Epiphone Masterbilt DR-500M Review

[Cassady]

In early July, I got a factory refurb Epiphone Masterbilt DR-500M. I've been playing this guitar for about a month and I must say that I'm impressed. This guitar is all solid wood Dreadnought with a sitka spruce top and mahogany back, sides and neck. The neck is two pieces with a glued on heel.

For about $360, I got a guitar that sounds terrific--very bright, balanced and with very good bass response. In fact, this guitar bears favorable comparison to my guitar teacher's Martin D-18.

First, let me start with the biggest negative aspect--the setup out of the box was awful--the action was a mile high and if I didn't have a good tech handy, it would have gone back in a heartbeat. It was easily the worst out of the box setup that I've experienced with a modern guitar.

I took the guitar to my friendly neighborhood luthier/tech for a setup and the guitar now plays as well as I could hope for--very low action and free from buzzes.

Now, on to the rest of the guitar, cosmetically, the guitar was quite good, but not perfect. The satin finish is very nice, but there's some finish mottling around the bridge that you can see in the right light. It might have been why this was a second/refurb or it could have been that it had a bridge reset (which I've heard some of the early Masterbilts needed).

The internal construction is extremely neat and tidy with no glue spills and nice neat cuts in the kerfing. The top wood isn't the prettiest piece of spruce I've ever seen, but it's reasonably nice and, more importantly, has a terrific sound. The back and sides are very, very nice mahogany--about all I could ask for in a guitar of this price range.

The open gear tuners work well and this guitar holds tune like nobody's business--I sometimes (once every week or so) have to tweak the tuning on one or two strings, but I can pretty much take this guitar out of the case and count on it being in tune.

Other details that bear mention are the nicely done binding and rosette, the fact that the truss rod adjusts at the headstock.

All in all, this guitar represents one heck of a good buy. For less than $550 for the guitar, a good professional setup and a very nice Epiphone hard case, I have a guitar that plays and sounds as good as I could possibly ask for.

Here are some quick pictures:







Cassady

[zombywoof]

Everyone who onws that guitar seems to love it.

I agree that the Epi masterbuilt series gives ya alot of guitar for the bucks. And you gotta love that headstock.

The discontinued Blues Master is actually starting to become something of an Epi legend with prices going up alot more than you would ever have thought you would see for a modern Epiphone.

[Torps]

thnik that's rosewood

[J. Hayes]

I got mine a few years ago at the local Guitar Center. I was in the acoustic room and just plunking on some guitars and not really looking for another acoustic but there was a guy in the corner playing a guitar and was getting a very nice tone. I thought he was playing a Taylor or one of the high end instruments. When he put it back on the rack and left I went over and picked it up and to my surprise it was an Epiphone Masterbuilt. I'd never seen one before but with just one strum I was hooked. I played it for a little while and then asked a salesman how much it was as there was no tag on it. He told me he'd have to check so he came back later and said "$499 with a case. The case was more of a reinforced gig bag but very nice. I took it home that day and haven't been dissapointed with it at all. I go to some acoustic bluegrass jams on occasion and the Epi sounds as good as anything there with all the volume and punch I need from a flattop. I've since added a Martin thinline pickup to it which makes the instrument more versatile............JH in Va.