Epiphone ES-339 Pelham Blue

Looks nice, sounds great, unfortunately unplayable

First, the guitar is really beautiful. The pelham blue color is great and the binding looks mostly good. The finishing of the f-holes is pretty rough, but it is OK.

The new pickups also sound great. REALLY good actually if you like the PAF sound. Bright and articulate. No muddy sounds here.

The problems:

the nut was not cut at all so the strings sit really high at the first fret.

the fretwork is terrible. buzzes and dead spots all over with VERY sharp fret ends. Several spots on the neck cannot be played at all, even after a good setup. Too bad! It is currently being sent back for warranty repair or replacement. Maybe a monday model, but after all of the epiphone marketing claiming they are improving their quality control I am extremely dissappointed. It seems they forgot to finish building the guitar. Nut cutting and fret levelling are a part of the build process.

A lot of guitar for that money.

What to say, this 339 sounds wonderfully, just like the real thing...

I own both a Gibson 335 and an Gibson ES Les Paul, and the quality of sound is at that level.

Under an esthetic point of view, the instrument is nice, good painting, no issues.

Regarding the playability is good, even if this aspect is the one different from the Gibson “touch and feel”. I’m not surprised of course, this guitar costs a fifth of the Gibson version, and somewhere the savings have to be gone...

But, to be honest, this guitar is great for not professional guitarists, and it’s good for advanced ones too.

This guitar becomes a little less comfortable playing, for example, Donna Lee at 230 bpm, but not everyone has this need...