Epiphone Masterbilt Excellente Acoustic-electric Guitar - Antique Natural Aged Gloss Reviews

This was my first experience with Sweetwater and I could not be happier.
The Epiphone Excellente is the finest guitar I've owned, after years of Guilds, Takamines, Gretschs and a few others, I've never owned a guitar built with this level of craftsmanship and these materials, at any price point.
As for the service, I received a personal call wishing me well with my new guitar, detailed photos of it (as it was a demo) and tracking the entire (short) time it took from when I ordered to when I received it.

A week ago, FedEx delivered my Excellente at 4:00pm. At 4:30 I dropped it off at my guitar technicians shop, for a set up and elixir strings. Long weekend but I was fine with a wait. Picked it up today. Where do I start? The initial feel of this guitar in my hands triggered the wow factor. Not sure which was more excited, my eyes, my hands, or my ears. Clearly, the gamble I took buying a site unseen, unheard, guitar was about to bring a level of joy I would have never imagined. Ok it's one day. I get it. Maybe I'm rushing a bit, No, I'm not. This Epiphone feels that good and looks and sounds even better. I have two Taylor's I play almost everyday. I like them and I am happy to have them. The cost of these to Taylor's is nearly $. I'll let you do the math. This gem and a case was under $. So, if you are on the fence slow to make this decision, that's fine, because someone else will buy the Excellente you are looking at. You are gonna let this one get away.

Fine instrument,
Absolutely love this guitar!
I've played allot of acoustic guitars and this one sounds even better than it looks and it looks gorgeous!
Great job epiphone!!!

I recently purchased this guitar with Mr. Jay Aden's assistance at Sweetwater. Thank you, Jay! Similar to all who post reviews here, my Sweetwater experiences have been exceptional and Jay has been phenomenal to work with. Jay assisted me with my first Sweetwater purchase a year and a half ago which was a Martin Road Series D-10E. That was the nicest acoustic guitar I've owned and played until now.

I knew the Epiphone Masterbilt Excellente was a special guitar after watching several YouTube reviews including J.P. Cormier and Randy's Rhythm -- both detailed overviews and worth a watch if you are interested in the Excellente. As many have noted, the workmanship and attention to detail on this large dreadnought body guitar is fantastic. The Excellente has an extremely solid feel. The Sitka spruce and ovangkol wood combination results in a "sonic delight" to my ear. The top is solid Sitka spruce which provides robust sound projection and crystalline note clarity. The solid Ovangkol back and sides produce a fuller midrange and brighter high-end notes that just keep ringing after you strum a chord. You can feel the sound in a powerful way.

This guitar, in my opinion, exudes 'high-end' craftsmanship and tonal qualities one would expect from guitars costing three times as much money.

John Collins Sims

Agree with everything being said. Bought mine in United Kingdom in September 22 on reviews only; completely unseen! WOW, what a purchase. Plays and sounds a dream and at the price an absolute steal!!

First off, the specs are wrong folks. Just about every website you go to calls out the inlays as "Perloid" when we all know is a fancy word for crap plastic. They are not plastic, they are Mother of Pearl. I personally confirmed this with Gibson, who confirmed it with the Epiphone Engineering team, as well as the factory. I have it in writing. Now, on to the guitar itself. It is incredible, and I mean incredible. You could not get me to touch an overseas guitar until 2 things happened:
1. Solid woods were deployed with an actual build quality
2. Prove you're worthy of my hard earned money

Epiphone has accomplished this. I wouldn't touch Epiphone prior to the "Inspired by Gibson" and this "Excellente" to which I now own the Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Hummingbird as well as this Epiphone Excellente. Both guitars are just killer as far as sound and build quality are concerned. If they skimped, I can't find it. The Excellente is a step above the Hummingbird and I don't mind saying that. You can't go wrong buying this guitar. The only thing I'd do different is to remove their pickup system. When I said they didn't skimp on these, I meant on their construction. The pickup system should either be removed or replaced, to which Sweetwater will surely do for you at a reasonable price. Again, this Excellente is bad to the bone friends! I did a review of it at: https://youtu.be/JFdOWLAIH7I

Thanks,
Randy Cox

Been playing my new Epi about a week now and she's super fine;) Really solid, feels well built. Plays easy and spot on intonation out of the box:) It sounds really great plugged in too. This guitar is such a looker as well, feels like I'm in the 70s lol Neil Young keeps asking me to borrow it but I told him no…

I was searching for a new acoustic, and when the Excellente appeared in Sweetwater's catalogue, I knew this was what I was looking for.
It took a while to pull the trigger on the purchase, only to realize they were on backorder. OK, my Epi Bonamassa V was worth the wait, I'll take a chance.
I bundled the Excellente with an Epi eDread case. I couldn't be more pleased with both products.
My guitar does NOT have thick, plastic like polyurethane. It is a thin coating, with a flat matte like sheen.
The guitar looks incredible, plays great, & sounds 'excellent' plugged in or unplugged. Fishman electronics sound great through my tube amps as well.
Thank you, Jordan! I am, once again, well pleased!
Trust Sweetwater, they deliver the goods!

