Review of: Epiphone Wildkat Guitar

by Brian Lamacraft

30
%
Overall

• The guitar features F holes which provide excellent sound well suited for Jazz and blues music as well as other styles
• It has a full suite of excellent hardware for a wide range of tones
• Has an excellent Bigsby tremolo for dive bombs and other tremolo tricks
• Two full humbucking pickups for a wide range of sounds

• This guitar is not well suited for rock-oriented or metal guitar styles
• Might be a little heavy and cumbersome for some players
• You will need some experience to use the tremolo system effectively

Epiphone Wildkat is a beginner to intermediate a style jazz guitar. It has everything that you need to begin playing jazz, blues and similar forms of music.

It comes complete with extras such as a Bigsby tremolo which is an excellent tremolo system to have installed on a moderately priced guitar.

If you’ve been looking for a suitable jazz guitar that isn’t going to break your bank account, I think you’re going to be pleased with this instrument.

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Full Detailed Epiphone Wildkat Review

Are you looking for a jazz style guitar but don’t want to spend a whole lot of money? It can be very difficult to purchase a jazz guitar because they cost a lot and this can be a problem if you’re just a beginner but still want a solid guitar to help you learn on.

Epiphone which is the lower-cost brand of Gibson offers several jazz style guitars which are quite suitable to beginners or even intermediate players don’t want a great jazz guitar.

Here is my Epiphone Wildkat review which is an excellent Epiphone jazz guitar.

Epiphone Wildkat Tones

One thing I was quite impressed with this instrument is the wide range of tones you can get out of it.  

This guitar is well suited to jazz, blues, country, and similar guitar styles. You probably won’t get the robust sound that you want for rock, metal, and other heavier styles of music but for the other styles it is well suited.

There is a wide range of sounds that you can get out of the two humbucking pickups.

Since this guitar features F holes, it also gives you more of an acoustic style sound as well which makes the guitar sound a lot fuller especially when it is amplified. This means that you will have a broader range of sounds that you can get out of this instrument.

Epiphone Wildkat Playability

You won’t have much difficulty playing this excellent Epiphone guitar.

It has a smooth feeling neck which is typical of Epiphone guitars.

The frets are medium jumbo style so they are easy to play and there are 22 frets so you get a full range of sound out of the guitar.

I also like the fact that there was a small cut a wave in this guitar so you can reach the higher frets with relative ease.

The guitar is a little bit heavier than normal so you’ll have to get used to the larger weight and size of the instrument but it shouldn’t be much of a problem for you.

Epiphone Wildkat Hardware

It features a master volume, one tone control, and two volume controls for each pickup. This is an amazing range of features to have in a lower-cost guitar.

Since you can control the volume of each pick up individually, you can get nice sounds of the pickups. You could play softly as well as loudly with each pickup and the master volume control gives you more flexibility over your sound.

You also have a tone control which further helps you sculpt your sound. Usually, you don’t find this range of flexibility with a lower-cost guitar so the fact that this has a lot of different control options is an excellent value in this particular instrument.

Another one of the excellent hardware options that come with this instrument is the Bigsby tremolo system. This is an excellent tremolo to have on a guitar as well sought after by many players.

The fact that it’s a moderately priced guitar is an exceptional value and I was impressed that this was included with this instrument because on many similarly-priced guitars it’s simply not there.

Epiphone Wildkat Value

In terms of value, this guitar really stands out it has an exceptionally broad range of sounds that you can get out of it.

The humbucking pickups both sound great and they are P-90 classics which is an excellent style pick up to have on a moderately priced guitar.

The instrument is well suited to beginners but also intermediate or even guitar players that are a bit more advanced will enjoy playing this guitar because it simply comes with everything you need to make a great sounding blues, jazz, country and other styles of music.

There is no real downside in terms of value to this guitar and this is why it has such a high rating.

Who is the Epiphone Wildkat Guitar Suited For?

This guitar is well-suited for most players. Beginners to intermediate players are going to get the most out of it as more advanced players may be looking for a little bit more than this instrument provides.

You are not going to have a lot of trouble playing in this guitar and it is going to sound great for most styles.

For those that are more into a rock or a metal sound, I would look elsewhere as this instrument will not generally produce those types of tones although it is perfect for more of an old school rock sound.

Epiphone Wildkat Review: Build and Finish

This Epiphone Wildkat guitar currently comes in an antique natural color which is basically a mild yellow color. This guitar currently doesn’t come in other colors.

The neck of the guitar is glue on and neck which is standard for many Epiphone guitars.

The guitar is well finished and you shouldn’t find any blemishes or any problems with the finish.

The guitar features two strap buttons to attach your guitar strap to and on the headstock you’ll find the standard “E” logo which adds a bit of style to this instrument.

The input jack for this instrument is located on the side so make sure you buy a guitar cable that has an angled plug so you don’t squash your guitar cable when using it this instrument.

Epiphone Wildkat: Feel and Action

One of the nice parts about this instrument is that it’s a fun instrument to play even if you are a beginner. It also has everything that you need to create more intermediate or advanced sounds.

The neck on the guitar is fast and smooth and you shouldn’t have many problems playing both rhythm and lead guitar on it although it is better suited for rhythm guitar then it is for lead guitar.

The action on the instrument is quite good for its price and you shouldn’t have to adjust much.

You can always change the string height at the bridge if the strings are not how you like them but you shouldn’t have much of an issue with this.

I found that it was well set up right out of the box.

Epiphone Wildkat: Overall Sound

This instrument is quite full sounding thanks to the F holes so it Is well suited for the complex chords of blues and jazz but you can also play other styles of music such as rockabilly or country on it.

The guitar has excellent pickups for its price range so you’re going to get a very nice sound out of it.

I had no problems creating excellent tones with it and you’re going to enjoy the sound as much as I did. This really is a top quality guitar in this price range and it has everything that you really need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHxoUzuJCXo


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Conclusion

This concludes our Epiphone Wildkat review. I was very impressed with everything that this guitar comes with. You will be able to get many different sounds out of it and it has a lot of extras that other guitars in this price range simply don’t have. There is not a whole lot that is wrong with this instrument and you’ll be very happy that you have purchased it.

Epiphone has created a very nice jazz style guitar with this Wildkat and it’s worth every penny.

Image Credit:

Epiphone.com