Epiphone AJ100 Solid top Jumbo Acoustic

[Skip77]

Bought a pair of these from SameDayMusic.com $119 ea w/free shipping.
Both arrived, nicely packed in Gator cases, also purchased, next day.

For $119 the Epiphone AJ100 is a bargain. Solid spruce top and good woods used all around. Standard scale length and nut width. I went over both guitars carefully, checking finish, workmanship and looking for material defects. Both guitars are well finished and constructed - only flaws were minor:

1. Sound hole on both - inner edge not finished well in terms of stain and varnish - stain did not contact all wood on inner edge of sound hole and varnish has small beaded areas in places, minor but noticeable under close examination. Noticed what appear to be scalloped braces inside - nice.

2. Rosette on one guitar - hairline flaw in match to routed groove - only about 1/2" on an inner circle - filled in perfectly with varnish, no sign of it on surface finish but close look revealed the tiny gap - no problem.

3. Fretboard has smooth radius but is a little roughly finished - not enough to hurt playability. Interestingly, fretboard is dirty - has dried residue from sanding, finishing at factory. Easily cleaned with lemon oil at string change. Medium frets are reasonably smooth but not perfectly smooth. I mean, how much time can be invested on a $119 guitar that the factory probably got $40 for?

Those are the only blemishes and totally minor.

Factory strings were terrible - no surprise. Tinny sounding.
Replaced them with D'Addario 85/15 Bronzes - deep, fat tone resulting.

Of course, after string change, I hit the back of neck with grey scotch pad to break varnish surface tension - slick as silk!

I was pleasantly surprised to find both guitars setup perfectly on arrival. Warranty card included, had inspector initials and hand written measurements for string action at two frets - awesome. Plastic saddle is a must for replacement but I don't have the replacement saddles yet. Was going to make my own from bone and may do that eventually. For now I got lazy and ordered a pair of Gibson B-comensated 10" radius Tusq saddles $9 for the pair - can't beat that. Adding them will deepen tone and improve sustain even better.

Intonation on all strings/both guitars was dead perfect as rec'd.
Both guitars sound good as is.

2 thumbs up!