of the guitar to look. But, again, sitting in the quiet of my music room, these pickups are my new favorites. They take the Burstbuckers and 57s that I’ve got in other guitars to a whole new level. I was actually sitting here playing it earlier today, and I the thought went through my head that I really liked the way they sounded. Granted, you put some drive and grit on them, and you lose that signature semi-hollow/335 sound. But playing it clean, those pickups sound. so. good.

The guitar cost more than double what I paid for most of my Epiphones, and it was 50% more than my most expensive Epi. However, they say the pickups in it are those Custombuckers. Those apparently go for $500 a pair. By comparison, a brand new set of Probuckers will cost you $120. So nearly a $400 difference in the pickups. It also comes with a case. A typical Epi hard case will retail for I think $130. Just those two items alone make a difference of about $500 give or take. Subtract that out, and it puts it in the range of some of the more expensive regular runs Epiphones these days. Is it worth that $500 bucks? Now that’s a subjective question if I’ve ever heard one.

So here’s my 6-week verdict on my new Epiphone IGC1959 ES-355. I dig it. Like, really dig it. It has been the guitar I grab ever since I brought it home. I don’t see it seeing the inside of its case for a while yet. I compare it to that Gibson 335 that I had for a while, and this is easily the better instrument. Granted, I think that Gibby was a Friday afternoon guitar. But this Epi is better. It feels better, it plays better, and I like it better. The neck is perfect, and it sounds super nice to my ear. I think I can objectively say that it’s a great guitar. Would I buy it again? Absolutely!

A gold top Epiphone Standard 50s Les Paul on the left and a cherry red Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom 1959 ES-355 on the right.

I Like Big Necks

I recently changed jobs. Same company, but going back to a little more technical role than I’ve had the last few years. I mentioned a few weeks ago that there was a new guitar out that I wanted and gave several of the reasons I wanted it. Mrs Snarf told me maybe I needed a “happy new job guitar.” That was all the excuse I needed.

The guitar has recently come out, and, for a few weeks, it was pretty impossible to find one. Then for a few more it was impossible to find locally. Then I noticed that no other local shop had them (not even GC), but the one just up the street from the office somehow had a couple of them. So the first day of the new job, I headed over there to test drive one.

I walked in and mentioned to the sales person what I was looking for, and he took me straight over to it, pulled it off the wall, and handed it to me. As soon as I put my hand around the neck of it, I knew I wanted one. The one on the wall wasn’t the color I wanted, so he had to go to the back and get another one. He brought it back out, and it was still in the box, unopened. So he opened that one up and handed the new one in the right color to me. Not only did it feel just like the first one, but the color was even nicer than I thought it was going to be. So I bought it.

It’s one of those Epiphone 1959 ES-355 guitars in red. I’ve been digging it, and it’s pretty much the only guitar I’ve played since then.

To me, there were two big selling points. I’ve really wanted to try those Gibson Custombuckers without spending $500, and I really like the neck that’s on my Epi 50s Standard LP. This 355 is advertised to have those pickups and that same neck.

Full disclosure here. I’m not actually sure what the differences in a 335 and a 355 are. I know the 355 is supposed to be a fancier 335, and this one is fancier than any 335 I’ve owned. However, I’ve seen 335s that I thought were just as fancy as this one. So I’m not really sure what makes this one stand out from the 335 line. Looking at it, it has fancy binding, big block inlays, that fancy headstock inlay, and gold hardware. Maybe all that together is what does it. I, honestly, don’t know.

I’ve always wanted a 335 with block inlays. The fancy headstock inlay I wasn’t as concerned about, but I always thought it would be cool to get a block 335. Another selling point is that the inlays on this one are actual mother of pearl and not pearloid like they put in so many of their guitars these days. They say it has an ebony fingerboard instead of laurel or some of the other wood they use these days. On this guitar, they also put the Gibson headstock. I didn’t really care about that. Now I never have been a big fan of that tall skinny Epi headstock, but I like the one they started putting on their guitars a few years ago. And I’ve never been a fan of gold hardware. But underneath that gold hardware, they say they have Gibson Custombuckers, and, even though I hadn’t heard those that I knew of, I liked the idea of them. Spoiler, I don’t know that I could tell them apart from a pair of Burstbuckers or 57 Classics, but, to my ear, they sound really, really good.

