Epiphone Wildcat opinion

[ralf]

is there anybody that has or have played an epiphone wildcat guitar? the music stores around me don't have them and i'm wondering what anybody thinks of them. i'm looking for a guitar in that style. a hollow body electric with a bigsby type tail piece. don't get me wrong, i would love to get a gretsch nashville 6120 but i just don't think i can afford $2000. i want to play good ol' 50's rock n roll on it, like eddie cochran, gene vincent, carl perkins, and the like. let me know what you think of it and if it is a decent guitar. i'm not a hardcore guitar player, i just do it on the side cause i play drums and bass too. thanks for your replys!
-RALF

 

[Daddy-O]

I haven't played the guitar you are takling about......you should look around for a vintage hollowbody. You can still find Gibson ES-125s around $700-$1000. I bought one at a guitar show for $550 three years ago. It was a thin body with a cutaway and two REAL P-90 pickups(check out old photos of Eddie Cochran's 6120--it has a P-90 in the neck position). I didn't have a Bigsby, but I found one used for $75. You can get new ones for around $125.
Another vintage find was my early 50s Gretsch Electromatic. It is a jumbo archtop with a DeArmond pickup in the neck position. I only paid $400 for it. Take you time and look around. I would rather have an old vintage guitar that still plays and sounds well --- if you're gonna play Rock-A-Billy, you gotta use the real stuff---just think, if you were to find a waycool mid fifties Silvertone or Kay, some kid could have been sitting in his house back in'59 trying to figure out Buddy Holly and Scotty Moore licks while his dad was in the driveway waxing his brand new Caddy......