15 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
This Woody Leaves Me Flat!
Date of Review: Jul 21, 2003
The Bottom Line: I would try others first!
Epiphone Emperor II (Joe Pass) A few years back I was in the market for a full size hollow body "Jazz" box. I had tried many and the one of them was the Epiphone Emperor II (Joe Pass) version. If you would like to read about the ones I tried and which one I chose read this article.
http://www.epinions.com/inst-review-57D9-3FEEA70-3A254EF3-prod1 My test methods When I test a guitar whether to buy or review I always use the same amp if possible. This way I always have the same point of reference to go by. For me this gives me consistent results no matter what the guitar in question might be. That amp is the Fender Blues Junior. Go here to read about that.
http://www.epinions.com/inst-review-74E4-3C07A5D7-3A1FEC97-prod6 So as stated, I did try the Epiphone Emperor II (Joe Pass) guitar. Actually when this guitar came out with his name on it I was surprised cause I've always seen him with an Ibanez semi-hollow body or a full size Gibson something or other. But whatever, my friend had one for sale and brought it to me to try through my trusty Blues Junior Amp.
Finish & Construction At first glance I fell in love with the looks of this guitar. This one had a natural wood finish, spruce top with a thick clear coat gloss polished finish. Trimmed out with all gold hard ware, this guitar was breath taking. It just looked amazing under lights. Heck it looked amazing just sitting in the case! When I picked it up it felt solid right away, and very comfortable for a "full-sized" guitar. The neck felt straight & the action was low but not too low, just right. In all, the guitar looked like it was built great, and I didn't really see or find any flaws.
Tone in use At this point I was ready and excited to plug it in and be amazed….and I was. I was amazed with how I hated how it sounded. It didn't matter how I set the controls on the guitar (all the up) it sounded to muddy to me. I know true hard core Jazz dudes like fat, mellow tones but this just sounded dull & once again muddy.
For one…….I listen to Joe Pass, and like his playing & tone, and his tone doesn't sound anything like this guitar. I mean yes, he has a full, warm, & mellow sound but yet a nice open detail when striking the strings. I tried adjusting the amp, rolling out most of all the lows and boosting all the highs. This helped some-what but for my liking I still couldn't get that nice "bell-like" sweet Gibson tone I'd thought this guitar should be able to recreate. On the Epiphone web site it lists it has 2 humbuckers but it doesn't state what the are. I'm not sure if they are custom made or cheaper versions of the Gibson PAF's or what, but I don't like them and to my ears I don't think they sound like Joe Pass at all!
Disappointment I truly was, cause I totally love the looks and construction and playability of this guitar. It definitely is a fine made instrument and priced very affordable for such a quality made instrument. I just don't think the tone matches how good this guitar looks. I also wrote about the Epiphone DOT 335 version and found the same results. The 2 guitars almost sound the same….I'm wondering if they use the same pick-ups. You can read about that here.
http://www.epinions.com/content_46761873028 Fairness Ok in all fairness, maybe my tried and true blues junior amp wouldn't be the right amp to match to this guitar but as stated, I use this amp to gauge everything I like to hear by. I normally can evoke any good guitar to sound wonderful through that amp without a lot of fuss.
But…. I do know that if I was to plug the Joe Pass through my Fender 65 Twin
(
http://www.epinions.com/inst-review-3774-3D28EA78-3A22D119-prod6 read about that here)
I would could get cleaner "less-muddy" tones. Mostly cause the Twin has a treble boost switch and the tone controls are a little more expressive. That's a least the result I found with that Epi-335 Dot I tried. Also I'm sure a Jazz player who uses a Roland Jazz chorus amp would get ok results. But with that being said…..or typed…..I feel you still would be very limited with the tonal range of this guitar. By the time you tweaked in a tone you liked you probably would just limited to that one tone! Full, mellow mud.
Parting thoughts & comments This guitar is not for everyone! It looks, feels & plays great! The tone is questionable and defiantly one needs to try it and decide for ones self if it is use-able. For me it is not, but I'm not a hard-core Jazz guitarist either.
I almost considered buying the guitar anyway with plans of pulling the stock pick-ups out and installing Gibson "Classic 57's" in it. Those have a clean yet full sweet tone to them! But I ended up trying the DeArmond X-155 and loved it instantly and to this day haven't heard anything sound half as good as that guitar.
Do yourself a favor and read about it here…...
http://www.epinions.com/inst-review-57D9-3FEEA70-3A254EF3-prod1 ………..then go get one, if a full sized Jazz box is what you're looking for. You won't be sorry!
Thanks for reading
Mark D
