Incoming: NVD

[ItsaBass]

Re: Incoming: NVD

This arrived today.

I'm not too impressed.

The finish quality is quite nice. It's a looker. The fretboard is nice looking, even being rather light in tone (Pau Ferro). At least it is a consistent light brown, not streaky, as Pau Ferro can often get.

Nut, tuners, bridge, setup, intonation, frets all pretty crappy, even after the supposed "55 point inspection" that Sweetwater claims. Intonation is MILES off.

The pickguard is cheap and thin and cut at the wrong bevel, and for some reason the screws are black (WTF).

The pickups are OK if you set them a certain way, but not very versatile. You go away from that sweet point of gain and e.q. that they want, and they're just boring and overly hot. If I keep it, it'll definitely get a pair of Seths.

The neck isn't as nice as the ones that I played in person. It's very flat and "square" feeling.

The case has the right old V case shape, but it's low quality construction in the end.

It definitely needs a lot of work. It has been a while since I bought an Epiphone, so I had forgotten just how bad they can be.

The price was pretty fair, though, and it might still be the project base I'm looking for. A good deal of this was going to get replaced anyhow. I was just hoping to have some fun with it in the meantime, until the project begins. But it's not of gigable quality, and I'm not going to bother to make it so right now, since I'll be tearing the entire thing down eventually anyhow. My only other decent option is home building. I do have the wood for it...but I just don't feel like it!

[blakejcan]

Re: Incoming: NVD

This arrived today.

I'm not too impressed.

The finish quality is quite nice. It's a looker. The fretboard is nice looking, even being rather light in tone (Pau Ferro). At least it is a consistent light brown, not streaky, as Pau Ferro can often get.

Nut, tuners, bridge, setup, intonation, frets all pretty crappy, even after the supposed "55 point inspection" that Sweetwater claims. Intonation is MILES off.

The pickguard is cheap and thin and cut at the wrong bevel, and for some reason the screws are black (WTF).

The pickups are OK if you set them a certain way, but not very versatile. You go away from that sweet point of gain and e.q. that they want, and they're just boring and overly hot. If I keep it, it'll definitely get a pair of Seths.

The neck isn't as nice as the ones that I played in person. It's very flat and "square" feeling.

The case has the right old V case shape, but it's low quality construction in the end.

It definitely needs a lot of work. It has been a while since I bought an Epiphone, so I had forgotten just how bad they can be.

The price was pretty fair, though, and it might still be the project base I'm looking for. A good deal of this was going to get replaced anyhow. I was just hoping to have some fun with it in the meantime, until the project begins. But it's not of gigable quality, and I'm not going to bother to make it so right now, since I'll be tearing the entire thing down eventually anyhow. My only other decent option is home building. I do have the wood for it...but I just don't feel like it!

Get a precision guitar kit V for about $400. Great quality and fresh starting point

[ErikH]

Re: Incoming: NVD

Get a precision guitar kit V for about $400. Great quality and fresh starting point

They stopped making the V kit a few years ago.

[blakejcan]

Re: Incoming: NVD

Nope

On the site

[ErikH]

Re: Incoming: NVD

Nope

On the site

Out of Stock!

I wanted to get a V kit from them a few years ago and Phil told me they stopped making it and the X.

[blakejcan]

Re: Incoming: NVD

I think he just threw up some old stock for a hot minute. All the PG peeps were all over it.

[ItsaBass]

Re: Incoming: NVD

I've been getting used to the guitar for a couple of days.

The pickups are better than I initially thought. Still a little too thick (overwound) for me, but I can tell they're actually pretty decent quality. I might swap their positions and see what it's like (for a thinner/brighter bridge pickup and juicier neck pickup).

The fret work is also better than I thought at first. A couple days of playing knocked some of the crap off. The end bevels are actually halfway decent for an Epi. Still will be going to skinny frets, though. Will give me an opportunity to add some more radius to the board and replace the fretboard dots with period-correct ones while I'm at it. The savings I got off of regular sticker price will pay for a re-fret.

