Epiphone ES-335 Figured Blueberry Burst

I was eyeballing this instrument for 2 years now. I finally pulled the trigger after selling other guitars. I waited 2 months for it to arrive.
First, the good: the guitar looks absolutely stunning. The tuners are fine, the neck was straight and really comfortable for me. The sound was really good of both pickups. If you are unprepared it can be kind of a surprise that the neck pickup is slightly angled, but as I learned it is a feature of the sixties instruments this is a homage to.

Now the bad: the g string was not staying in tune and this was the part I could easily fix with another properly cut nut or a decent luthier setup, but above the 12 fret the intonation was was way off. I am playing for 20ish years and I always managed to set the intonation on guitars, but not like this. I had to decide: either I send this to my luthier and have it fixed (probably a cheap and easy fix) or send it back. And I did not want to have this issue lurking in my mind on stage. So I sent it back.

I absolutely recommend it anyone who Really wants a good es-335 style guitar and prepared to fix minor setup issues or maybe replacing or re-filing the nut. I was not.

My first Epiphone and being honest I would be reluctant to buy another.
I accept Epiphones are great value and are often bought because of the price in comparison to equivalent Gibson models but at E599 this guitar is not cheap.
Lets get the positive out of the way first, it looks fantastic, I love the colour even if the top and back are only veneers it is still a very attractive guitar. The hardware all feels solid, the wiring is neat and the guitar stays in tune. Acoustically the guitar sings with great sustain, and plugged in a great range of warm full tones are at your fingertips.

Now the negative.......this guitar had the worst Fret job I've ever seen on a new Instrument. It has a serious case of fret sprout with edges like razor blades which would slice you open. I can't believe Thomann would send a guitar out in this condition to be honest. The frets were also very grubby and tarnished and badly in need of a good polish. To cap it all off it had 5 or 6 high frets which had to be leveled and crowned. I've had a couple of HB guitars and a G&L fallout from Thomann in the last year and all had better fretwork out of the box. Once the fret issues were addressed, which thankfully I could do myself, the neck needed a slight adjustment because it had no relief.
3 weeks on the neck has settled and with the fret ends filed and the high frets addressed, the frets polished and the board oiled the guitar feels and plays like it should.
The only cosmetic flaw I could find is a poorly finished painted edge to the F holes which you have to look closely to find.

To sum up.....If you want the looks and sounds of a 335 on a budget this Guitar is as close as it gets without the big price tag. Be aware you will be playing the "Epiphone" fret lottery though and may have to pay someone to make the guitar playable if you cannot sort the issues yourself.