Review of: Epiphone Dot Guitar

by Brian Lamacraft

Tones
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Playability
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Hardware
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Value
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30
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Overall

• The guitar comes with full features
• Attractive design
• Versatile instrument for both acoustic and electric playing

• Somewhat large and cumbersome to play
• A little on the heavy side
• Not a guitar for beginners

This Epiphone Dot is an arch top guitar with F- holes. It’s an acoustic-electric guitar so it can handle many guitar styles. The F holes on the instrument help the notes ring out so they are clear as you are playing them. This sort of guitar is very popular in the jazz and blues style. It has a broad range of features that you’re going to love as a player. It also comes in at a modest price point so you’re not going to have to spend a whole lot of money to own one.

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Full Detailed Epiphone Dot Review

Looking for an excellent guitar for jazz or blues styles? There are many guitars on the market that are suitable for these styles but they cost a lot of money. It  can be frustrating searching for the ideal guitar for the music you want to play. There is a lot of choices and you can get confused as you search.

Epiphone is the lower-cost brand of the Gibson Guitar Company. They make excellent guitars for various musical styles. Here is my Epiphone Dot review to see what this guitar has in store for you.

Epiphone Dot Tones

This instrument produces excellent tone for both acoustic and electric playing. It features an F-hole design which helps enhance the sound that comes from the guitar. this type of arch top is popular for a reason. The tone these guitars produce is top-notch for the music you want to play. Shape your tone with the tone controls, volume controls, and the pickup selector.

If you’re looking for a blues sound, jazz sound, or this instrument provides that for you. It’s also the ideal choice if you want to play basic rock and roll or other styles. Famous players including B.B. King often used an archtop style guitar on his recordings. Eric Clapton even used an archtop in his early days with Cream. You will be satisfied with the Tone produced by this instrument.

Epiphone Dot Playability

The playability of this archtop guitar is a little bit lower than you might expect. This is it because the instrument isn’t a good guitar archtop instruments are a little bit harder to play. This is because they are larger and more cumbersome. Beginners might find this type of guitar a little difficult. The instrument tends to weigh more than regular guitars.

The neck on this guitar is solid and playable. The fretboard is smooth and the fretss are well-rounded. Your fingers glide across the frets and strings without much difficulty. It has a double cutaway so you will be able to reach the higher frets with relative ease. This is a playable guitar but it’s more designed for someone that has been playing for a little while.

Epiphone Dot Hardware

My Epiphone Dot review looked at the hardware on the guitar. The instrument has excellent hardware. It comes with two volume and tone controls. To shape the shape of the sound of the pickups you use these controls. To switch between the pickups, use the selector switch. The pickups are Epiphone Alnico Classic humbuckers. These humbuckers sound quite good and you will find them on many Epiphone guitars. They produce a full and rich sound so you can create many types of music.

The guitar also has an angled pickguard that helps protect the Finish. It has a Tune-O-Matic bridge which is standard on Mini Epiphone Guitars. This bridge makes it easy for you to change your strings and it stabilizes the tuning. The machine heads are a standard Grover style which is excellent. They help keep your guitar from going out of tune. It also comes complete with two strap buttons. The input jack is on the front of the guitar so it’s easier to plug in your guitar cable. Guitars that have the input jack on the side need a special right angled plug so your guitar cable doesn’t bend. This type of front design means that you don’t have to worry about bending your guitar cable.

Epiphone Dot Value

This instrument offers exceptional value if you’re into blues or jazz guitar styles. It sounds amazing thanks to a pair of excellent pickups and the included hardware. For those that want to create more rock-oriented music, this isn’t the best choice. This is why the guitar gets a lower value rating because it’s not designed for some musical styles. You can still play these styles you but you might struggle a little bit getting the sound you want. it’s a little cumbersome for the beginner to pick up right away.

Who is the Epiphone Dot Guitar Suited For?

For those that are intermediate or avanced on the guitar, this is an excellent option. If you want to create specific music such as jazz or blues then this guitar is a solid bargain. It’s not a guitar I would recommend for beginners because of the design of the instrument and the size of it. It is a guitar that you can step up to after you’ve been playing for a while. I wouldn’t buy one if you are a first-time beginner. If you do buy one as a beginner, you’ll have to spend some time with it to get used to the larger size and weight of the guitar.

Epiphone Dot Review: Build and Finish

The guitar is well it designed. It features a maple body and a maple top. The neck of the instrument features mahogany wood. These tone woods help establish nice sound characteristics. it comes in several different finishes. These include natural, ebony, cherry, and vintage sunburst. It’s nice to see a few color options which give you more variety when buying.  The finish itself is nice and smooth without blemishes or imperfections. The instrument I purchased had a good finish and I didn’t notice anything wrong with it. This isn’t to say that you might come across a blemish or two. Blemishes aren’t common it instruments that are at this price range.

Epiphone Dot: Feel and Action

The action on the guitar was set up to factory specifications. This is normal on most guitars that you get from Epiphone. You may want to adjust the action to meet your preferences but it’s usually not needed. You shouldn’t have a problem with the Frets or the action on this instrument at this price range. If you don’t know how to adjust action or intonation, see a guitar technician as they can do this for you.

I found the neck on the guitar to be smooth and my fingers moved up and down the fretboard without difficulty. It’s perfect for playing chords near the nut or for lead guitar work higher up the neck. You shouldn’t have any problems playing this instrument as the D profile neck is simple to play.

Epiphone Dot: Overall Sound

The sound produced by this guitar is top quality. It’s rich and vibrant with a great tone as well as versatility. It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing rhythm guitar or wanted to do some lead lines. This instrument is quite capable of handling anything you throw at it. The pickups produce a very nice sound which you’re going to enjoy.

My favorite type of music is blues guitar. I was able to pick and play many of my favorite blues songs with this instrument. I didn’t have any difficulty and getting a very good sound out of my guitar. it’s easy to adjust the sound with the two volume and two tone controls. the f-holes further enhance the sound of the instrument. You can get both acoustic as well as electric sounds out of it.

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Conclusion

We have reached the conclusion of my Epiphone Dot review. Epiphone has made an excellent archtop style guitar with the Epiphone Dot. It has a classic look to it and it’s perfect creating the classic sounds that you love. It’s not as well suited for a rock sound so don’t expect it to be able to handle that type of music. If you want to play jazz, blues, or similar styles this is the instrument for you.

I love the sound of the pickups that this guitar comes with and the fact that it has full Hardware. similar guitars on the market don’t have this amount of hardware. It’s nice that you get plenty of features included with this guitar.