Probably 90% of the reason that I bought this guitar, especially as quickly as I did, is because of the neck on it.

I bought my 50s Standard LP on a whim. I had tried a couple of other LPs, and didn’t really gel with them. They were too heavy. They never really sounded like I thought they should. And they always seemed just a little small. But I had always wanted a gold top. Purged a bunch of gear in 2020, and then I saw AMS had a blem Epi 50s Standard gold top for a ridiculous price. So I bought it just to say I had a gold top. It came in, and I was initially surprised to not be able to tell why it was a blem (I still have no idea why – maybe it was a return). Then I picked it up to play it. The neck felt better than any neck on any guitar I had ever played. This purchased-on-a-whim guitar suddenly became the one I played more than anything because of that neck. And it had remained so ever since.

So when I saw that this ES-355 was advertised as having that same neck, I had to try one. The day that I saw that guitar shop had one in stock, I called them up and asked the sales person on the phone if he could put his hands on an Epi 50s LP and the 355 and tell me if the neck felt the same. He came back to the phone and said that, if they weren’t the same, they were at least very, very similar. That’s when I decided to head down and check one out. And sure enough, when I picked that first one up, I knew immediately that it was going to have to go home with me because of that neck.

The neck isn’t one of the baseball bat necks. I’ve got an acoustic with one of those, and my hand gets tired playing it after a while. It’s just sooooo huge. But then it’s also not your typical modern neck that is relatively thing and optimized for fast playing. It sits somewhere in the middle. It’s a nice handful. It gives you plenty to grab on to when you’re playing. In my opinion, it’s the perfect guitar neck. If I ever have a guitar built for me, I will be giving the luthier either the LP or this new 355 and tell them to copy that neck.

I’ve now had it 3 weeks. Since I bought it, I’ve had 3 guitars out on the wall. That Epi 50s Standard LP, my Gibson CS ES-339, and now this Epi ES-355. And, as I’m sitting here typing this out and seeing it hanging on the wall over there, I’m thinking that, if that 339 had this neck, it would be the perfect guitar.

Reverb Jackwagons

Now I know I’ve been guilty of this too, but, as soon as I realize I am, I stop. And, I try to be honest with myself from the beginning about it. Yes, I am talking about the “I know what I’ve got” people.

I was reminded of them today. I was surfing Reverb as I sometimes do. Today, I was actually jumping off the daily alert email I have setup. A piece of gear I have been looking for popped up. So I clicked it. After all, the condition said Very Good, and the price was fair for that piece of gear in that condition. The problem was, when I clicked on it and saw the condition of the item, I was very much underwhelmed.

It’s a speaker cabinet. I’m sure it probably plays fine, but the fact that the seller is calling it in Very Good condition just floors me. According to Reverb, “Very Good items may show a few slight marks or scratches but are fully functional and in overall great shape.” On the other hand, “Good condition includes items that are in find working order, but have significant cosmetic imperfections.”

This speaker cabinet has a big faded spot and a slight rip on the grill where somebody decided to removed the branding. The right side of the cabinet looks good. The back of the cabinet looks good. The left side of the speaker cabinet has torn tolex on one top corner, and looks like 3 good scratches and a rip that looks to be about an inch long. Then the top has two extra holes in it for some reason that look like nail holes, 4 small circular rips in the tolex that looks like where someone had set something on top of it and scratched it, and another rip on one of the front corners that’s big enough you can see wood through it (and actually looks kind of like a burn). Then there’s rust spots all over the handle.

All of that, yet somehow the condition is “Very Good.” Granted, I’m not going to message the seller about the cabinet because I don’t want one that is in that rough shape. I’m not wasting my time or theirs like that. Truth to tell, for the condition that it’s in, what they’re asking + their free shipping brings the cost of the amp down to where it really should be imho because it’s going to cost them $100 to ship the thing. Besides, with the amount of sales they’ve made, if I bought it, I’ve got a feeling that when they realized how much shipping is going to take out of their pocket, they’d cancel the sale anyways.

I’m just hung up on that “Very Good” condition thing. When I sell on Reverb, I try to be honest about the condition of the gear I’m selling. Truth is, I probably err to the side of worse than better. So, if there’s any question if the gear may not be “Very Good” then I tend to call it “Good” because I don’t want someone coming back and saying I lied. From what I understand, Reverb always sides with the buyer, and I don’t want someone buying something and being disappointed in the condition so that they contact Reverb and say it wasn’t as described. I’ve heard horror stories about that and folks getting back a piece of broken gear because the buyer either broke it or didn’t care to pack it back well.

