Top 5 Best Epiphone Guitar In 2021

Epiphone is an American brand, established in 1873. This 140-year-old guitar brand makes one of the top-graded instruments in the music industry. Epiphones are the leaders of innovation. They will never give a second thought when it comes to taking risks while pursuing excellence.

As Epiphone is now owned by Gibson, they can use Gibson’s design to make a lower-priced version of high-end Gibson guitars. So if you cannot spend thousands of dollars on a Gibson, you can pick one of the best Epiphones guitar version of that guitar for a fraction of the price.

Epiphone guitars are reasonably priced, have professional and amateur qualities, and have some influences from the Gibson. Some of their best models are Casino, Sheraton and Sheraton II, and Les Paul. Epiphones, despite being cheap they can rival higher-priced guitars.

In addition to this round-up of the very best Epiphone acoustic guitars you can buy right now, we have also split our expert recommendations down further by brand series. So you can also choose to check out our recommendations below:

• Gibson guitars – Super popular and loved by millions of people
• Yamaha guitar – One of the best guitars for beginners
• Taylor guitar – a best-seller American guitar

The line up at a glance

After a series of in-depth research on several products, we’ve selected these Best Epiphone Guitar. Read through each product with its pros and cons to find your guitar.

Our Picks For Top 5 Best Epiphone Guitar in 2021

The Epiphone Hummingbird Pro is suitable for many guitar styles. The guitar can produce multiple tones. It is also ideal for different music genres like rock, jazz, blues, and country. The tone is very clear and beautiful, and you can enhance the sound by plugging it into an amp. The guitar is also very easily playable. It comes with a preamp system that runs on a battery, which too is one of its key features. The guitar has a very comfortable feel to it, and the mid frets are easy to press.

The Epiphone Hummingbird Pro is a custom Hummingbird shaped guitar. The top is made out of solid source, but the back and side are made out of mahogany. The neck is also made out of mahogany and has a D profile to it. The scale length is 24.72” and comes with 20frets. The fingerboard is made out of Pau Ferro and has a Pearloid twin parallelogram inlays. The nut material is graph tech. Lastly; the guitar has a gloss finish to it.

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Epiphone EJ-200SCE is the best alternative for Gibson acoustic, which costs tons more. The tone is as good as the Gibson guitar, but you are saving hundreds of dollars. The guitar uses a grove tuner instead of a traditionally used generic Epiphone. It is interesting because you really don’t see grover tuners in a 500$ guitar. It also comes with a rosewood bridge, which is also a sign of high-profile guitar. The cutaway allows max accessibility to play high notes without losing any sound at all.

Let’s get into the specs of the Epiphone EJ-200SCE. The guitar comes in a super jumbo shape with a single-cutaway. The top has solid spruce, but the body is made out of maples. The fretboard and bridge use rosewood, while the neck is made out of maple woods. The slim neck with a scale length of 25.5” and 20 frets resembles the Gibson counterpart. The guitar uses an Epiphone eSonic2 pickup for playing it while plugged-in. You have two choices regarding the finish of the guitar, the black or the natural vintage sunburst.

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The Epiphone DR-100 is a low-budget quality guitar. This guitar is best suited for beginners. The action of Epiphone DR-100 was set up very well right out of the box. The sound quality, build quality and playability are as good as a high-end acoustic guitar. Because of its dreadnought body shape, the guitar has an excellent booming sound to it. The smooth neck allows the beginners to learn the guitar without any challenge.

Epiphone DR-100The body shape of DR-100 is a dreadnought which is ideal for rock, country, and bluegrass. The guitar has a solid Sitka spruce for the top and the back, and the sides are made out of laminated Mahogany. The top gives the guitar a loud booming tone. The nuts and saddles are both made out of synthetic plastic. The neck is made from Okoume and comes with a slim-taper neck and an adjustable truss rod. The guitar has 20 frets with a scale length of 25.5”/ 647.7mm. The neck joint is a Dovetail; glued-in system.

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The Epiphone PR4E is a fantastic acoustic guitar that comes at a very reasonable price and perfect for beginners. Despite the price, it comes with an amp and sounds great. The guitar is light-weight and strong, it is also very comfortable to play.  The cutaway of the guitar helps you reach the high notes with ease. The only drawbacks are, the amp that comes with the guitar is basic and only suitable for playing on your own. The guitar does not sound good at all while plugged-in, and lastly, it’s not the best-looking guitar on the market. But despite all the drawbacks, the guitar is a complete package, to say the least.

