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Epiphone ES-335 Dot

 

Review of the Epiphone ES-335 Dot Cherry by The Man in the Jar

Surprisingly this guitar is not the "Chuck-Berry-Cherry" I had expected but a deeper and darker cherry that actually has more in common with the colour of real fresh cherries. Right, that's the cherry out of the way, let's move on. 

Features of the Epiphone ES-335 Dot

Tuners - Chunky sealed Grovers with large kidney knobs. Smooth, accurate and easy to grip.

Headstock - The larger Epiphone headstock is the main feature that marks this guitar out from the Gibson original (that, the E on the scratchplate and the extra £1000 you'd have to find for the Gibson). The black-faced three-a-side headstock has the Epiphone logo in pearloid and the word "Dot" on the truss-rod cover. This does not mean you should call your guitar Dorothy.   

Nut - The black plastic nut abuts the fretboard and looks accurate and cleanly finished.

Neck - The maple set neck is slim and deliciously parallel which makes for a luxurious playing feel, beautifully natural in the hand. That lovely dark cherry gloss finish extends all the way up the neck and onto the back of the headstock adding to the smooth playability. The heel is nicely rounded and presents no real obstacle to the upper frets.

Fretboard - Nicely grained rosewood with the eponymous dot markers in plain white pearloid. Black binding adds a touch of class.

Frets - Lovely fat, flat profile frets nicely polished for easy bending. On a neck this good these frets make a combination that once tried will not be forgotten.

Action - Good from the box. But this is the kind of guitar with which you'll start a relationship, part of that relationship will be your own personal tweaks. It feels like the kind of instrument that will accommodate this evolution and will eventually fit you like a glove and reward the time you spend with it richly.

Body - Semi-hollow, arch-topped, arch-backed, f-holed piece of fat-bottomed rock and roll history. Essentially this laminated maple body with its centre-block design echoes the experiments of the early pioneers of electric guitar building. The hollow "wings" inform the resonance of a tone rooted in the airiness of the maple construction. The dark cherry colour is truly delicious and the cream binding adds.... well, the cream!

Bridge - The tune-o-matic with stoptail design is time-honoured and time-tested and still looks great. Individual saddles mean you can adjust each string for intonation (length). Height (action) is adjusted by a screw at each end of the bridge.

Pickups - Two chrome-covered humbuckers with alnico classic magnets sit in black plastic mounts. 

Controls - One volume and one tone for each pickup with gold top-hat knobs. Unusually when both pickups are selected, both volumes act as master. This unfortunately denies the possibility of blending the pickups. The three-way pickup selector sits between the playing area and the controls which may take a few sessions to get used to, especially for Strat players.

Pickguard - Classic-style raised pickguard that floats on a right-angle chrome bracket. It's a three-ply black/white/black material and sports the the Epiphone "E" logo. 

Strap-buttons - Medium sized buttons, one on the bottom of the body and one on the back of the heel. This latter position makes for a different and very comfortable playing position on the strap.

Output Jack - Set in the face of the guitar unadorned by any decorative plate. 

Finish - Really good throughout, that cherry really seems to glow.

 

Sound of the Epiphone ES-335 Dot

The acoustic (unamplified) sound of this guitar is pure jazz. Mmmmm. Nice...  Plugged up through a clean valve amp the Dot effortlessly delivers classic electric voices that nail '50's rock and roll, jazz, funk and smoky blues as you flick through the pickup selector. This journey is an absolute joy - it's very rare to get so much tonal variation simply from the pickup selection, left-hand technique and the choice of where you attack the strings. 
Add a touch of overdrive and the warmth and fatness of this generous guitar start to drip from the speakers. Heavy blues-rock and chunky indie rhythms are all meat to this guitar's very rich gravy. Soloing is a pleasure and if you're jamming the thing loud enough the true joy of the semi-acoustic is yours to savour - harmonic feedback in all its controllable loveliness. 

 

Overall Impressions of the Epiphone ES-335 Dot 

This guitar design has been around as long as your granny and it has survived the many decades for very good reasons. The voicing of this guitar and its tonal range are staggering and it sits against your body as snugly as a promise. Forget the Epiphone label, this is a serious chunk of excellent guitar, a fantastic vintage-voiced instrument of not inconsiderable beauty.

Buy the Epiphone ES-335 Dot Cherry

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