FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Epiphone Zakk Wylde Guitar

Question:
Here's the story. My wife went to a funeral yesterday in her hometown...(I had to work and didn't know the person anyway) and brought my 17y nephew Dusty home with her for the weekend. It turns out that he'd been saving his pennies and wanted me to take him guitar shopping today. He had a pretty small budget, about $350 or so, but couldn't be persuaded to wait unitl he had more cash. Anyway, I'm always game to go guitar hunting, so we head out this afternoon, checking the used shops first, considering the budget. On a whim, I stop at a pawn shop that occasionally has guitars, but not really expecting much. On the wall are a few beat up acoustics, a P-bass copy, a shagged out Jackson Pro King V w/Floyd, an Ibanez similar to the GAX w/bolt neck, and a black Epiphone G-400, the SG. The SG is the most interesting, except it had no strings, bridge. or tailpiece. Knowing the missing parts are held on by the strings, I ask the guy behind the counter to hand it over. The sticker on the back has a price tag, which reads $350, case incl. This guitar can be had for that new, so I'm hesitant, until the guy says everything in the store is 1/2 off. Now we're talking $175 w/case, and the guy has my attention. That's nothing compared to my nephews' attention, who's now fondling the neck and eyeballing the pickups, etc. I ask the guy if we can see the case, expecting some softshell or gig bag. He brings out a form fitting Epi case w/plush interior, and inside the compartment is the missing hardware. Dusty says OK and we pay the man and leave before he can change his mind. We stop by a music shop to pick up some strings and a strap, and head home to set it up and whatnot. The strings he chooses are much heavier than my own preference, the GHS Zakk Wylde set, .010 to .060. Yikes! He strings it up, and I check the action and intonation. I expected it to be pretty high due to the heavy strings, and it was. I lowered the bridge a bit and tweaked the truss rod a smidge. After setting the intonation, I run the neck, checking for noise. Up to the 12th fret it plays great, and past that it starts to buzz a bit. By the 17th fret it's fretting out so bad as to be unplayable. I look closely, and it almost looks like a couple of the frets are coming up out of the fretboard! I've never seen this before, so I tell him we'll have to take it to a pro and have the frets hammered back in, levelled, dressed, and whatever other magic they do. He says okay, but he's going to enjoy it for awhile, and I swear he played that sucker for 5 hours straight! I have to tell you, that guitar sounds pretty good, and other than the high frets, plays very nicely, too. I don't care for the heavy strings, but otherwise it's pretty smooth. Checking the pickups, we crank the amp until they start to whistle, and they do, right on cue. He doesn't really get to play very loud a home, so it won't be too much of a problem for him, but he's already got his eyes on my Bill Lawrence pickups in my Explorer, and I expect he'll be ordering some when he's ready to jam at serious volumes. Overall, a nice guitar at a very nice price! Any comment?

Answer:
The Epi G-400 is always one of my suggestions for a high quality low priced guitar. The popped frets might be because the woods weren't properly seasoned. I can tell you from experience that you should INSIST that the luthier run super thin CA (super glue) under ALL of the frets when the work is done. That will make the chances of it happening again very slim. (My experience was with a Washburn/Oscar Schmidt 335 type). One of my favorite guitars is my Epiphone Korina G-400. It has been a great guitar and problem free since day one. The recent Epiphone pickups are a distinct improvement, but I bought this as my metal guitar, so I yanked them and replaced them with EMG 81/85 *and* EMG active tone controls (SPC and RPC). I absolutely love this guitar, and total investment was less than the awful faded finish Gibson: http://www.seattle-attorney.com/G-400.jpg With the finished slim taper neck and the EMG's, I like it better than the Gibsons, with the possible exception of the '61 reissue (but I'd still put the EMG's on it).