Which brings me back to the “I know what I’ve got” people. They’re the ones that I blame for jacking the price of gear up and causing the overall prices to continue to climb like they have. Used to, you could get some really good deals on used gear. Because of these folks pricing their used gear at new prices, it seems like you really have to work to get a deal. Not too long ago, I used pedal could be gotten pretty easily for 1/2 the price of a new one. Nowadays, folks are pricing them so close to the new that, by the time you add in their shipping, you may as well buy it new because that’s how much you’re spending.

Then there’re the “I know what I’ve got” collectors that do this. By a piece of gear with the sole purpose of flipping it for an inflated price. I’ve bought gear (even some of that gear) thinking that, if I don’t like it, I could always flip it.

Heck, sitting right over there on my pedal board is a Germanium Tumnus from Wampler. I bought it on a whim and was lucky to get one. I wasn’t thinking “I’m going to buy this and turn around and sell it for twice the price.” I bought because I know that I like klones, and this one apparently had some of the magical diodes or capacitors or whatever is in it that none of my others have. So I thought “I’ll get one, and, if I don’t like it, I can always get my money back out of it.” It’s a great pedal! It’s on my board, and probably won’t be coming off anytime soon. I got it to use it if I liked it. I didn’t get with the intention of flipping it and driving prices up. That’s just stupid.

Neeways, I’m just ranting about the general state and prices of used gear. If you sell something, take an objective look at it before you do. Should you really be listing that guitar as Mint Condition when it’s had a questionable headstock repair, 3 tuning pegs have been jankily replaced and don’t match the others, and the jack is still mostly attached to the guitar but it’s half hanging out? Probably not. Also, when you realize it may not be in the condition that you think it is, price it accordingly. That 10 year old Epiphone that’s been beat to heck shouldn’t be priced at a Gibson level just because you replaced the pickups and had it professionally setup 5 years ago. It’s still a beat-up Epiphone.

Objectivity. When you’re selling something, it’s something you need to bring into play.

State of the Board – Today’s Edition

Several years ago I started making an “affordaboard.” Yes, I stole the name from guys like 60 Cycle Hum. What that is is a pedal board that has budget pedals on it. The board I made up had a looper on it that I paid $100 for and it was more expensive than all the rest of the pedals combined. At this point, about all I remember is that all the other pedals were about the cheapest I could find on Amazon or Reverb at the time. In addition to that looper, there was a reverb, a vibe, a D-type drive, a TS-type drive, a BB-type drive, and a tuner. I had 7 mini pedals on the board. I remember that the D-type was the most expensive of the rest of the pedals, and it was $28. And I had them all on a pretty affordable rail-type board that I found on Amazon.

That board morphed and changed as I would see something else cheap that caught my eye. By the time I realized the board had completely changed and was no longer an affordaboard, the only pedals left from that original board were the D-type (because I totally dig it!), the reverb (because, to me, reverb is reverb), and the looper (which really didn’t count as an afforda-pedal).

Neeways, a couple weekends ago I swapped out a couple of the last two affordable pedals for ones that don’t necessarily fit that bill. Here’s what it is now.

I run the guitar into one of those pink Nux Flow tuners. I like the pedal. I got it because it’s pink, and I like pink. It’s pretty easy to see although I’ve never had to use it in bright sun to test it. It seems pretty accurate. It’s a good tuner.

That runs into a Tube Screamer Mini. I use it because it’s not a full size pedal. It has a TS808 sound. I think there’s something slightly different about the sound of a TS9 that I actually like better. But, by and large, a TS pedal sounds like a TS. Put me in a room where a band is playing, and I know I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in the the types.

The next pedal is a Wampler Germanium Tumnus. It’s a klone. I happened to see it on their website the day it was released and get one. Apparently, when they released it, it was an in-demand pedal, and they sold out. The fact that I got one was pretty much an accident. I, also, have a regular Tumnus. When I got it, I tested them side by side, and, honestly, they sound the same to me. The Germanium is on my board though because I got it dialed in and really like how it sounded. So it went on the board.

