NGD

[Larry Mal]

I'd been wanting one of these for a while and the 0% interest got me, it's one of those new Rivieras:



And it's great. Like so many of us I've been watching the quality of Epiphone guitars creep up year after year and I just don't really see any way that this guitar would be any better.

For starters, the hardware, the tuners feel great (they'll get replaced with locking ones), the bridge is good, the Frequensator tailpiece is solid and well constructed. I'm told the electronics are CTS so Epiphone is just putting the same stuff in there that Gibson does and you can feel it. The pickup selector switch has some noise to it and for a while the bridge pickup only position was intermittent but seems to have reconciled, or maybe I'll need a warranty repair.

The pickups are good, everybody said they would be online and they are. I don't particularly feel any need to change them out for anything else. Of course, this is the first mini-humbucker guitar I've ever had, and it just came today.

The fingerboard is laurel, some examples of that looked a little light, but this one pretty much looks like rosewood to me. I know some people care a lot about what wood the fingerboard is, I've never given a shit. This one is as good as any.

You can see the finish is good, it's great in person. Used to be that Epiphone's finishes were noticeably worse than Gibson's, but this is just wonderful. It seems to be applied lightly.

The guitar is heavy, but not heavier than an ES-335. It's a resonant guitar, a lot of sustain there, and a good acoustic sound for being what it is.

So, yeah, if you were looking at these have at it. It seems that Gibson's philosophy is that Epiphone should be the best guitar they can make in China, no more limiting the quality of the instruments so as to draw a clear distinction between Gibson and Epiphone.

Granted, this is the first Epiphone I've ever owned. Anyway, it's a cool guitar.

[i love sharin foo]

I had two different Lennon Casinos (at different times). They were both fantastic. The resonance really surprised me. I got it in my head that I really needed an ES-330 instead so I bought a ‘65. I had it and one of the Casinos at the same time. The 330 didn’t sound any better. I still sold the Casino, because, you know, vintage is always better, right? Epiphone has been turning out great guitars. I really like those Rivieras. It’s funny, by now, most of my favorite and most used guitars were all built within the last few years.

[Larry Mal]

Actually, I was wrong! You reminded me, I used to own a Casino. One of the Korean made ones, everyone assured me that was the good ones. I hated it- sold it and bought an ES-330, not a vintage one.

Anyway that Casino sucked, the finish was thick and awful, the nut was super narrow, it had no resonance or anything good sounding about it acoustically, although I did put in some cheap Joe Barden pickups and it did sound good plugged in.

I gave it away, I didn't want to even tell anyone that they should buy it. And the guy I gave it to also gave it away, and the person he gave it to doesn't have it, either. No one wanted that thing.

It turned me off the brand, although I'd look at the John Lennon ones and the Elitist ones and always thought those looked good.

But this this was like $700 bucks- no case- and it's just great.

[Nudger]

That is one pretty guitar

[BoringPostcards]

Good score, Larry!

[Salfaromeab]

Lovely, I think Royal Tan might be my favourite burst!

[luau]

Congrats! Those are really nice looking.

[mediocreplayer]

Ah more Epiphone NGDs! I love the Rivieras because of the mini humbuckers (which I prefer to P-90s) and for pretending to be in The Strokes. The Frequensator looks so cool.

I have a Worn Casino which, bridge rattle aside, is such a fantastic guitar. The bridge is like a $25 replacement that I never got to (I think you even told me what to replace it with; I need to look that up again) because the guitar already checks all the boxes for me. Epiphone really make incredible instruments these days.

Have fun!

[Surfysonic]

Congrats & enjoy, Larry - I agree, the Royal Tan is beautiful. Nice get!

[Fiddy]

This is really nice. Congrats. Fretwork is good? No uneven frets? Sharp fret ends?

[Maggieo]

Man, that is one sweet guitar, Larry!

[Larry Mal]

This is really nice. Congrats. Fretwork is good? No uneven frets? Sharp fret ends?

Well, I do have a fret rocker, and haven't tested it completely. Nothing stands out but I'll check tonight. I guess I need to give it a setup, I lowered the bridge on the bass side a bit which made it more playable. Haven't checked to see if the neck needs a truss rod turn or what have you but then again it probably wouldn't do me any good to do that for a week or so.

Lowering the bridge is easy. You've all seen me complain about Gibson bridges for a while now, this Epiphone one is better than the vast majority of crap I've pulled off Gibsons over the years and I knew that going into it- I think that Gibson is finally making decent bridges now that can adjust as easily as Epiphones have been able to for a long time now.

[seenoevil II]

This looks awesome, and if I was in the market, this would be on the short list. The frequencator, the minis, the finish, the epi hourglass headstock, the trapezoid inlays, it's such a beautiful package. I'm happy to hear that you're digging it. I've played a couple of the post 2020 epiphone thin lines and man are they nice. IDK about this one, but I know that the 335's are split HB's with push pulls. My only niggle about them was the neck profile which was pretty slim and flat (although, that's exactly like my Firebird and that's been my number one for two years running).

Nothing a like a cheap guitar that's so nice that you may never pick up any of your even nicer expensive guitars again! I've never owned an epiphone that was exactly what I was after. They were always super nice guitars, but they were simply the wrong model for me. If they made these back when I was a teenager* I may never have needed anything else!

Yeah, the epiphone dumbucker will not be missed. Them combined with CTS should sound amazing. FWIW, my Gibosn 335 had the same issue with the selector switch. I even re-flowed the solder a couple times. I think the issue is in the contacts themselves though. Mine "grew out of it" with sufficient use, however. The biggest thing IMHO, is that they redid the body profile on these. The horns and waist are now in correct proportion. You can tell because the models with stop tailpieces, the selector switch is in line with the studs instead of significantly in front of it.

Anyway, enough blathering, that thing looks fantastic. Good job! Have fun getting it all tuned up.

*I think they did, but they were vanishingly rare, a few hundred dollars extra and didn't come with all of the 2020 upgrades yours has.

[Larry Mal]

I've played a couple of the post 2020 epiphone thin lines and man are they nice. IDK about this one, but I know that the 335's are split HB's with push pulls.

Yeah, my main guitar I've been playing lately has been my Bullet, I wrote a song yesterday that had both the Riviera and Bullet. But shit, that Bullet has become just my go-to. I love how it plays and sounds- it has Kinman pickups in it now.

I have an email thread with Mike, our friend from Canada, and I was referencing a conversation you, he and I had back in the day where you were saying the Epiphone ES-335 was every bit as good as a Gibson, I was skeptical then, but at some point I'm going to bring out my ES-330 and play the Riviera and that side by side.

But mainly I'm going to compare the quality. My feeling right now is, all the things Gibson used to do to hold Epiphones back from being as good as anything else seem to be gone now. The Riviera's headstock is kind of crude and unfinished, I kind of think. Don't get me wrong, I like the Epiphone headstock and have no complaints, but it's just a piece of wood painted two ways rather than the more elaborate stuff Gibson does sometimes.

Not worse, just different. Otherwise, the finish on this is just beautiful, and I can't find any flaws or anything. I guess there is some black schmutz on the neck, but I think that'll rub away. It's just a well constructed guitar.

[Larry Mal]

This is really nice. Congrats. Fretwork is good? No uneven frets? Sharp fret ends?

So, the fret ends are just fine, the fret rocker did reveal a few frets that are a little high, but it's very minimal and honestly almost every guitar I've ever gotten has had this kind of minimal uneven frets. It's nothing you'd notice and nothing I'll be addressing any time soon.