Epiphone Excellente & Epiphone Frontier
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 08. 2022
- #epiphone , #epiphoneguitar, #excellente, #masterbilt, #epiphonemasterbilt, #epiphoneexcellente, #daddario, #bluegrass #epiphonefrontier #frontier
Brief comparison of sound of these Masterbilt Reissues.
Very nice, why am I just now hearing about these fine guitars? I bought a DR500MCE Masterbuilt a few years ago and it is a nice one. These are similar!
No one likes a braggard bro! "(
Just kidding, sounds great! I bought new Excellente seven months ago and right out of the box it sounded awesome!! I tuned it and it started being a rock star from the first chord!
However!!! - About one month ago I picked it up to do some recording and there was significant buzzing up and down the neck on all strings! I could NOT believe it!
I've been setting up my own guitars and some of my buddies' guitars for over twenty years so I know what time it is!!
I adjusted the truss rod, then shimmed the saddle, then replaced the saddle and the nut, and went back and adjusted the rod again.
The only way I could get it to completely stop buzzing was to loosen the truss rod all the way!
It was at 100% relief! This made the action way higher than I prefer but I could play it...
Ya, I was not happy. I tried to get my paws inside to check for loose bracing but although I found a wee bit of play it wasn't enough to cause these issues.
I had to call the local music shop who ordered it for me. Epiphone reps told them there would be just 30 from this latest run coming into all of Canada!! So, I was extremely lucky I asked them to check around to see if they could find me one! I got the last one available and was just retarded happy!
I've bought all kinds of guitars from our small lakeside town music shop - "Connors" I've been a loyal patron for over 30 years and the family owned and run business has ALWAYS been absolutely fantastic with me! I don't recall buying a single guitar that they didn't knock off at least 5% or 10%!!
When new Seagull Maritimes were selling new at $1200 CDN they sold me a new one for $711 that is typical with Connors. They always have a decent variety of electric and acoustics as well as bass guitars, both electric and acoustic. I'm seriously eyeballing a new cello they have for sale!!
They have all the accessories, strings, pics, tuners, wireless systems etc. etc. Music books, albums as well as a recording studio and lessons!! They have drums and recording equipment, and offer PA rentals mics, stands etc.
There's a huge guitar outlet in a mid sized city South of us and everything they have, ALL GUITARS, ALL ACCESSORIES ETC are always at an absolute premium and trying to get a discount, or any sort of deal is like pulling a great white shark's tooth with rubber bands and chop sticks in the ocean without a shark cage!! Ya...right?
So, I don't even bother looking at their stuff online anymore, if I want something and Connors don't have it, they'll order it and again, the prices are always fantastic!! I've donated a couple of guitars as well as over $80 of coupons and the only reason I did so there was to try and show them a wee bit of gratitude and appreciation as well as benefitting a child student who can't afford his/her own guitar!
I'm in the process of refinishing a Yamaha Strat with two humbuckers and a single coil right now to donate. I love donating to young musicians and I've always asked them to see to it that a child who may be in a single parent atmosphere or the family may be struggling which I know a thing or two about, and those are the children I feel fantastic about helping with giving them their very own guitar!
So, Connors tech also attempted to set it up and came to the same sad state I had to go to.
I have nothing but great things to say about "Connors where you can get A sharp guitar and not B flat broke"!! Yes, that's mine! I think it's clever and should be on their business cards!
So, they contacted Epiphone and Epiphone told them to send them the guitar to have one of their techs look over it. I'm concerned if there is an unfixable issue that there won't be a replacement.
I absolutely love the guitar even though it weighs about as much as a King Tiger Tank! They are heavy guitars!!
They sound like $5,000 guitars and look like a million bucks!
If they can't replace it, assuming it's not fixable, I'll no doubt have to settle with money back.
Now, I know I can buy one off E-Bay BUT common sense tells me they're most likely Chinese fakes because there's always several "brand new" ones with "free shipping" from CHINA! CHINA! CHINA!
See what I did there??? with the Trump reference? ahh skip it! ")
Ya, I'd never take that chance. So, if it does come down to a refund I'll be picking up a used Epiphone "Gibson Inspired" orange label 12 string Hummingbird and either a used Seagull S6 - Maritime (which I had and sold to help buy the Excellente and I absolutely loved that axe! I sold it with the TRIC gig bag and came to regret that because for reasons unknown to me those awesome TRIC gig bags aren't being made anymore!!
Or, if not a Seagull I'd be very happy with a used inspired J 45 or used inspired J 200, not the cut out version, I cannot stand cut out guitars. It kills the tone and dampens sustain in my humble yet 100% correct opinion!! ")
My preference is getting the Excellente back in perfect working order, but I do have a contingency plan!
Take care brother!! Great axes and I dig your chops bro!
Jack ~'()'~
Canada
Awesome Steve, thanks for taking the time to do that! Very nice playing BTW.
Thank you sir!
That Excellente is just beautiful!!
How does it feel??
@@ferminharris3826 feels good. Neck a bit chunky but great guitar.
Both of those guitars sound great!
