I have both a Fender Stratocaster & Maton ebg808 guitars & they really are the best of their breed. However, I have always wanted a guitar which I can play around with, without the dreaded fear of buggering something up. Mainly, I wanted to play around with a couple of altered tunings & a bit of slide, but doing this on a favourite guitar could be expensive. Cost of a new truss rod anyone?



A few weeks back, a local music retailer had a three day sale with staggered discounts. 30% off retail on Thursday, 35% on Friday & a full 40% off on Saturday. I took the opportunity to check out what they had in stock on the Thursday night & spotted a nice Epiphone SG hanging high on a wall. I wasn't in any hurry to purchase so I thought I'd try my luck on the Saturday & get even more off the price tag if it still remained. If it was sold to someone in the meantime, ah, well, I wasn't too fussed.

I headed down early on the Saturday & low & behold, it hadn't moved & it was now worth throwing some money at. It wasn't long before I headed home with a new prized possession & apart from a bit of buzzing which was soon sorted, it sounded darn fine indeed. Actually, a little too fine for a guitar in this price range....



I'd checked a few forums for the particular model of guitar the night before & there was a fair bit of criticism about the crappy pickups. With the money I'd save in the discount, I was planning to use some of it on a decent set & still be in front. However, the pickups on this guitar didn't match the comments & a bit more online research was necessary.



The model I was sold was supposed to be the G310, but the photo didn't match the Epiphone website. It did match the next model though, the G400 & suddenly all was explained. My lack of knowledge of the Gibson range of guitars is at fault & that of the guitar store salesperson.



They should have known something was wrong when they couldn't find the model in their stock-holdings.!

So, I ended up with an $800 guitar for the measly sum of $299. I can't argue with a 60% discount, but it does make it a little difficult to go in there for a while, as I'm sure they'd have realised their error by now!