Epiphone PR4E is a mini jumbo shaped guitar, and it comes with a single-cutaway. The top wood is made out of spruce while the back and sides of the guitar are out of mahogany. The bracing pattern of the guitar is X and comes with a polyurethane finish. When it comes to the neck profile, it is a modern C, and the wood used for the neck is also mahogany. The fingerboard is constructed with rosewood. Nut width of the guitar is 1.68” or 42.67mm, and the scale length is 24.75” with 20 frets. The neck also comes with a polyurethane finish. Now moving on to electronics, Does the guitar come with pickup or preamp? Yes. It comes with an Epiphone side-mounted preamp with 3-band preamp EQ and phase feedback filter. It also comes with a built-in tuner.

Other feature includes

• Tuning machines: Premium covered (14:1 ratio)
• Bridge: Rosewood
• Headstock overlay: Black veneer
• Special features: Pickup system
• Case: Sold separately
• Saddle and nut: Imitation bone

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Epiphone FT-100 is a superb Acoustic Guitar that comes at a great price. It looks very aesthetic because of the vintage sunburst color. The dreadnought shape gives the guitar a warm sound.

Epiphone FT-100 Acoustic Guitar comes with dreadnought shape with layered mahogany back and sides and a select spruce top. It has a gloss body finish. The neck is constructed with mahogany with SlimTaper™ C-profile 25.5”/647.7mm scale length and 20 frets. When it comes to hardware, it comes with a chrome tuner plating, chrome finish, and Epiphone diecast tuning machines.

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Criteria used for evaluation

Body shapes and woods

The guitar shapes affect both the sound and the playability. There are many guitar body shapes like the dreadnought, grand auditorium, orchestra, Parlor, and Jumbo. A parlor shaped guitar has a light, focused, and balanced sound. Grand auditorium and orchestra guitar shapes come in outstanding balance, projection, and volume. They are usually not dependent on any plug-ins or amps. They tend to sound good on their own.

The dreadnought guitars are larger in size and more focused on the low frequencies. It is highly famous among flat pickers. The body shapes also include cutaways. A single-cutaway can give you access to higher notes. It is more prominent among people who tend to play solo or leads. But guitar with no cutaways tends to have better volume and bass. Different tonewoods sound and feel different. A good tonewood resonates better, gets better with age, and improves the visual.

But it comes to us with no surprise; the definition of great sound is subjective as it depends on each individual’s genre and taste. The spruce is the best choice for the top of the guitar. It gives the guitar tonal properties. Sitka spruce is slightly harder than average spruce. The rosewood will be the perfect one for the back and side. It provides the guitar with a rich and warm tone. The Mahogany is the more commonly used tonewood as it is famous for its durability. It is also renowned for producing subtle overtones and earthy midrange tonality.

Fingerboard and Neck

The neck of your guitar does not affect the tone. But it does put a huge difference when it comes to comfort. Acoustic neck usually has 12 or 14 fret necks. This number of frets is above the guitar body. On a 12th fret neck guitar, the 13th and 14th frets will be on the body. Thus it will be harder to reach the high notes.

Another factor is the neck joint. Most acoustic guitars come with a set neck, which is basically glued. Then there is a bolt-on neck. The advantages of bolt-on necks are they are replaceable, and the guitar with bolt-on necks are cheap. The dovetail neck joint is the best choice for acoustic guitars. Dive tail necks are structurally strong. It also helps the vibration of your playing. It can somewhat give your instrument a warm and more fullness in the sound.

The fingerboard is an essential part of a guitar, and your fingerboard must be made out of high-quality material. Woods used for the fingerboards are Rosewood, Maple, and Granadillo. Rosewood is more preferred for the majority of the player as it is naturally oily and a medium density wood. You can expect your guitar to be lightweight and smooth. The rosewood also provides a warm and soft tone.

The maple is more famous for its stunning visuals. Maple is very dense, and it’s a strong wood. Rosewood is better than maple because the maple fingerboard can be a bit sticky after the finish. So it should come to us with no surprise, you should choose an acoustic with rosewood fingerboard rather than a maple fingerboard.

Acoustic-Electric

A pure acoustic guitar is more focused on the unplugged sound, whereas an acoustic with a plug-in system, yes, of course, focuses more on the plugged-in sound. An excellent acoustic guitar usually comes with a preamp to make the sound stronger. The preamp also comes with a tuner, volume, and tone control. So if you plan on playing in an unplugged show or just to play for your own, you can go with pure acoustic guitars from the list. The acoustic-electric guitars are more suitable for plugged performances.