I just bought a Masterbuilt Frontier and l love it highly reccomend these for players who want a great acoustic and dont want to spend 2500 on a good instrument.Mine sounded great out of the box
I almost bought one, but then I found a 1976 all solid Wood Yamaha L10SN, and been in Heaven. However for guitar value, those two Epiphones are nice!
Nice playing brother!
No hype- no 85% talk talk- just fine playing into a fine microphone. Thanks much- you do things right.
Thanks!
That's the nicest piece of Indian Laurel on a modern Indonesian made Frontier fretboard I've seen. Most the time Laurel looks dull and grey, your guitars fretboard looks like rosewood.
Excellent playing
Picked up the Frontier last year, what an amazing neck, and the tone balance is exceptional. Epiphone"s (IBG) best kept secret the the Frontier and Excellente..Great Vid my friend, nice picking...
I have been very curious about ovenkol as a side & back tone wood. I've read that its tonality it is between rosewood and maple. I could hear that, as I thought the Excellente was a little brighter.
I think i prefer the tonality of maple, but either would go well with my FGX5.
Thank you for doing the video.
Gretings from Greece!! Nice presentation!
I prefer the Excellente one. More full sound....
And for your info.... nut and saddle of the Excellente are BONE....
I;ve played both of them and finally I bought the Excellente...and almost 9 months passed... and the sound is gpt better!!!
I'm not looking for an argument....but the saddle is GraphTec NuBone....man made synthetic material. All the best.
@@stevebernard221 See the specs...both bone.... I set it up 1 month ago and my luthier confirmed it.
@panayotiscanellopoulos8696 cool....funny though why they use NuBone for the Nut material and "Bone" for the saddle. If your wondering why I say that just look at the epi site for the Frontier, and under the Neck specs tab, you will see GraphTech NuBone listed for the nut material. Weird....you would think it would be the same material listed for the both the nut and the saddle. 🤷♂️
What better sound for you, please?
Great video! I love the Excellente, but I was wondering if the difference I was hearing was from a slight difference in distance/position to mic. Nice playing by the way. Followin’!
You could very well be right on the placement of the mic. With that said, there is no high quality equipment being used...probably going to be hard to hear clear differences here as you would in the living room. Glad you enjoyed it though!
I'm enjoying your video. Thanks a lot!!
Like the Excellente better but it's now out of reach financially for me but the Frontier is also damn good
What strings are on the excellente. Thanks for the great review
D'addario XS (mediums)
Thank u bro, did you need to make a major adjustment to these guitars?
Only adjustments made were based on my playing preferences. No major adjustments.
@@stevebernard221 thanks Steve, u are so kind.
“You think they are synthetic” I think it would be pretty easy to know for sure
how do these compare with your Gibson j35?
Martin, I will say that both the Epiphone have a Gibsonish tone to it, even though they are longer scale vs the J-35. I can not say that the Gibson is better. The guitars are so well made, and with having set-ups done on all three of them, they are just different guitars to me, no one is better than the other, and the Epiphone's certainly don't feel or sound any less of an instrument. I have played them along side other players with high end Martins and Pre-War guitar company models in jams, and they keep up! They are just good. I do hope Gibson keeps this level of quality with their Epiphone Masterbilt line. I wish they didn't have the Inspired by Gibson though, and just stick to original Epiphone models, but that's just me.
So what about yourself? You have any Masterbilt's or considering a particular model?
@@stevebernard221 Thanks for the quick and detailed response. I agree about the Gibby knockoffs. I've been looking for a second acoustic beside my cannon Larrivée OM-60. Ideally a cheaper guitar but in most cases its just so much of a downgrade. But with current prices of Gibsons, Martins etc. I'm gonna look for a Frontier and consider doing the saddle and K&K upgrade.
@@martinolsen6972 I assume you have seen this, but just in case you haven't: czcams.com/video/JLD9McY-NQ4/video.html
@@stevebernard221 I have I love J.P's videos. Only thing is that some of the guitars he has recomended has a bad reputation in builquality. Alvarez and Recording King's. I hope to get a chance to try the Excellente today!
@@martinolsen6972 the Excellente is heavy, and may not seem as loud as it should be, but it do sound good (the one I have anyway). Best of luck. Keep me posted!
You replaced plastic pins with ebony in Excellente?
Yes I did. I also have ebony for the Frontier and will use later.
@@stevebernard221 And, as I understand, you took out the Fishman piezo, and installed a K&K transducer system. Now, I feel that the Excellente (I own) lacks in volume. Did removing the piezo improve the volume (the unplugged volume ofc)? Also, you mention that a better bone saddle on the Frontier did that... can you be more specific in what sense. I have several bone saddles, but the only difference in tone and volume I hear is when I install a nu bone/tusq saddle. Thanks!
@@bobrock23 Now it lacks in volume? Compared to when?
Compared to my other dreadnoughts.
@@bobrock23 what did you change? I find the Excellente is not as loud as some of my other guitars as well.
I just cant stand the fact that you gotta pay for that big friggin pickgard with all that stupid bling on it. But then again the largest part of gibsons legacy has always been b l i n g ...
.
You either love it or hate it!