On 2005-05-16, that guy from that place... rated this Epiphone Special II a 5...(11030)
Purchase: I bought this guitar at LA music for $200 in mississauga ontario. I mainly bought it for the paint job. Lol I was a begginer then.
Pros: It is nice and low play easy to play perfect for the begginer and it can also play almost anything out there.
Cons: Ummmm the 6th string sometimes hits against the third fret probably just my guitar tho.
Quality: Practically bullet proof and indestructible trust me ive tried. Review Summary: Very good guitar BUY!!!
On 2005-02-05, Mazz rated this Epiphone Special II a 2...(10843)
Purchase: Purchased 5 years ago at Music Junction in Camberwell, Victoria for about AU$450 (for the guitar alone, hard case was extra). I needed a guitar to learn on (as my Dad did not trust me with his guitars) and could not start out on acoustic because of small hands and fingers (although from practice on this one I can now play acoustic).
Pros: It has an awesome tonal quality to it, and it is possible to really rock out with, both in rythm and lead positions. It is really comfortable and light to wear, but takes a lot of getting used to playing it on your lap. This guitar can take a serious lot of knocking about - I have dropped and knocked this guitar on numerous occasions, and only have two very small dints in it. I wouldn't be surprised if you purposely smashed it on the ground and it didn't fall apart. I found this guitar was great for my small hands and fingers, and the fretboard is fantastic, doesn't take much to play, though the neck is fat and quite slow.
Cons: Although I really love this guitar, there are a lot of down sides to it. The pickups seemed to sink back into the guitar body and after that the sound wasn't ever the same, and it was somewhat dampened. The Jack socket was incredibly loose about a week after I got it home, so I tighten that by hand every once in a while (because there is no other way). The tuning is not the greatest out, although mine seems to be a lot better than other Specials out there. I can really thrash the guitar for a good 30 minutes before it needs any form of tuning (and no, I am not tone-deaf). But it can get rather annoying when I have experienced guitars out there that do not need tuning for at least half a week. The strap is set in an awkward position and you really need either quick locks or a screw-in strap to not have your guitar crashing to the ground every five minutes. Originally my strap knobs just kept falling out (hint: stick a matchstick in the hole and then screw it back up - you're just filling up a hole). The plastic on the pickup switch broke almost immediately and when switching between pickups, there is this large echoey sound, which can be heard over an amplification system at times it is so loud. And I have a 60W practice amp! The thing that really made me want to buy a new guitar was because the neck was so slow. No lightning quick solos on this guitar.
Quality: As I said earlier, you could bash this guitar to Mars and it'll come back sparkling. Little bits have fallen to pieces or have stopped working over the years, but it's expected from such a cheap guitar. I would recommend changing the tuners and the pickups for an almost awesome guitar if your an intermediate player. Review Summary: Overall, this guitar is probably the best you can get for a beginner who does not know if they will continue with the instrument. It is cheap, and actually quite durable (despite what was previously said), and is good for what it is. But if you are up to the stage where you are looking for your second guitar, I would not suggest the Epiphone Special II, unless you were buying it for it's open coil humbuckers, because they can sound pretty sweet, even though they are cheap.
On 2004-10-06, Martin Richardson rated this Epiphone Special II a 4...(10254)
Purchase: Christmas was coming around and my good friend(almost like a big brother) had gotten me interested in guitars by letting me borrow one of his and learning on that. the main thing i learned was that i had to have one of my own. it was a custom ibanez rg w/ tremelo, sd pickups, etc. it was good to learn on and taught me what i liked in guitars, i learned to love the humbucker(an invader) in the bridge position, and at the time and musical taste, hate the tremelo. it just got in the way and i didn't need it. so i went looking around at entry level guitars in packages. after countless hours online the Special II had came across my eyes and seemed to fit the bill. i went down to the local Guitar Center and had a look at everything with my dad, and ended up with the Special II package(amp, strap, cord, etc.) and a guitar stand for $220 out the door.
Pros: The Special II has some pretty awesome pickups for being stock on a lower end guitar. the pickups look almost identical of a SD Jazz(neck) and a JB(bridge) minus the Seymour Duncan text and probably sound very similar. the tune-o-matic bridge makes tuning very stable and offers a lot of sustain. it sounds very good for punk, rock, jazz/blues, etc. i can get some really clean tones out of it in the 2nd and 3rd positions and a lot of different distortion tones in the bridge, bright or dark(but not exactly muddy). action is good, and the cosmetics are also very appealing w/ chrome hardware on a black guitar(and from what my friends have said, it looks very good on me). its a nice basic guitar that can still impress the ladies.
