Ouch! Andre Fludd lays into Epiphone

Offset

I like Andre and this episode of his YouTube channel is pretty uncompromising 

InactiveX

It goes off a bit when he's describing his early years with a Parker Fly - rather superfluous I thought.

They may well be unpleasant to play, but one thing's for sure: those Les Pauls look like shite.

DrCornelius

Thanks , I didnt know this guy and quite enjoyed that (except for his 'has someone farted ?' face when playing)

Offset

InactiveX said:

It goes off a bit when he's describing his early years with a Parker Fly - rather superfluous I thought.

He may or may not like playing them, but one thing's for sure: those Les Pauls look like shite.

I think the point he was making was that a lower-priced Asian-made guitar can still hold its own against its 'core' US inspiration.  He IS a Parker nut though 

Looks-wise they don't do it for me either but I must admit I was initially taken aback by his vehement dislike for them.  However those defects were very shoddy, especially on the guitar costing $1300.

BobHillman

Why do they persist in using plastic jack plates? They do not belong on any guitar, at any price.

A Harley Benton SC550 is only £258 -

https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_sc_550_ii_ftf.htm

OilCityPickups

This has been my experience of modern Epiphone ... they haven't really grown up with their price hikes ... they expect you to pay top dollar just for a headstock shape - Burstbuckers aren't significantly better than  Epiphone Probuckers - (listen to the sound test) and he is absolutely right ... there are other guitars ... Heritage, PRS SE that wipe the floor with them for the money. 
I loved my Epi flying Vs ... no they weren't Gibson, but they were as good as they needed to be and were cheap enough to be 'rough gig friendly'. 
I see no reason these days to buy Epiphone (or for that matter Gibson in the current political climate). 

monquixote

It's nice to see a YT reviewer being honest. 

I remember when Epiphones were like £200-300 vs maybe £1,800 for a Gibson and it was a bit easier to justify a bit of fettling, or some electronics changes.

At this sort of price you are looking at some really nice guitars at the same price or some much cheaper guitars that are still pretty decent.

soma1975

Every Epiphone I have owned has needed work. 

Every Gibson I have owned has needed some work. 

OilCityPickups

soma1975 said:

Every Epiphone I have owned has needed work. 

Every Gibson I have owned has needed some work. 

Then why buy them?
When Epiphones were the cheap options I had no issues doing work ... but a filled fingerboard on a guitar at that price point is a piss take. Gibsons shouldn't require work full stop. 

Offset

DrCornelius said:

Thanks , I didnt know this guy and quite enjoyed that (except for his 'has someone farted ?' face when playing)

I took that to be an expression of disdain for the instrument he was playing!

Philly_Q

I've learned two things from that video:  Heritage have a budget line, and Dr Andre Fludd has cut his dreads off.

soma1975

OilCityPickups said:

soma1975 said:

Every Epiphone I have owned has needed work. 

Every Gibson I have owned has needed some work. 

Then why buy them?
When Epiphones were the cheap options I had no issues doing work ... but a filled fingerboard on a guitar at that price point is a piss take. Gibsons shouldn't require work full stop. 

None had a filled fingerboard. 

But because they were essentially good guitars that with some fettling could be great guitars. 

Nothing is as good as it was and everything is more expensive than it was. That's late stage capitalism for you. 

Winny_Pooh

soma1975 said:

Every Epiphone I have owned has needed work. 

Every Gibson I have owned has needed some work. 

Yep, I won't buy a Gibson if I can buy an Eastman.

Offset

soma1975 said:

OilCityPickups said:

soma1975 said:

Every Epiphone I have owned has needed work. 

Every Gibson I have owned has needed some work. 

Then why buy them?
When Epiphones were the cheap options I had no issues doing work ... but a filled fingerboard on a guitar at that price point is a piss take. Gibsons shouldn't require work full stop. 

None had a filled fingerboard. 

I think this is what was being referred to:

LionAquaLooper

More power to Andre Fludd. I like his channel and respect his opinions. I hope he doesn't go down the road of suddenly becoming biased just cos brands start sending him free swag. 

BillDL

Offset said:

DrCornelius said:

Thanks , I didnt know this guy and quite enjoyed that (except for his 'has someone farted ?' face when playing)

I took that to be an expression of disdain for the instrument he was playing!

