Sunday, August 2, 2009

An underused treasure

Last night, on a whim, I took out a rarely used guitar - an Epiphone EF-500R VS. It's a rosewood grand concert (000) size, a discontinued model having a satin vintage sunburst finish, purchased used from Elderly ( elderly.com/vintage/items/20U-10196.htm ). It was listed as EC+, but as far as I could tell it was virtually unplayed. And - it's loud. Not just loud for a 000 - just plain loud. Nice dry, very woody tone, and loud. I currently string it with Martin M175 80/20 "custom light" gauge strings: .011 .015 .023w .032w .042w .052w - because it doesn't need anything heavier to get a volume and a good tone. I restrung it last night (Aug 1) to play for a Scottish Country dance house party with an open band. We had a very nice band, consisting of Jane Roberts on cello, Josh Burdick on violin, Dan Emery on flute and pipes, Larry Miller on whistle, and myself. And now I'm making plans to use this guitar at my next gig, the LCD 1st Friday English Country dance this coming Friday.