The Excelente name says it all. This guitar cuts no corners on fantastic quality and sound. The bass is clean and pronounced.
The tones are crispt for finger-picking styles and just strumming chords. Single lead lines are pronounced with tonality
and great sustain. The woods are very well crafted and the ebony fretboard is very easy to play on. I'm not a big guy so this guitar looks a bit large on me, but with how easy it is to play, it doesn't matter. I have a Martin guitar and the Excelente one sounds and feels more pronounced and plays better for me at least. Don't get me wrong, the Martin has its own sound, and that works for me too. With the cost of the Excelente, you won't be afraid to take her out for a night lol. I would recommend
anyone beginning and or a professional player to get their hands on one of these. They will not always be around. so treat yourself to something great. Playing as long as I have I do own all the fancy brands but when it comes to picking a guitar, The brand doesn't matter if it's the right one for you. It took me many years to look past the headstock Brand and just buy something because you love it. So, at least try it, the worst that can happen is that it's not right for you, You will never know until you try. Put this one in your cart.

First off the guitar is absolutely beautiful. The mother of pearl, ebony fretboard, the spruce top looks like a one piece. It's very well crafted with tones you can get are clean bass and really clean crisp highs. Every note rings and the sustain is really good. The action on mine is perfect with no buzz anywhere. Sweetwater does it right. Keep in mind, everyone has a preference in how their guitars are set up. Set up is the most important. I purchased mine with the Epiphone case to protect this beauty. This guitar should be a lot more money for what you get. I don't like talking about big brand companies and I own plenty. It's all opinions and tastes, and what you want out of guitars. I always say check it out for yourself, and don't listen to anyone making your purchase decisions. You are the one that has to play it. All I can say is that I'm incredibly happy with my Excelente and I would recommend it to anyone.

This is the third one I received. The first two were from two different companies. The first one unplayable and the second was scratched and had a crease in the wood. Finally Sweetwater got one, who I had originally ordered from, and it was inspected and photographed and showed up in perfect condition. Cliff was superb. Sweetwater blows the other guys out of the water. As far as the guitar, I love it. I set it up and it plays well. I'm not going to go into detail other than to say a beefy neck. What I hear and you hear are two different interpretations of the same sound. How I play and you play is different. All I can say is that I believe it is worth what I paid for it. If you let someone else tell you how a guitar sounds or feels and base your purchase on that then maybe you need to rethink your guitar playing. If you are searching for a guitar in this price range, give it a try and see what YOU think. Peace

Just wow! What a guitar! Came tuned right out of the box. Beautiful full and rich sound. Thank you, Robb once again.

I was a bit worried ordering this online because I have never bought a guitar I haven't played. I have been playing this guitar every day since I got it! The amount of volume this guitar can push out is incredible and the tone is to die for. The design of this guitar as well is breathtaking. The pickguard is what originally got me intrigued, but the 5 piece neck I think is the most beautiful part of this guitar. It feels very well built and plays like a dream. I am so glad I made this purchase and thanks to my sales engineer David Yanes for helping me pick this out

Got the Excellente for my fella. Wow! Huge voice right out of the box. Stacked it up against our Martin D16, vintage Gibson Hummingbird and it effortlessly held its own. Balamced, beautiful workmanship and gorgeous tone. We play a lot and Dan has competed in, and won, many guitar contests over the years. As these solid woods open up this guitar will be unparralled. Highly recommend it.

The Epiphone Excellente is one of the best instruments I've ever played. I'm primarily an electric player with several good quality guitars. I've been on the lookout for a decent, affordable acoustic with an eye on the Masterbilt series. I stumbled across the Excellente and was instantly awe struck. It's gorgeous, with that classic 70's country styling. The guitar feels great with its light finish and balances nicely.
Oh but the tone! A great mix of solid woods and a maple neck make for rich lows and perfect mids and highs. It's really quite dynamic and plays well flat picking or finger style.
I did do a little fret work to dress the ends which were sharp, well worth the effort.

