Epiphone Wildkat Royale

It's really a wild cat, sounds good, looks amazing and feels just great!

very heavy for a semi hollow guitar

open the package, and took out the guitar and first impressions was god this feels heavy ,so put it on the scales it was just short of 9lb which is a pound heaver than my fender usa stratocaster which totally defeats the object in buying a semi hollow guitar ,i needed a lighter guitar, also was not impressed with the finish and the action out the box ,so this item was returned same day i was very disappointed in this guitar ,expected much better from epiphone

Awesome guitar - Might need extensive fret work

For the price is literally impossible to find such a beauty.

Pros:

- To me the pickups sound about right, is certainly a beautiful sounding set of pickups. They're loud too. I'm playing "Bryant's Bounce" with it and love it's sound.

- Marvelous choice of finish and colors. Certainly has a special, very attractive look.

- Great tuners: Grover tuners, no less.

- It's lighter than my Gretsch center block, and a tad lighter if any compared to my Gretsch 5420t. It still feels solid, it not as light as it looks. Not as light as a plain modern LP.

- Very comfortable to play due to it's size too.

- Good sturdy hardware.

- It keeps intonation good, given you know a Bigsby is not for big benders or dive bombers. If you bend big you need to tweak your trem bar. Still I don't think is worse than any of my Gretsch guitars.

Cons:

- The bindings below the F holes are badly finished, leaving traces of glue....I quickly and easily fixed them by grabbing a small piece of sandpaper. Done, beautiful.

- The fretwork is quite poor, I had to file around 30 different fret spots, overall it was very irregular, some of them quite high, most notably at the 12th and 18th frets. The guitar was madly buzzing before I took the time to level them with a Hosco Japanese fret (awesome tool)...after that I could set the action on the low side buzz free.

- The wires inside cause a buzz, hard to put some cotton and tape there to hold the cables through the F hole.

- The saddle setup was a bit off...but that's common.

- I feel the angle from the Bigsby roller to the bridge is a tad too sharp. I might change the bridge to a roller one, also for fancy reasons, but so far I don't feel I need to do so....the bridge doesn't rock as one youtube video shows and the guitar simply plays fine.

Conclusion:

This is a guitar a Jazz player would love to get his hands on. It has a beautiful tone and plays awesome.

It needs setup: Not a guitar for people that doesn't have the knowledge to fix it. It would require a luthier full setup plus some cosmetic fixes on the f holes.

I still give it 5 stars because in my opinion this is a premium guitar that could be around a couple thousands but seems like Epiphone is giving them away because they're badly finished from the chinese factory.

UPDATE:

- Changed it's bigsby roller to a special one (bricksbiggsfix) that sits higher and gives you the right angle towards the bridge. Marvelous, after leaving the arm up or down the strings didn't go out of tune anymore.

- Installed a roller bridge. Always helps. (no it doesn't suck your tone or sustain)

- Installed some PlanetWaves locking/trimming tuners.

- Changed the pots and selector cap for metal gold.

Well....this now is an outstanding guitar.

Excellent!

I absolutely love this guitar!

I was really sceptical about buying this as it was made by Epiphone and had Epiphone p90s in installed and it seems that it was exclusively used for Blues and Jazz, which I am not at all fond of. The Epiphones I've had before have been really good or really bad, so it seemed like a bit of a toss up. So I did some research and looked up some videos, and sure enough it was mainly Blues and Jazz players. So I thought I'd try it out, and I'm glad I did. It plays really well, Epiphone have done a fantastic job with this guitar and it is very good looking too. It's also quite versatile. Feedback isn't really much of a problem either.

Very happy with it.

A classic at suberb value

People sometimes forget that Epiphone have been around a long time and haven't always been Gibson's "Asian Branch". They produce superb instruments of their own and this example, with its chambered/hollow body, and shape only slightly nodding towards the Gibson style is otherwise "its own boss". It looks like Guitar Royalty, with its luminiescent finish and gold binding - it plays and sounds like a dream. Its styling is a cunning combination of traditional and contemporary. I still find it hard to believe I paid just £250GBP. This guitar struts with confidence, rather than arrogance, and being priced less than many "Gibson" Epiphones, less than some Squiers, it is Guitar Aristocracy at a "Commoners" price!

Epiphone Wildcat Royale.

Top quality product..was in hospital there for a few day's, even me father was blown away by the look of it.

Fair play to ya's boy's & girl's.

Another great product.

Barry B.

My lovely guitar

Amazing, great, awesome, beautiful and romantic

I realise that I made a very good choices and I very happy with my product.

Thank you

Epiphone Wildkat Royale

The first one I had delivered was finished badly but I had no problem with returning the item and as expected, I received a replacement guitar promptly which was spot on. Excellent service!