Epiphone vs. Gibson

[Tele Master]

Is there much of a difference between the Gibson Hummingbird(Acoustic) and the Epiphone Hummingbird. I saw the Epiphone for only $500 compared to the Gibson at $1300 or more.

[canuck7]

well,
if you have the money to spare, i say go for the Gibson. but i don't suspect that you have that kind of money for a guitar to spare.
i would go for the Epiphone because the price is mucho acceptable and you don't sacrifice enough quality to make the Gibson a better buy. but play both before you buy them to see if the difference is worth the money.
Epiphones have decent quality for great prices while Gibsons have great quality for but their price tags normally match the production date.
so...........my point should be fairly obvious.
no sarcasm intended.

[Lordathestrings]

I keep telling people to ignore the name on the headstock, but do they listen???

If you still have trouble choosing between them after playing them with your eyes closed, talk to a couple of guitar techs. After all, these are the guys who have to clean up what comes out of the factories. I guarantee you'll hear things that will give you a whole new respect for some brands you might not have considered before.

[pstring]

Sometimes the biggest difference in sound between the Big Name Brands and the other brands is heard only at the cash register!

[Benoit]

Man, must be the same thread coming back over and over again :)

This question is always asked. Just do like I did, buy a used Gibson and restore it a bit

Personnaly I'd go with the epiphone even if I'm a Gibson sell-out. Can't figure out why Gibson doesn't bring down there price a bit. Maybe because we still asks ourself which one to buy, Gibson or Epiphone.

Gibson guitars are way overrated. At least for me and I've been playing with an SG for 8 years. My friend has an epiphone and guess what? Sounds almost the same. Well he does play better than me, but that's probably the guitar....

[Incidents Happen]

I have a gibson, and compared to epiphones, i think they blow em away. But! If you don't have the cash, settle for the epiphone.

[Axl_Rose]

I have two epiphone les pauls with seymour duncan pick ups, costing me around 500 pounds each. On buying the 2nd les paul I had the option of many Gibsons at the 500 - 600 pounds mark, but i still choose the epiphone. and i would again. An epi with seymour duncans sounds better than a gibson. Ive begged my guitar dealer to order me a gibson and he calls me crazy!! I might buy a second hand gibson and do it up, you can get them on ebay for 400pounds.
All in all, your really paying for the name, and people who say you arent are lying to kid themselves there money was well spent on something 4 times the price.

[Andrew Sa]

I find that Gibsons tend to sound better than Epiphone, but they are seriously over priced...Here in South Africa the cheapest Gibson Les Paul we can buy is R3000ish, thats about $3500, and I can get an Epiphone Les paul for about $500, it has too much to do with the name...I find that Cort Guitars are awesome and here they are not expensive as they are not really available in USA, I got a guitar with a Wilkison floating bridge with a rolling nut, rosewood fretboard and maple body and neck, with one humbucker and two single coils for nly R2000, about $200, and that was brand new...if I was to buy a similar guitar by Ibanez or someone it would have cost tripple that
Andrew

[Ge_Whiz]

A common complaint about Epis is 'fret buzz' or 'high action' (to avoid 'fret buzz'). My experience of them (I own three, acoustic, archtop and solid) is that they come out of the factories with the truss rods overtight and no string relief. Loosen them up a little and they are great.

I got a second-hand LP100 dirt cheap a few months ago because the owner 'didn't get on with it' (he didn't want to admit that the strings buzzed). A bargain, and a really nice player with a little TLC.

A major cost-saver for manufacturers of 'economy' names is minimal set-up/adjustment before the instruments leave the factory. Get a cheap guitar and a good book, and teach yourself some guitar techie stuff.

[PonyOne]

I have an Epiphone SG special, which is the dirt-cheap bottom feeder of the Epi line. After I scrapped the muddy stock pickups and replaced them with Seymour Duncans, messed around with the intonation and height, the thing sounded great. It holds its own against my Gretsch and Tele.

I'm actually quite lucky. I live in Los Angeles, and can pick up a real Gibson LP Studio or Standard for about $750, made in the early to mid 90's in mint condition. Some online companies, I think Sam Ash and Musician's Friend among them, sell Gibsons starting at around $600 for uber-stripped down LP's. The quality is pretty nice, but in all honesty, a good Epiphone isn't that much a step down in quality from any Gibson.

My friend used to have an Epiphone Noel Gallagher Supernova, which is basically an ES335 with a union jack painted on it. It was built just like a Gibson ES335, and sounded pretty good. The pickups on it were weaker than anything, but that problem was solved by a pair of Duncan Antiquities. If you're not afraid to do a little surgery on an Epi, like changing the pickups and tuners, you can have an excellent guitar. They also now have the Epiphone Elite line, which are only different from Gibsons in their finish and a $500 discount.

Remember... if they've been good enough for the Beatles, Matthew Sweet, Lenny Kravitz and a host of other famous and/or influential bands, they're probably good enough for you.