I would actually like to present the video to Cliff Lansley (from the TV series where they scrutinise criminals trying to decieve).  I'm sure his "someone farted" face was worse when playing the more expensive guitar.  That is probably a subconscious reaction because we all tend to expect a better experience from what should be a noticeably better guitar due to the price.  If we had seen him play the Heritage and watched his face we would know if the bad smell face is habitual or was induced by the Epiphones.

The one thing he mentioned was that the more expensive guitar has an extended neck tenon. If the bodies and necks are made in the same factory using the same CNC machines, then I wonder about the economic sense in having two different designs other than the company selling them being able to use the spec to tell buyers they have a superior instrument.  Surely it wouldn't cost more than a few cents to use the slightly longer piece of wood both the necks of both and rout / carve them both to have long neck tenons?  I guess they had to find some marketing angle other than the "better" pickups to sell one guitar for double the price of the other, given that the other spec seems to be of a sameness.

I think his departure to talk about his Parker Fly was relevant.  He's talking about people working their way up to the holy grail guitar by buying intermediate guitars that are "in the style of" but not quite the real thing.  The price range of Epiphones before they hiked their prices (while apparently not doing enough to justify the rise) had them in a very crowded market where even some of the "own brand" guitars without as many middle-men were every bit as good quality and playability.  They decided to break out and have depended on their association with the Gibson name to have people blindly follow them.

elstoof

I like the plug for buying from Zounds, who presumably supplied the 2 disasters he reviews. I’d give them a miss if they routinely send out rejects

BillDL

I too was actually wondering how zZounds liked the simultaneous plug and put-down.

soma1975

Offset said:

soma1975 said:

OilCityPickups said:

soma1975 said:

Every Epiphone I have owned has needed work. 

Every Gibson I have owned has needed some work. 

Then why buy them?
When Epiphones were the cheap options I had no issues doing work ... but a filled fingerboard on a guitar at that price point is a piss take. Gibsons shouldn't require work full stop. 

None had a filled fingerboard. 

I think this is what was being referred to:

Yep I would not have accepted that. Just pointing out that a lot of Gibsons are shoddily made as well. 

Seziertisch

I’ve played quite a few Epiphones in a local shop over the last couple of years and the only flaw that most of them had was that the frets could do with a bit of a polish. 

I remember particularly liking a couple of the more expensive SGs with Burstbuckers which played and sounded great. 

That said, I compared an Iommi SG and one of the lower priced P90 SGs and struggled to understand what the justification for the price difference was. They talked about the Iommi having a “custom” neck profile, but as far as I can tell Epiphone have maybe three different profiles in their repertoire and whatever the marketing says you are getting one of those.

SixStringSage

"Inspired by Gibson" is an odd name — even my wife, a non-player, said yesterday in a store "aren't all Epiphones inspired by Gibson?"

But, regardless, this video feels a bit muddled to me.

I think it's disingenuous of him to suggest the 1959 model costs more only because of the headstock, when he 10 minutes later goes on to explain some of the differences. This is the model that Epiphone touts as being made in collaboration with Gibson Custom Shop, with Custombuckers and electronics identical to what's in the American models (not BBs as he later said). And with respect, his tone comparison isn't worth much if he isn't going to compare things like their range as he adjusts the knobs, response to dynamics, or seeing if they respond better to particular amp settings. I have Custombuckers and Burstbuckers and I could make them sound almost identical if I put the pickups to 10, or I could highlight the responsiveness of the CBs if I wanted to. 

He says the feel was bad, but seemingly only because of the rough frets, as he says the neck itself feels nice. More importantly, he says he's played other Epiphone with good QC and the Lucille was even better than the Gibson. 

In other words, he says you can get Epiphones with good fit and finish, these Les Pauls look the part and have good pickups, they're just too expensive. In one breath he said they'd be fine if they were cheaper but later he says don't buy them at any price.

It's just a bit all over the place. 

That aside, I agree with the comment above that every Epiphone I've had has needed work. The older ones had poor frets where the top E would get caught underneath. This hasn't happened in the last 5-8 years but my Riviera needed a new bridge because the stock one rattled, and my Swingster lasted one day because a piece of wood broke off inside the first time I depressed the Bigsby arm. And I didn't like the tops I saw yesterday either, the Epiphone Greeny top looks plasticky and, well, fake is the only word I can think of.

(FWIW, this hasn't been my experience with Gibson at all. None of those have needed work, in fact the goldtop I bought yesterday doesn't even warrant an action adjustment.)


Edit: a minor complaint, but his thumbnail has the prices on the wrong guitars