In the world of stress, pressure, and deadlines, music is that tune that soothes the soul, brightens the eye, and makes hearts smile. Music can be found in all parts of the world be it in the villages of Nigeria or the upscale cities of Sydney. Over the years, humans have evolved and developed various types of instruments for creating music. Today, there are thousands of musical instruments to choose from. Each type of instrument has its own specialty at the type of music or tune they produce.
The most common musical instruments can be broadly classified into six main categories. These include woodwind, percussion, brass, bowed strings, keyboard, and finally the family of guitars. String instruments have lately gained a lot of importance. For classical music, best banjos are widely used and for the rock music, guitars are preferred. Three types of guitar include classical guitar, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar. In this article, we have reviewed this semi-hollow electric guitar for you to get an idea whether to purchase it or no.
About Epiphone Wildkat Semi-Hollow Electric Guitar
Epiphone Wildkat Semi-Hollow Electric Guitar is a limited edition, very fancy guitar with a vintage feel to it. It has a generous look with a frame of maple top design with a heavy tone. The neck of the guitar is also made of maple wood that gives it a very old school rock feel. The sides and the back of the guitar are made of mahogany for the complete look and feel. Epiphone has been one of the leaders in the archtop design segment since the early 1930s.
They specialized in archtop type guitars even before the electric type came into existence. Epiphone is known to make extraordinary decisions in making simple yet extraordinarily built guitars. Here Epiphone created a gorgeous mix between the archtop and a solid body guitar for an amazing look and feel. With the great build, and the deep tone Wildkat guitar has taken its seat among the best guitars of Epiphone.
Pros:
- Incredible Range of Sound
- Sustainable Product
- Great Projection
Cons:
- Needs some manual adjustments
- The Bigsby causes tuning issues
Features of Epiphone Wildkat Guitar
- The body shape of this guitar is a single cutaway with a chambered body type. It is glossy and laminated and made of maple wood. And its orientation is right-handed.
- The neck shape of the guitar is Slim Taper D. The neck wood is also maple with a joint set in with glossy finish. The truss rod of the guitar is standard and the scale length is 24.75 inches.
- The fretboard of this epiphone wildkat electric guitar has a radius of 12 inches with the size of a medium jumbo. The inlays are dot with 22 frets and the nut width of 1.68 inches. The material of the fretboard is rosewood.
- The control layout has a master volume, master tone, volume 1 and 2. It additionally has a three-way pickup switch. It does not have any coil tap or split and also no kill switch.
Epiphone Wildkat Semi-Hollow Guitar Review
The Wildcat has been in the Epiphone range for a long time and is known for its vintage look and rock band feel about it. It’s a center block semi-hollow mahogany bodied guitar that is a little different from the other electric guitars in the range. The guitar pots it carries are the best among the other competitive ranges.
Some of the points to consider in the review are as follows:
1. Body Build
The guitar is quite sturdy and classy in its build. The gloss finish makes it look luxurious to an old fashioned shabby finished guitar. It is made of single cut wood and has an elegant look. It is not too big for the player as it is sleek and slim in design. The material of the body is maple wood that gives the guitar a natural feel. It is easy to carry around even though it’s a little heavy. This is because it has a slim neck built.
The neck of this guitar is also made of maple much like its body and gives a classy touch to it. The overall body built of the guitar is a little vintage but not over the top. It can be best used to play jazz or metal tunes like the best accordions for beginners. The inside of the guitar is made of a mahogany block as opposed to the maple on the surface. This makes the guitar looks luxurious at a reasonable price.
2. Hardware & Electronics
The hardware of the guitar is full of metal that gives it most of the weight. It has a Bigsby tremolo that makes it very well-powered. It does not possibly hinder its feel or shape but adds a little weight to it and is a little difficult to tune. The electrics of the guitar have two P90 pick up which is placed well and is covered with volume buttons for each pick up.
Apart from that, there is a master tone and a master volume as well. These features make this Wildkat guitar very versatile and useful making it a common pick for all types of genre especially for jazz and acoustic types. Additionally, the guitar also has a three-way pick-up switch with a neck pick up as well. Although this broadens the range of the guitar, it also sometimes makes the guitar difficult to adjust the tune.
3. Body Playability
The guitar’s body playability is a Semi-hollow or a chambered body type. This gives it a common ground between the resistant, compact, along with sometimes pushy tone of a solid body and the loud, open, and wide voice of a fully hollow body. This gives the guitar a slightly muted and the boxed acoustic sound as compared to fully hollow body. The playability of the guitar is not too difficult. It is well polished and narrows at the edges. And this makes it rather easy to play.
The neck of the guitar is also slim and easily holdable. Therefore, it can be carried and taken places. The curves of the guitar are in the right places as a result of which one can play the guitar comfortably while standing as well as sitting. Although the neck is not a speed neck and has a lot more wood than any other regular guitar, but this does not affect the playability of the guitar. Overall, it has a very comfortable playable body.
4. Guitar Sound
The sound produced by any guitar is a very important part of its features. Sounds range from sharp metal and rocks to soft acoustic and bass sounds. The Epiphone Wildkat has a very soothing sound with a clean finish of the tunes. The pickup of the guitar is great on the bridge and with a clear crisp sound and finish. Both the acoustic and bridge pickups together sound quite good.
The neck picks up is a little deep when compared to the other two. What makes the body playability of the guitar so different is that it’s not a very heavily driven metal guitar framework or sound. It plays well with light strings and acoustic type tunes. Therefore, this one is a perfect choice to add a little softness and color to an otherwise hard to sharp tune from some other guitar.
5. Performance
The performance of this guitar is good at various scales. It is sturdy and easily playable. It does not have any workmanship flaw. Although the performance of this guitar is not particularly unique when compared to other electric guitars in this range, this is certainly a smooth play. The factory settings of the Epiphone Wildkat are very professionally set which makes the guitar stay in tune while performing.
It gives the guitar a smooth performance and performance ease. The overall performance is not bad however sometimes the pickups get a little hot and noisy. It is also a very sustainable product as far as its performance is considered. However, it will not be a great suggestion for a beginner or a person passionate about hard metal genres. People who like to perform soothing and acoustic tunes on the guitar should definitely buy this one and then compose your musical piece using the software like FL Studio or Studio one.
Conclusion
The guitar has an overall good sound and playability. It is reasonably priced when compared to the features it is offering. It was at times a little difficult to adjust while playing. The guitar is well adjusted and relatively well balanced as far as the frets are considered. The guitar played well, however, faltered a little on the high frets. The body was well built and sleek and glossy. The cuts were also very well done. There were no fundamental or structural backlogs in the guitar and was well adjusted. All in all, the Epiphone Wildkat Semi-Hollow Guitar is definitely a good buy – specifically for beginners.