EpiphoneJ-45 EC Studio Acoustic Electric, Ebony

As a beginner, I love it.

Wow. This is my third purchase. Had to send back the Yamaha because of a huge nick. It was a nice guitar though with the exception of the huge nick that was in it. Then I purchased the Ibanez. Highly disappointed with that purchase. I was kicking myself for not going back to the Yamaha. But after playing the Ibanez, noticed a rattle in the first string. There were no signs as to what it could be. Thoroughly inspected the whole guitar but nothing. So I sent it back. Then I made the epiphone purchase. Finally found a great quality guitar with huge sound. I am not a professional. But been around enough to recognize quality especially for the money. This has the quality of a much higher guitar. Great for beginners to pros. You will not be disappointed. I thought the Yamaha was good quality as well. But I would select this one over any others under $500. This one is a great buy. As long as it last me many years.

This is a awesome guitar. All the fitting and finish is great. It has a satin finished neck so your hands slide easier than a gloss. One of the best tuner/preamp systems available. Solid spruce top and mahogany sides and bottom and a slim tapered neck. The sound is better than the Dove, Texan or Hummingbird, it rings like a bell from low to high range. No muddy mid tones that is typical af a square-shouldered dreadnought. If you play this epiphone beside guitars that cost thousands it will be difficult if not impossible to notice any sound difference.

I picked this guitar up via a Lightning Deal because I'd been looking for something I could take to gigs that was a compromise. I have an amazing vintage dreadnought I use at home, but I wasn't about to play gigs with it because (a) I don't want anything to happen to it, and (b) I'd never found a pickup that could do it justice. I've always been cynical about acoustic-electrics because in my experience most of them are just... meh. They're not the most versatile things; most of the ones I've played sound alright when plugged in but sound like stringed tinfoil on their own, which kinda defeats the purpose of having an acoustic-electric in the first place. But I figured, this was inexpensive enough that it wouldn't be a major loss if it only sounded good plugged-in.I was very pleasantly surprised! The unplugged tone is actually pretty darn good. It sounds lovely, has an impressive sustain that rings for ages, and is downright pleasant to listen to. The neck is nice and dreadnought-wide (how I like 'em!) but the body is smaller and narrower, which makes it much more usable as a gigging instrument. The default strings are pretty reasonable--I'll probably change 'em out but that's because I like my strings ridiculously heavy. It's reasonably well-balanced--a little heavy towards the top half because of the bigger neck and headstock, I think.The neck is a little sticky but plenty playable. I would probably try to clean it up and make it faster if I wasn't mostly an open-chording singer-songwriter, but out of the box, it works just fine for me. I've had no problems with fret buzz or the action so far. The built-in electronics are unobtrusive and easy to operate; the built-in chromatic tuner is particularly cool because it's designed in such a way that it's ridiculously easy to read under pretty much any circumstances. (there's a light that tells you the note you're nearest, and then others that indicate how close you are to that specific pitch. After about one minute, I barely even had to look at it while I was tuning. Very clever, I think.)The finish is lovely but definitely Fingerprint City. I also wish it came with a gig bag or something, but alas; on the other hand, unlike a lot of other Gibson and Epiphone guitars, it fits rather nicely in my standard generic acoustic-guitar case because the headstock isn't super-enormous.All in all, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a surprisingly decent workhorse acoustic/electric. I think it would probably be the ideal guitar for a lot of casual musicians.One star off for a cosmetic issue: mine actually does not have a pickguard on it. I'm not sure exactly how that happened; somebody at the Epiphone factory was asleep at the wheel. But I contacted Amazon and they actually gave me a partial refund, so bonus points to them for that.Edited to add some things I've noticed after a couple months of daily use:-It does tend to sound tinny if you're recording it straight. When I do demos or record practice sessions, I don't plug it into anything, I just use the voice memo feature on my ipod and the built-in microphone. I've noticed that with this guitar, as compared to my other instruments, there's definitely a metallic edge to it that sounds a little grating. Not that it matters, because you don't buy an acoustic-electric to make "real" recordings unplugged, haha. Just something I wanted to make a note of.-The built-in electronics have worked out perfectly for me. It sounds great--clean, and with a lot of depth. And because the body is designed to give you a big sound all by itself, it's very handy for someone like me. I play a lot of shows in dive bars that don't have monitors, so if my guitar doesn't sound big enough independent of the electronics, I can't hear anything and it gets real frustrating, real fast.-It doesn't stay in tune over time terribly well. I'm spoiled because my Guild dreadnought will literally stay in tune for weeks no matter what you do to it, and this one is one that definitely needs to be tuned on a regular basis. It'll get you through a 45-minute set, etc. just fine but it's not a grab and go kind of guitar, at least as far as the intonation is concerned. But with the built-in tuner, etc. it's not exactly a big deal at all.

Everything about this guitar is nice. I've had an Epiphone for 30 years, and this one is very similar. I bought the Pro-1 for my son, and returned it immediately, as there were some issues, and ordered this one. For an extra $100, you get tons more in quality. I want him to look at this guitar many years down the road and be able to enjoy it. Would not have happened with the other.

Strings buzz. upon plugging it in realize that theres no sound to my amp. The tuner works fine im at a loss. The emblem wants to fall off it seems like it could be a nice guitar but for now its shotty.

I bought this guitar used through Amazon Warehouse, and I can't see the difference with a brand new one. I got a good deal. I read a lot of reviews before buying this guitar, and after playing with it for a while, playability is good, and sound is just what I want from an acoustic guitar, a very balance sound and not muddy or too bright sound. After I bought and sold or return a number of similar guitars in the same price range, this is a keeper for me.

Beautiful acoustic guitar I don't know where to start. Shipped fast and on time. No damage, beautiful finish , strings needs a little tuning. It came with batteries already in the tuner. Also a starters manual, a few stickers and a plug for your amp ..the only thing ide suggest is they leave at least one or two picks but other than that excellent guitar.. Well worth the money ide buy it over and over again