Epihone SG faded brown

[Jimi75]

After reading your opinions on Epis, I went to my local guitar dealer and took myself some time to check out the a.m. model.

Epiphone G-400 faded brown

My first impression was that this is a beautiful guitar through and through. It looked much better in natura than Epiphone's catalogue pictures. The faded brown has a nice vintage look and I did not find any flaws. The workmanship on that guitar was perfect. The feel of the used materials was not cheap, taking a real Gibson besides it was no big difference. My fear was that the neck would feel completely different than on an original Gibson. For me the neck is the most important part on a SG, but the Epiphone was no let down, it supported every style of playing and it was a pleasure to bend on that guitar. From what I would guess the weight was around 2,6 - 2,8kg. Must have been under 3kg. The resonance was breathtaking, every note rang through the whole instrument. I have connected the guitar to a Mesa Boogie F30 amp. Clean the sound was thick and warm, but still it had some stratish transparence, not as thick as a Les Paul. A sticker on the pick ups said they were original Gibsons and they sounded full and rich. Switching to the lead channel, I put on some chunky crunch and the G-400 made me smile big time. Cool blues licks, this guitar stood in tune no matter how hard I treated it. Both pick ups sounded crunchy, woody and transparent, I guess you know what I mean. By the way, it had no microphony / feedback.

I feel that my thoughts towards the great fluctuations have been confirmed by what you said, so I guess this one was one of the better pieces, not a monday morning production :-)

The price was 389€ and I think that this is a good deal for what you get - a professional instrument.

On a range from 0-10 I would give it a 9. The only aspect I can not really get used to is the design of the headstock, although I find it so ANTI that it could reach a hate/love cult status for me

If I buy an SG, it will be this one!
What I learned is that you have to check a lot of Epis to find the right one, but be sure that if you find it you have a great guitar!

[Big K]

i really liked the worn cherry G-400 a friend of mine picked up a year or so ago, nice tone and fast neck....

[Iago]

I played only the regular SG model (the poly one) and actually sounded good for what you pay. Really not much far behind one of those Gibson fadeds that sell for double the price. Though the pickups stickers say "original gibson" or something like that, they're not made by Gibson at all, they're chinese pickups with alnico magnets. I also played the Les Paul standard by Epi, and the SG sounded way better.

[Tone2TheBone]

I also liked the regular Epi SG too. It's sharp looking but I'd still have swapped out the pickups...at least the bridge pup. It's good that you're trying them out as you go.