Yesterday, I bought....

[svannim]

An Epiphone EJ-200 Artist and I'm very impressed with it. I went to GC to pick up the guitar I had played in the acoustic room, and when I asked for a box or something for it so it wouldn't have to sit bare in the trunk of a car, the salesperson said that they had an unopened guitar in the back and they could just swap the two guitars. Well I asked to play the unopened guitar and it was considerably better than the display model I was going to buy. The wood was darker, it had a nicer grain, absolutely gorgeous back, and best of all, there was little to no fret buzz. So I bought the unopened guitar instead for the same price. I am very very impressed with the quality of this guitar. There are no visible signs of glue, no scratches or imperfections in the wood, and the action is just as good as my Les Paul right out of the box. Also, the bass and mids on this thing sound almost/as good as the bass on a Gibson J-200, no exaggeration. (And I HAVE played the older and newer models of the J-200) Even though this guitar has brand new strings on it, they feel a bit light and I believe that they aren't allowing the highs to come through, so I'm going to replace them with D'Addario medium phospher bronze strings. But here are a few questions.. Does anyone know the gauge and brand of the factory strings on Epi acoustics? Are they phos. bronze? Do you think a string change would brighten up the highs (namely the e and b)? Also, I'm considering getting a bone saddle made for this guitar, anyone have an estimated cost? Anyway, overall, I HIGHLY recommend this guitar for anyone looking for a jumbo, it's much better sounding than the regular EJ-200's I played. Thanks!