Epiphone Guitar Olympic Masterbilt Century Collection - Honeyburst

I had been looking at parlor guitars for a while when I found the Olympic in the Epiphone Masterbilt series. I have several Epiphone guitars and like them very much, as much as some of my Gibson's, so I thought I'd try it out after reading and watching several reviews. Out of the box it played OK, action was a little high and it had a slight buzz playing around the 12th fret. The neck had a little rise around the 12th fret too. It played well enough and sounded good, so I took it to a Luthier for a set up. He dressed and leveled the frets, lowered the action, and set the intonation on the bridge. It came back playing absolutely awesome! The action is way low and the neck is fast, like an electric guitar. I never liked playing lead on acoustic guitar (flat top), but this arch top plays like butter. The sound is sort of boxy, woody and compressed, almost like a "cheap" sounding acoustic when you just play a note or two or strum a chord once. Once you get it playing, it cuts right through the mix and sounds nice and full. I can hear my strumming clearly with the other guitar and bass playing, leads are easy to play, and the volume is louder than a flat top for leads. The strings sit higher above the top than a flat top so I installed the pick guard (easy to do with the Youtube video) so I can rest my pinky finger on it while playing. This is a very nice guitar and it fills a missing niche for me as far as guitar sound. I liked the Olympic so much that a few days later, I bought the Masterbilt Deluxe Classic arch top model and did the same Luthier set up. Both the Epiphone Olympic and Deluxe Classic are a delight to play, look fantastic, sound great, and are very affordable. They don't come with a case, but you can order them online.

This will admittedly be a somewhat biased review because I knew what I was getting when I ordered the Olympic. I already had a Masterbilt Classic Deluxe and wanted the smaller version to take out and about and the baby Olympic is ideal for that.Sure, there are points I could raise about the Olympic that might sound negative but you get what you pay for in this world. The body is considerably smaller which means there is going to be less volume when playing it acoustically but if you do want it louder, simply plug it into an amp. The fingerboard is rosewood whereas it is ebony on the larger Masterbilts and yes, this does sound different but 'different' does not mean 'worse' necessarily.All the Masterbilt guitars from Epiphone look gorgeous, sound fantastic and FEEL really great to play. What is not to love?

For the price, this is an excellent guitar that has a distinct voice that really suits certain types of music. It has a sweet and resonant mid-heavy tone with lots of blooming overtones. It required a complete setup and I loosened the top using a tone-rite but I'm quite satisfied with it after taking those steps. Out of box it was set up very low but the neck/ fretwork is not up to that level. I'm able to get quite acceptable results at 6/64 bass and 5/64 treble-- certainly reasonable for an acoustic. To get lower would need fret leveling. I will probably get a case for this as it is sensitive to ambient conditions as archtops tend to be.

I love arch-top guitars and this is a classic looker with a small body that is very comfortable to play.

This thing is the coolest guitar , ever , actually , and in my own humble opinion . Oh yes it most certainly is , indeed .