The nut is bad, and so are the tuners. Intonation is abysmal. I will be fixing this myself at the next string change.

I am learning not to care about the slight cheesiness of the hard case hardware and tolex. It looks OK from a distance, and it just needs to be able to get the thing from point A to point B with some semblance of style.

Hard not to think about the Custom Shop Amos set for this guitar! If only the stock ones weren't so decent already. Also considering PAF Masters or PAF '59s (or some combination of the two) instead of Seths.

[blakejcan]

Re: Incoming: NVD

Out of Stock!

I wanted to get a V kit from them a few years ago and Phil told me they stopped making it and the X.

PG is going to do the Explorer & V full time again. I know everyone was dying for that update

[ErikH]

Re: Incoming: NVD

PG is going to do the Explorer & V full time again. I know everyone was dying for that update

That's cool. They must've gotten some sort of licensing agreement or something. I'm itching to do another kit from them but looking at the LP Junior this time. I play my SG Junior that I did in 2011 all the time. Recently replaced the bridge though for one with individual saddles.

[ItsaBass]

Re: Incoming: NVD

I have considered, and inquired about, those kits a few times, but he doesn't offer an alternate fretboard or frets. If I'm going to do a build from that stage up, I want to be able to specify a curvier board and skinny frets, and also work with someone who is more open to doing work outside of the boxes they have established. A Gibson style guitar with old-school Fender radius and frets is a dream of mine, but it's hard to find a way there outside of a complete scratch build.

[ItsaBass]

Re: Incoming: NVD

Well, the final word: I kept the thing. I mentioned some of the issues to my Sweetwater salesman, and we agreed that I would keep the guitar if he refunded enough money to get a new nut put in by my tech. And I am growing to like the pickups now that I've got them going through my better amps at real volumes; I might be able to avoid a pickup swap with a little tweaking. I really think that swapping their positions, while it might seem counterintuitive, might have some promise. I find the bridge one a little too thick, and the neck one a little too stiff. And the way these are wound, the neck pickup should have plenty enough juice in it to be able to serve as a bridge pickup. Either that, or maybe I'll try them in parallel. Or do the swap, but just run the neck (formerly bridge) pickup in parallel. Maybe do a little dewaxing and some mag swapping along the way. But in regards to the pickups, I think "the bones" are good enough to work with, at least for now.

[blakejcan]

Re: Incoming: NVD

still gonna go for the new bridge & refinish and whatever else?

[ItsaBass]

Re: Incoming: NVD

still gonna go for the new bridge & refinish and whatever else?

Yes indeed. Proper '50s V parts (brass tailpiece, sunken ferrules, etc.) from that German supplier. All the hardware, guards, plates, ferrules, etc. off of this one will get sold off to someone who wants to make their '58 into an Amos. I might let the case go too, as I am starting not to dig it's shape when it comes to transport.

[Wattage]

Re: Incoming: NVD

Well, the final word: I kept the thing. I mentioned some of the issues to my Sweetwater salesman, and we agreed that I would keep the guitar if he refunded enough money to get a new nut put in by my tech. And I am growing to like the pickups now that I've got them going through my better amps at real volumes; I might be able to avoid a pickup swap with a little tweaking. I really think that swapping their positions, while it might seem counterintuitive, might have some promise. I find the bridge one a little too thick, and the neck one a little too stiff. And the way these are wound, the neck pickup should have plenty enough juice in it to be able to serve as a bridge pickup. Either that, or maybe I'll try them in parallel. Or do the swap, but just run the neck (formerly bridge) pickup in parallel. Maybe do a little dewaxing and some mag swapping along the way. But in regards to the pickups, I think "the bones" are good enough to work with, at least for now.

I find de-waxing and a magnet swap fixes a lot of the Epi pickup woes

[blakejcan]

Re: Incoming: NVD

looks like PG just included custom orders for V's and explorers again.

You can pick your fret size & fretboard and just about everything else except neck profile which is wonky

https://precisionguitarkits.com/product/v-type-custom