Cons: the les paul shape is not as comfortable as the strat shape when sitting and you need to be careful when standing up as the strap tends to want to slip off near the neck(strap locks can fix this). theres some buzzing every once in a while and the tuners aren't great(but what do you expect from such a cheap guitar). the neck is not thin, which makes it somewhat difficult to play faster stuff if you have smaller hands. its a bit heavy for a beginner and my shoulder tends to hurt when standing with it for more than 20 minutes(maybe if my strap just had more padding). the gold text on the head stock and on the 3 way switch doesn't look good on a guitar with a black and chrome scheme, kinda tacky.
Quality: seems to have lasted pretty good, no problems so far in the 10 months i've had it. Review Summary: its a great beginner guitar and if you wanted to truly make it your own by adding pickups, tuners, etc. it could be even better and a lot of fun. now that i've played more(and more guitars) i realize that i want a strat shape more right now with a trem setter(to help with stability, or a stringthru like a schecter) and will probably sell the Special II. its a great guitar and i really want to keep it but i'll always remember it and would definitely advise any player to add a les paul style guitar(even this inexpensive one) to their arsenal. i know i will definitely want another les paul and will get one when i can.
On 2004-03-12, Joe the one and only rated this Epiphone Special II a 3...(8258)
Purchase: I got it at a local music center for about $260 american cause I needed a good cheaper electric and love les pauls. (les paul look)
Pros: i has a good look it has a pretty good tone and it looked like a les paul except for the price tag. it is durable (once it fell off the strap and the neck smashed into the ground and it looked good as new. when I got it the soft case came undone and the neck smashed into the ground and it was ok)so i was scared very much twice
Cons: it only has one tone nob, open coil pickups i prefer humbuckers,the strap nob thing is on a bad angle so you kinda need a lock strap
Quality: very durable see story above ingood things great construction except for strap nobs finger smudges are terrible but oh well get a polish cloth Review Summary: its a great beginner Great gift guitar and they might think it cost you a lot more On 2003-12-12, Adham Koura rated this Epiphone Special II a 5...(6848)
Purchase: I got this Epiphone online from WWBW.com (woodwind and brasswind), the delivery was on time. I paid 200$, got a brand new Epiphone Special II, with a vintage sunburst finish, a good quality, versatile amplifier, 3 hard picks, a cable, an instructional video tape and an accurate quartz tuner.
Pros: I'm close to a professional guitar player, even though I have been playing for about a year, I mainly play Blues rock and metal influenced stuff, I play similar to Zakk Wylde of Black Label society and I love to play fast solos. I have to say I read some reviews on this guitar saying that it was bad, but I think its amazing. They did tell me that when you first buy the guitar, theres a buzz sounds and that the neck has some dead spots. This is entirely true. But once you do some adjustments using the truss bar to the tension bar at the head of the guitar (under the Gibson word). I actually made these adjustments on my own since the nearest guitar shop is miles away. It took me 2 hours to completely fixup the guitar. The pickup and sound quality is truly amazing and the tone is thick and fat almost as good as the Gibson Les Pauls. The playability is really good as well. The pickup switch works perfectly well. I actually replaced the strings with Zakk Wylde Boomers, because I like to play heavy stuff. The sound quality is perfect. I suggest you get a decent distortion pedal to get a good distorted tone (one you can actually hear the cords through). I use an Ibanez Smashbox and its amazing. A boss MT2 works fine as well, but I prefer the smashbox. The body of the guitar is considerably light and the finish looks beautiful but that depends on your personal taste. This Guitar is an excellent buy and very worth every single dollar you pay for it. It just needs to be optimized and adjusted, especially the neck to remove the buzz sounds. I suggest you take it to a guitar technician at a guitar shop to get the neck fixed up and neck tension adjusted.
Cons: It takes a while to adjust the neck as I said. But once thats done you're going to be fine. Also, at the beginning, it untunes very quickly, but after a couple of tunings, the strings should stretch out a bit and you should be fine.
Quality: Neck adjustment should have been done at the factory, other than that, well done Epiphone! Review Summary: Many people dislike this guitar because they think its just a cheaper and crappier version of a Gibson. The guitar is perfectly fine, but you need to have some patience to adjust the neck thats all! On 2003-08-11, epiphoneowner rated this Epiphone Special II a 5...(5445)
Purchase: I bought it at Sam Ash right off the rack. It was the last one they had.Very very tiny unnocitible scratches.Almost like new.Pickups still covered.It was selling for 209.99.But since it was out they took 5 dollars off.
Pros: It's in vintage sunburst so it looks great. pickups sound good. the overall body of the guitar.looks kinda like a gibson 'cept for the headstock. 22 frets. humbucking pickups.
Cons: nothing exept that you get finger marks on it.
Quality: it is made by gibson so it's good. it has a limited lifetime warranty.it has chrome hardware and a bolt-on neck. Review Summary: good for beginners who would want a gibson later on or just for someone who likes epiphone more than squier ibanez or other guitars for the price range |
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