Epiphone vs. Gibson

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.

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.

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.

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

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....

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.

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.

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

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.