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Been lusting after a Johnny A since the Gibson model first came out and was ecstatic to see that they were going to produce a model from Epiphone that was affordable. I've always been "buy American" when it comes to guitars, but find that they are now producing some excellent instruments overseas and this Epihpone is no exception. Not only does it have the same pickups and Bigsby as the Gibson, but it looks identical to the expensive Gibson in every way. Love the light weight and size of this guitar. The finish is perfect and the body style (similar to the Trini Lopez and Barney Kessel) with the double Florentine cutaways is way cool. The neck is similar to my Les Paul's and plays well and the sound, even non-amplified, is sweet. For those of you like me who couldn't afford a Gibson Custom Shop Johnny A, this Epiphone Limited Edition for less than a fifth of the cost is a must have. Now if I could only play like Johnny A....

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I bought this guitar after reading on some sights that the neck was a slim taper versus the "custom Johnny A. designed" baseball bat that comes on the Gibson which, after playing in person, I hated. The neck on the Epiphone is much more refined and playable in my opinion. The Epiphone also has the die-cast Bigsby B70 trem which for my money has much less slop than the sand cast B7. The fact that this guitar is $4K less than the Gibson makes this a total winner for me. The guitar is flawless in every aspect. Fit and finish blow what I'm seeing from the mother ship away. Looks like there will be more Eppies in my future.On another note, this is my first purchase from zZounds. While I did have to do the setup on the instrument when it arrived, (I would have to do that no matter who I bought from) I found the delivery reasonably fast (five days) and the overall transaction extremely easy.

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I've wanted this guitar since I first saw it and read the review in Guitar Player. Had a hard time finding one but zZounds had one. Looks, plays and sounds great. Comes with a quality custom case which is nice since it is a unique shape and scale length. Plays well out of the box but nut is higher than I would like. I've had Bigsby's before but this one is stiffer than I like and doesn't return exactly so I've ordered a Bricks Biggsfix and a softer spring which I expect to solve those problems. I can't find any flaws.

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with the american-made Gibson Humbuckers, the guitar sound great, had to setup the neck, with minor adjustment. However, the Bigsby vibrato mount with the the abr-1 bridge does not work well. The string angle over the bridge is too sharp. There is an aftermarket modification called Bigsby tuning stablizier available from Brigg'sBigfix. It greatly improves tuning and more stability by reducing the string angle. Fed Ex destroyed the box, but the guitar was intact.

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These are well built and have a very full, rich tone, but the main problem area is the bridge/tremolo. The bridge uses the thin adjustment screws, and the Bigsby is so close to the bridge that the strings are at a too sharpe angle to the bridge causing all kinds of problems. I solved the problems by installing a roller bridge w/large adjustment screws, and then bypassed the Bigsby roller. Those two things made it stay in tune and play like butter.

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after playing the guitar and modifying the bigsby setup with the tuning stablizer and changing to slinky's 10's - the guitar plays great and stays in tune much better. Worthwhile purchase

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I just received my Epiphone Johnny A. Beautiful guitar and certainly can play along side the Gibson. This will be my go to guitar. One slight annoyance. The neck strap button is in a bad place making the guitar pitch forward when playing with the strap standing up. The guitar button must be moved for a better balance.

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