AJ-200S Review

The Epiphone AJ-200S boasts a solid Spruce top for exceptional projection and resonance. The tone is deep and rich, and the neck is as playable as instruments costing hundreds more. If you're looking for a dreadnought acoustic guitar with more quality, playability and tone than fancy appointments, bells and whistles, look no further.

Features:	8
Sound:	10
Action:	10
Reliability:	10
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.6
Users rating:	8.9
Comments:	3

overall: 9.6

Reviewed by: Zeppelin71, on june 01, 2005

Price paid: $ 400

Features: This acoustic guitar has many good qualities. I wanted a Gibson J45, but it was a little steep at the time, so I got an Epiphone dreadnought. It has 20 frets, but isn't a cutaway, so you won't really use those a whole lot. This was not an electric acoustic, but I made it one anywho and it works just fine for it. The tuners are nothing special, but keep tune very well. It's got a tobacco finish I think with beautiful white body and neck binding. Slap some Ernie Ball Earths (Light) and this guitar is excellent. // 8

Sound: This guitar suits my style. My band cannot locate a local drummer, so we decided we'd tone it down and go acoustic. So I play mostly Eric Clapton and Marshall Tucker and some Led Zeppelin. Anything soft enough, but not too soft. This guitar suits all very well. You can play pretty much anything on it. Sadly, when used with my amp of choice (Line6 Spider II), the feedback is awful and the feedback buster makes it sound tinny. But that's my fault, not the Epi's. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar had no flaws and everything was placed perfectly. From the manufacturer, this guitar was excellently constructed. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I take my Epi to my gigs with no backup. This guitar isn't really like an electric. There's not so much hardware. My pick up is a Barcus and Berry acoustic pickup and is really the only thing that can fail. Everything is solid. No worries. Does gigs fine. // 10

Impression: Like I said, this was a replacement for the J45 I never had. But for the last year, I have been playing guitar and harp and this is an excellent piece of workmanship. My fav. feature would be the low end sound. It's rich and hums with attitude. If it were lost I'd replace it or buy the J45. Now, I don't know if there would be that much of a difference. There's nothing about this guitar I hate. It's my baby. I only wish it had come with a case. It's got some beauty marks now. // 10

Comments

[kenshinsrain]

yeh ive been doing alot of research on epiphone guitars nd this was deffinetly helpful

[camie2cool]

is that $400 USD?
im in NZ and they cost like $450 here. ($200 ish USD)
but it said AJ200, no S on the end. Is this a cheaper model or was the shop just lazy? Nice review btw

[xanty]

I have the AJ-200SCE (solid top, cut-away, electric) which is similar to this model. I use it mostly acoustic, and the sound is good: loud, deep bottom and clear highs. Strummed it sounds good, although sometimes I think it is not that 'articulate'. I have replaced the plastic bridge and pins with buffalo bone ones, which has improved the depth of the sound quite some. Sounds good, rich and sweet; has good looks and it's confortable. For the price, I recommend it. (vintage sunburst version has nice finish)