Hi folks, I just received one of the epi masterbilt century zenith round holes from Chicago Music Exchange a day ago and thought I would post here about my initial impression.
Pros:
The ebony neck is one of the nicest fastest necks I have ever played; frets nicely polished very low fast feel and no sharp ends, the intonation was perfect as it gets, fret rocker test showed very even frets similar to my national reso rocket for comparison. The width (43mm at nut) and feel is extremely comfortable to my hands, really as good as it gets, for me.
Sound is very nice for my solo vintage blues style, bright, piercing and loud when needed, but sweet delicate unique tones I am enjoying for now in the "honeymoon" phase of our bonding. The low end has a very nice dry blues "thump" tone when damped with right hand. It is not all like the typical dread sound or even most nice flat top parlors, it is different and I like that aspect. Very bright highs, maybe too much and great mids.
Overall quality looks very nice with lots of bling factor.
Cons: No pickguard came with mine, but it was a "blem/2nd deal", who knows. The tuners simply suck, full of mush and slop. They seem to hold OK, but getting there requires lots of fussing around and guesswork and is a lesson in patience. The on board electronics are quacky, have some high and low feedback from my fishman performer amp, maybe some more tweaking will find a good mix. But I will probably just use my fishman rare earth soundhole PU which also has a mic and possibly blend in a tad of the Epi piezo if needed for a full sound. I like having a shure 57 anyway when I can, but always hoping for a natural plug in sound to avoid the feedback loops and hassle of adding mikes on stage.
Mine came set up with light gauge strings and very low action, but with the fairly long scale (25 25/32"), first thing I did after a few hours of playing was to change them out for D addario 80/20 custom lights (11-52) for lighter action for my old arthritic hands and tone down the bright phosphor bronze tone it had with the oem strings. It took and hour to get the new strings and bridge set back to near perfect intonation, but they come packed with a protective strip of thin foam under the bridge, so that had to go anyway.
I am wondering what the perfect affordable hardshell case might be, planning to try it out in some of my existing cases I have other guitars in to find a good fit.
For now, I want to keep it, but change out tuners and find a pickguard to have a nice resting spot to place my right pinky to anchor my right hand. I have a email to epi on the pickguard and tuner issue, curious what they will tell me. Pretty early in my impressions, but I really like how easy the neck plays for an acoustic and the unique tones. I have really enjoyed playing it and am finding it easy to be creative and figure out new melodies, so thinking this will be good for inspirational work and new tunes and be a good gigging and travel instrument to avoid messing up my vintage guitars.
I am wondering if others here have this guitar and what they are thinking about it? I can get measurements and pics of details if anyone here has questions.
Here is link to epi for specs:
http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Aco...lt-Zenith.aspx