Epi Dot Studio / Ibanez AS53/63. Worth a punt to mod?

Creed_Clicks

I have had various standards of semi hollow and full hollow guitars over the years, but sold them all on, like a fool, some might say.

Briefly had an Epiphone Casino, and while this one sounded the most interesting, in that in many ways, the semi hollows could sound close enough to a solid body, the Casino sounded like it's own thing. Trapeze bridge did feel a little bit weak, but could just be the nature of them.

As of late, I'm back looking at cheap 335 alternatives. A shout out for Tokai, but would the Epi Studio Dot be worth a punt? I've toyed with the idea of a Bigsby, so the Ibanez AS63t gets a mention, but not sure about that green...

My only other guitars are P90 and lipstick single coils, so perhaps sticking to a HH would be a wiser move than another Casino...

Creed_Clicks

Updated the thread title and query after some research

Jalapeno

Modding a semi-acoustic is a labour of love - as I saw elsewhere, "a task best suited to a gynecologist"

munckee

I bought a harley benton 335 and put seymour duncan vintage blues pick ups in (well I didn't!) and gibson tuners on and sounds great so both of those would be great for modding I would say.

Still considering a bigsby!

stimpsonslostson

The Ibanez artcore range are generally rather good. I had the fully hollow Asf75t & enjoyed it. I found the pickups a bit bland, but lacked the bravery to root around inside the body to do anything about it! 

Creed_Clicks

Of course there were several Cort Sources etc floating around locally over the last few years. It's when you go and look for one, you can't find one!

YellowLedBetterMan

Does it have to be a Bigsby? a Duesenberg Les Trem could be an inexpensive option with no drilling required and easy to revert to stock.

Creed_Clicks

YellowLedBetterMan said:

Does it have to be a Bigsby? a Duesenberg Les Trem could be an inexpensive option with no drilling required and easy to revert to stock.

Never thought of that.

Creed_Clicks

Going to revisit this sometime in the new year as well. I'd replace pickups with H size P90s and stick a Les Trem or some other type of trem unit on it. 

thegummy

The Epiphone Dot vs. the Gibson equivalent is one of the most mind boggling price differences in the guitar world I think.

I mean, all Gibson's models are expensive, especially compared to their Epiphone counterparts, but even the cheapest 335 style guitars from Gibson are so expensive!

Is there a reason that there would be more of a markup going from Epiphone 335 to Gibson 335 than there is for a Les Paul?

fretmeister

Can’t go wrong with ibanez. 

Creed_Clicks

thegummy said:

The Epiphone Dot vs. the Gibson equivalent is one of the most mind boggling price differences in the guitar world I think.

I mean, all Gibson's models are expensive, especially compared to their Epiphone counterparts, but even the cheapest 335 style guitars from Gibson are so expensive!

Is there a reason that there would be more of a markup going from Epiphone 335 to Gibson 335 than there is for a Les Paul?

QC, woods, electrics, hardware etc. But I've played nice Epi Dots and some Gibson 335s that were amazing.

thegummy

Creed_Clicks said:

thegummy said:

The Epiphone Dot vs. the Gibson equivalent is one of the most mind boggling price differences in the guitar world I think.

I mean, all Gibson's models are expensive, especially compared to their Epiphone counterparts, but even the cheapest 335 style guitars from Gibson are so expensive!

Is there a reason that there would be more of a markup going from Epiphone 335 to Gibson 335 than there is for a Les Paul?

QC, woods, electrics, hardware etc. But I've played nice Epi Dots and some Gibson 335s that were amazing.

But I'm not asking why a Gibson is more expensive than an Epiphone.

It's why is there a bigger difference between an Epiphone 335 to a Gibson 335 than there is between an Epiphone Les Paul and a Gibson Les Paul?

thomasw88

I bought an Aria pro II TA-40 the other day.   It was cheap and is from 1980 or 90 made In Korea..  It's surprisingly good. It's more a  339 shape but they do 335 types as well.

Creed_Clicks

thegummy said:

Creed_Clicks said:

thegummy said:

The Epiphone Dot vs. the Gibson equivalent is one of the most mind boggling price differences in the guitar world I think.

I mean, all Gibson's models are expensive, especially compared to their Epiphone counterparts, but even the cheapest 335 style guitars from Gibson are so expensive!

Is there a reason that there would be more of a markup going from Epiphone 335 to Gibson 335 than there is for a Les Paul?

QC, woods, electrics, hardware etc. But I've played nice Epi Dots and some Gibson 335s that were amazing.

But I'm not asking why a Gibson is more expensive than an Epiphone.

It's why is there a bigger difference between an Epiphone 335 to a Gibson 335 than there is between an Epiphone Les Paul and a Gibson Les Paul?

No idea tbh 

alalalkasar

How about the new(ish) guild Starfire reissues. They look like a pretty decent alternative in the world of semis.

simonhpieman

I missed this first time round.

The Epi Dot Studio I had was brilliant, I still miss that now. Arctic white, great pickups, easy peasy neck, Grovers and I think I paid £199 for it. One of the best and most versatile guitars I've owned even now.

I also had an Ibanez AS-75T for a while. Nowhere near as good. Felt a bit like it was made of cardboard, though it turned heads.

Interesting point about the disparity between Gibson and Epi semis in terms of price. They've absolutely skyrocketed the last few years.

To put it into perspective, I traded that Dot Studio (and a bunch of other stuff) for a brand new Gibson Custom Shop ES330L that was £1695 full price in Guitar Village. Imagine ANY custom shop Gibson for as little as that, especially a hollow one. It wasn't all that long ago either, I'm sure it was less than 10 years.