This guitar measures up to any of the YouTube videos I have seen to research the guitar. I was looking for an upscale acoustic guitar at an affordable price. When this guitar got to me, I was blown away by it. The quality and tone exceeded my expectations. I wish though it came without electronics so I could put my preferred system in the guitar without changing the setup. I did change it on mine, and it suited my preference. It took me a while to get it right, but I love this guitar. I can only recommend it to anyone Pro or hobby player.

I waited a bit to write this review, because I wanted to give the Excellente a chance to begin opening up before I made my evaluation, and I was right to do so, because the more it is played, the more the tone blossoms in a really beautiful way. Given the deeper body of the Excellente, I like the enhanced bass tones of this guitar, but that's just the beginning of the tonal pallet of this guitar. The Ovangkol back and sides not only provide a beautiful appearance to the guitar, the Ovangkol wood adds a nice midrange to the overall sound, along with the really sweet treble tones.

I'm still getting used to the sound hole volume and tone controls, because I to see clearly what I am setting, but I am getting more used to it. The other issue that I have is a bit play in the jack. It can get a little scratchy until I settle it, and although I thought it might be my cable(s), I have found it to be too consistent to just attribute it to the cables, so I may have to get that looked at.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, and I appreciate my Sweetwater rep, Jon Mostacato for always checking to make sure that I am happy with my purchases, and especially for his sage advice when I am not sure about something. You rock, Jon!

The look of this guitar is unbelievable. The sound is rich and full from the lows, mids and highs. The only reason I don't give it a 5 star is because of the weight. It is heavy.

Well..after buying the IBG Hummingbird which l absolutely love... I had to get an "Excellente" and lm seriously happy l did..personally l do not like the "artwork" on either pickgaurd, l find it downright ugly, l don't understand why they would use such quality wood and then slap a huge thick gummy pickgaurd right on the sound board of the guitar?¿? and l can't help but wonder how much better would the tone be with a thin coat of nitro or better yet..varnish! These are my only concerns or questions about the guitar..it sounds and plays fantastic. For one issue l did order a Bruce Wei dark rosewood pickgaurd without artwork that will be ebonized before I install it, at that time it will get a set of Elixer nano's, I will say the action is perfect on the guitar for me, med/low..much better than the Hummingbird ( which was purchased locally..no fault of Sweetwater!) which will only be remedied with shaving the bridge saddle. Nich at Sweetwater was amazing with frequent updates on the status of the guitar prior to shipping! Thanks Nich!

Imaging pouring thick honey all over your favorite speaker. That's the one big problem with all of the Masterbilt epiphones and this is no exception. The finish is as thick as a penny...and is very plastic to the point where it feels like a plastic guitar, making the solid wood feature that everyone likes a moot point. It completely squashes the tone. The woods are thick...the braces bulky, basically everything that Gibson did wrong in the 70's is manifest in this guitar. At least a 70's Gibson is nitro lacquer and can be found for the same price as this guitar new. If you are plugging it in for a gig, it's great. If you are looking for amazing open acoustic tone...sorry, not this one.

I love vintage remakes of iconic guitars and the history behind the Excellente is fabulous! So I ordered this guitar after reading some of the great reviews. I also ordered the Epiphone Edread case to go with it which is very very nice.

When my Excellente showed up I was happy with all the bling. The pick guard is nice and I loved all the cloud inlay on the neck. Gold vintage tuners were cool and the neck was relatively thin just the way I prefer. The top finish was also well done. The finish on the back and sides though were very thick and had a somewhat plastic look and feel as others have mentioned.

Still, I was excited to play this iconic remake but when I strummed the guitar I was shocked!
It was completely unplayable.
All Open strings buzzed.
Every fretted note on every string buzzed.
The bridge was pulling up on both back sides.
On the bottom of the guitar where the cable plugs in there was a raised ridge line where the wood meets. It didn't feel like a crack but it might have been.

I think I could have fixed it by raising the saddle a smidge, adding more neck relief and glueing the bridge back down but this was a brand new guitar!

I was very disappointed. I sent the guitar back the next day.
I would like to try and buy another one online but I am afraid I might get another one just like it.

I so wanted to love this guitar, it's a shame that I just got a lemon or it got some rough handling during shipping I guess. My bad luck I suppose as others have had a good experience with it.