This one came to me via Goodwill and, aside from just being a cheaply made budget guitar in need of a setup it also had a nasty chunk missing from the back, kinda too much to ignore.

I started with my typical process of disassembling the entire guitar, deep cleaning all the possible parts and then hitting the fretboard with a level/crown/polish for good measure. I took care of all the fretsprouts, a common occurrence on guitars from China around this time. I replaced the original black plastic nut with one crafted from an unbleached bone blank, obviously for tuning stability/toan but also it really pops with the cream pickup ring! The big chunk on the back was kind of the biggest part of the process and rather than try to cover it up I just chose to make it a pretty good repair if you are just feeling it and not looking at it. The damage is all on the back of the guitar so I really didn't feel to concerned or precious about it. More just to stabilize the damage and make it so you can't get cut on it, as there were shards sticking out before! Additionally to the finish repair and the nut, I also added a switch that I first saw on a Dan Armstrong reissue from 2009, which has a pair of different tone capacitors with a bypass in the middle position. It's a really neat way to add a few extra sounds out of a very simple layout. This has the stock Epiphone pickup in it and it sounds fine. The further down the road i go with playing/working on guitars the more I am a fan of "less is more", but I can't help myself to put a push/pull pot or some little toggle if possible.

Anywho, this guitar does what it is supposed to do. It plays really well for what it is and, dare I say, it's a good guitar without any real qualifiers. There are plenty other versions of this very guitar in the world, available for sale, for less money than I am asking for this one. And if you would rather have one of those, I hope you enjoy wrangling it into shape the way I have enjoyed my time with this one. But if you are a beginner looking for a guitar to start on, this one will be perfect. If you are looking for a guitar to keep at the end of the couch to jam on when you feel inspired, this is definitely the one for that. This is a guitar that you don't need to be afraid of, in fact, you need to bond with it. It already feels broken in and ready for it to become someones sleeper guitar.

Setup with 10s.