Behind that one is the only pedal that survived the affordaboard. It’s a Nux Steel Singer, a D-type pedal. When I bought this pedal, I didn’t really think I was going to like it, but I was curious how it would sound when I bought it. I totally dig it! Because of it, I’ve continued to pick up and test D-type pedals. My opinion on them changed because of this pedal, and I really like the ones I have (the Warm Audio Warmdrive is a standout). It’s an always-on pedal for me. I have this one set to some very light drive. I mostly like the way it kind of colors my sound. Best $28 I’ve spent on gear in a long time.

Those three drive pedals go into an MXR Carbon Copy Mini. I’ve got it set for some slapback. I’m not a big user of delay, but, when I do, slapback is usually where I end up. I added it just to kind of round the board out with all the basics.

That delay goes into a Keely Verb o Trem. My #1 fave effect in the world is a good vibe or rotary emulator. I know those two aren’t the same, but they’re about equal in my mind. Other than that D-type, the last pedal from the affordaboard was the reverb. On the opposite end of the board, I had a Lovepedal Pickle Vibe. It was a great sounding vibe! The reason I pulled it off was because I wanted to add the delay, and I didn’t have room to add it without removing it. As an alternative, I pulled the Pickle and the reverb, and added the delay and the Keely. The trem side of the Keely isn’t a vibe, but it gets half way there. And, since it has the reverb on it too, it allowed me to pull two pedals and add three…in a round about sort of way. It, also, isn’t a two-button pedal, so to use one effect and not the other, you have to reach down and turn the side down you don’t want. But it was kind of a compromise that worked for me, so I went with it.

Off the actual board, I swapped from the looper I had been using to a JamMan Stereo. I’ve always been a fan of two-button loopers, and this one is waaaaay ahead of the Boss RC-20xl I had been using for years (but not the one I was using with the affordaboard). The JamMan runs into my amp.

It’s all still on that small rail-type board I got off Amazon just because I really like the mounting system (no velcro or zip ties). Oh – and it’s still powered by whatever the affordable power supply was that I found (a Caline or Donner or something – I don’t remember). I’m not even sure if it’s an isolated power supply, but it has never been noisy at all so I’ve stuck with it.

That’s the state of the board today. Not an affordaboard anymore, but it’s one that hits all the things it needs for my playing.

my board today

My Epiphones and My Gibsons

First, I like my Epiphones. And I like my Gibsons. Or at least I like the ones from both brands that I have now.

Like so many others, my entry into the world of the Les Paul was with an Epiphone. It was a Studio model. It was not a great guitar. At the time, I had 2 other electrics. I had a Strat that I really liked, and I had a Washburn semi-hollow. I had gotten a small bonus at work, and I wanted to try out a Les Paul. The one that I got just happened to be in the budget by the time I split that bonus between me, Mrs Snarf, and the savings account. So I ordered it. I actually wanted another model that the store told me was discontinued, and this Studio model was the other one that I could afford. So I got it.

From the time I pulled it out of the box, I wasn’t a big fan. The neck pickup was really muddy. Like, you-jumped-out-of-the-truck-and-sunk-to-your-knees-in-the-muck-and-the-mire muddy. The bridge was an ok pickup, but it was, to me, still a cheap sounding pickup. I kept it for probably 10 years before I traded it off. I really wanted to like it.

Because of that one, even though I was judging their entire line by their entry level Les Paul, I wasn’t really interested in Epiphones. Then I got an itch for a 335-style guitar. I saw an ad for their 2012 1962 50th Anniversary Edition Sheratons. I really liked the look of it. Sunburst. Fancy inlays. Fancy headstock. Gibson mini-humbuckers. CTS pots and switches. And the Frequensator tail piece looked really cool to me. So I bit.

At the time, it was their top of the line Sheraton. It has been a great guitar. It seems to have a little trouble staying in tune, but I really like it.

Then I got an Epiphone 339. It was a great guitar. Is a great guitar. But I’ll explain the “was” in a bit. It was one that I would occasionally stick in the closet to play other guitars. But whenever I would pull it back out, I would be reminded how much I liked it, and it would be my main player for a while. I really liked that you could get some 335 sounds from it as well as some LP sounds. It was just good playing, good feeling, good sounding guitar. Whenever I would play out and needed an electric, that was the one I grabbed.

