On 2008-11-09, Convict rated this Epiphone Dot Archtop a 3...(13006)
History: I've only been playing guitar for a bout 5 years now. I got into it after seeing Green Day live. I'm in a band now, and we do some punk copies, but also write our own stuff.
Purchase: I actually found this guitar on ebay. It was used and a few years old, but I only paid $280 or something close to that. Can't remember exactly. I've always been looking for a semi-hollow to add to my collection and I've always been a fan of the look of these Epi's and I've always heard they have some cool tones.
Pros: I like the sustain I get from the semi-hollow body. The three way switching is a nice feature and basically lets you go from the front humbuckers, to both mixed, to the back humbucker so you get sort of a chorusy mellow tone from the front and a nice lead type cutting tone from the back. I like the look of the guitar and the neck is real comfortable to play. It's nice and wide and helps me finger chords a lot more easily because of my fat fingers.
Cons: I've been having a little bit of a challenge keeping the G (3rd) string in tune. I don't know if it's the nut or the bridge, but it seems to go sharp a lot. I don't know if this is a problem with all of these guitars or just this one, or if it's something that I did to it, but just wanted to throw that out there for you to chew on. It's probably nothing, and I should probably just take it to a guitar store to have it checked out. I also don't like how the cord jack is on the face of the guitar, although I'm guessing they're all like this by design. I've pulled the cord out a few times accidentally.
Quality: Construction is decent. It's an Epi so it has a nice balance of cost versus quality. The fit and finish are pretty good and probably only a trained eye could tell the difference between one of these models made overseas and ones produced here in the U.S.
Review Summary: Overall, for the price I paid, I think it's a really sweet 6 string. It's not the best quality, not the worst, and it does have a few issues that bug me, but overall not bad. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a backup axe or a semi-hollowbody that they need for a specific purpose, song, or recording project.
