Epiphone Dot Studio

Just as promised, this is my Epiphone Dot Studio review.

If you consider yourself a dedicated blues, jazz or even classic rock player, playing a hollow-body guitar has probably crossed your mind more than once. You’ve probably dreamed of getting a Gibson ES-335, but walked away discouraged when you saw the price. Sounds familiar? Fortunately, for guys just like you, the nice people of Epiphone have come up with a very interesting solution – the Epiphone Dot Studio semi hollow electric guitar.

The Dot Studio features an all maple body, a mahogany neck and a rosewood fret board. It comes with two Vintage Alnico humbuckers made by Epiphone, which sound amazingly well, especially if you consider the ultra low price of this guitar.

As usual, the first thing you take notice of is how the guitar looks. In the case of the Epiphone Dot Studio opinions may vary. Personally, I find the simplistic desing of the guitar quite appealing, but those of you who are into more over the top finishes may find this instrument too raw looking. There’s no pickguard on the guitar’s top and no inlays or dots on the fret board, but in my opinion this is what makes the Dot Studio visually interesting. There are a variety of finish options to choose from, including the worn cherry and the worn vintage sunburst finishes, which seem to be the most popular with this model.

As already mentioned, the two Vintage Alnico pickups do an amazing job delivering that fat, deep bluesy tone. This guitar really does sound great for the price, and the tone you can get out of the Epiphone Dot Studio plugged into a good quality tube amp isn’t very far from the Gibson original. The guitar’s tone is certainly usable in both live and studio situations. When you look at a semi hollow guitar like this one, you almost subconsciously expect it to sound dark and deep. Well, basically, that’s what the Dot Studio sounds like, but there’s a little bit more snap than you would expect, thanks to the maple body of the guitar.

The Dot Studio has a classic Gibson 24.75″ scale and comes with a surprisingly comfortable neck. It has 22 medium-jumbo frets, which promote those wide bluesy bends. It is also worth noting that the frets are well finished, with no sharp edges – something not widely seen at this price level.

To sum up, I can honestly say that I am quite impressed with what the Epiphone Dot Studio electric guitar offers. It is really hard to find a better quality semi-hollow guitar at this price, so if you are looking for an instrument that’s specifically made for blues and jazz, I suggest you give the Dot Studio a try. And if you do decide to get one, keep in mind they don’t come with a case, so buying one would probably be a wise choice, too.

I’ve just found this short and sweet video of a guy playing his Epiphone Dot Studio guitar that I’d like to share with you. The guy on the video plays some nice sounding bluesy licks that the Dot Studio is definitely made for. He uses both the neck and the bridge pickups (stock), so that you can hear what this baby can do right out of the box. The tone used can be described as clean with a little bit of hair. I’m not shure about the exact model of the amp, but you can see that it’s a Marshall, probably an all tube one. The guitar and the amplifier definitely go well together, though.

The Epiphone Dot Studio is great for jazz and blues and it sure sounds exceptionally good, especially if you consider the rather low price tag. It’s almost ten times cheaper than its original Gibson counterpart, so if you are a on the lookout for a nice semi-hollow electric guitar, you should definitely check out this sweet instrument.

In my next post we’ll be taking a more in-depth look at the Epiphone Dot Studio guitar. For now, enjoy the video!

The Epiphone Dot Studio semi-hollow electric guitar is part of a reasonably-priced line of guitars high on quality and value for your money, and low on frills. The stripped-down version of Gibson’s iconic 335 model may be missing a few things, such as a pickguard, pickup covers, and even the dot markers on the neck that gave this guitar its nickname years ago, but it certainly doesn’t fall short when held up against the competition.

Standard appointments on the Epiphone Dot Studio include vintage-voiced Alnico V Plus pickups, a LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and a stopbar tailpiece to anchor the strings firmly to the body. Speaking of the body–everything you can see on it is made out of mahogany, a dense tone wood that projects a dark, smoky sound perfect for blues-based rock and jazz.

The guitar is available in some appropriately understated finish choices such as worn cherry, worn brown, and worn vintage sunburst, plus some more decidedly modern ones. The Chinese-made Epiphone Dot Studio guitar exhibits a high level of quality and attention to detail that belies a bargain-basement street price of somewhere south of three hundred dollars.

Although it may not not quite live up to the legendary quality and power of the original 335 it is based on, most guitarists would be hard pressed to justify spending $2500 more to make the leap up to the model bearing the famous Gibson name on the headstock. The Epiphone Dot Studio semi-hollow electric is a versatile, well-made guitar that anyone would be proud to bring up on stage with them. And with all that money you saved, you could invest in a smokin’ amp to go with it!