Because I still had that 335 itch, a few years after I got that Sheraton, I got a Gibson 335 Studio. It was a good guitar. My biggest problem with it is that, if you tried to get any vibrato on the 1st string, it would fall off the fret board. I liked that guitar. Played it a lot. But got tired of having to remember to avoid shaking the 1st string. That may’ve been something that could’ve been fixed if I had it professionally setup rather doing it myself, but I’ll never know. I ended up trading it off at the same time I traded that Epi LP a few paragraphs above.

When I made that trade, I never really intended to get another LP. That Epi Studio was just so heavy. And the pickups weren’t great. So no more LPs for me. But I had always really liked the look of a gold top LP. Truth is, the first electric guitar I remember seeing (and thought was super cool looking) was when I was a little kid over at a buddy’s house. Sitting in the corner was a gold top LP with P90s and a trapeze tail piece that belonged to his brother. To me, aesthetically, that is one of a few perfect guitars.

I saw a screaming deal on an open box Epiphone 50s Standard LP gold top. It had humbuckers in it instead of P90s. But it was such a good deal that I got it. Figured it would be a closet queen. I played it so much, I eventually swapped the Probucker 1 and 2 pickups out for a pair of Burstbucker 1 and 2 pickups I had sitting on the shelf. It has become the guitar I probably play more than any other.

Because of the 339 and the Sheraton, I had the 335 itch again. I knew that the Gibson I had was a good guitar, but it wasn’t that much better than my Epiphones. So I went to my local Guitar Center and played all the 335 type guitars that I they had. Gibson, Sire, Ibanez, and Epiphone. My search actually came down to the Emily Wolfe Sheraton and an Inspired by Gibson ES-335. I ended up with the 335. It’s been a great guitar. And it has scratched that 335 itch well. Truth is, I swapped the stock pickups out for a pair of 57 Classics I had on the shelf, and keep thinking I need to put the stock ones back in.

Then, because I had been playing that Standard 50s LP more than anything, the 339 had finally gone into the closet for a good while. But as much as I always liked it, I wanted to try a specific Gibson ES-339. I put an alert on Reverb for it and told a couple of local stores that if they got one to call me. Never got a call from the stores. Every few months, my alert would fire off on Reverb, but, by the time I would see it and call the store, it was already gone. Finally saw one and got the store called in time. I finally got my Gibson 339.

At some point, I’ll write about the differences in the two. I used to joke that my Gibson 335 was a Friday afternoon guitar with several little quirks like that high E string that would fall off the side. The ES-339 is the opposite of that 335. .There is nothing wrong with it. It’s the guitar that made me see why folks are willing to pay what they pay for a Gibson. When they are firing on all cylinders, they make some super nice guitars.

And now to the point of all my rambling. Both Epiphone and Gibson make some exceptional guitars. Both also make some dogs. There is a difference in price points in the brands (that now seems to overlap), and, if you get a top of the line from both, you’ll see why. It’s like the difference in a Corvette (a super nice, high-end sports car) and a Ferrari (a super nice, even higher-end sports car). The merits of each can be debated until the cows come home. Is my Gibson ES-339 worth 6x more than the Epiphone ES-339? I don’t know. I can, however, point out some very specific differences in the two, some of which are very subtle, that could justify the higher price. Again, it could be debated, and some of it may be that Gibson-Made-in-the-USA tax.

Either way, they can both be great guitars, and, between the two, you could find something that probably fits your budget.

Why?

Seriously?!? Another blog about guitars and crap?? Well, it’s not completely new. I just changed webhosts and am starting over.

So why another blog about guitars, gear, and whatever other crap I talk about? Mostly to feed my need to write and talk about stuff. Over the years I have found that I really like to write about stuff, and this will let me continue to do that. I really don’t expect this to take off and be read by more than a couple of people, and, when I say a “couple of people” I actually mean me when I write it and me when I read it after it’s posted. That counts as two right?

I’ll post stuff whenever I feel like it. It might be once a week or it might be once a month. Heck, it might even be once a year. The posts will mostly be about guitars and gear, but I might occasionally post something about my other interests like Moab or my little patio garden.

If anyone stumbles upon the blog and happens to actually read it, I hope they enjoy it. I don’t care whether their enjoyment comes from it being smart and informative or they find it the rantings of a crazy person and walk off thinking better of themselves for being the superior person. Either way, I hope it makes them smile, and it’d be nice if they left a comment and let me know they like what I say or think I’m an absolute and total idiot.