EPIPHONE CRESTWOOD CUSTOM

review
EPIPHONE CORONET, WILSHIRE & CRESTWOOD CUSTOM
86
GUITARIST FEBRUARY 2021
even 2. With the power cranked back up
and the treble tamed, the sound is huge –
like Clapton meets Leslie West and, really,
what more could you want?
Swapping to the Wilshire its bridge
pickup offers more of the same ballsy fare,
while the neck unit kicks out smooth,
fruity tones that never get too muddy,
even when pushing the gain. Kind of like a
really fat Strat. Select the middle position
on the three-way and things get distinctly
‘quacky’, in the nicest possible way – sort of
‘country meets Crossroads’ if you will, and
the kind of tone Joe Walsh often goes for
with The Eagles.
UNDER
THE HOOD
A peek at the ‘busy’
innards of the
Crestwood Custom
I
t’s always interesting to see how the
innards of any guitar stack up when
compared with the more obvious external
build quality. Here’s the control cavity of our
Crestwood Custom. There’s a lot crammed into
this small space: four pots (quality CTS), plus
the toggle switch and output jack. We’d say it
looks ‘busy’ rather than untidy. The soldering
is neat, with no huge blobs, and note that
the pickups are fitted via two white push-in
connectors. We can’t actually see anything
written on the capacitors, but would guess they
are Gibson-style .022 microfarads. It looks like
someone made a second attempt at fitting
the cavity cover, as two sets of screw holes are
visible towards the selector switch end (this is
not apparent on the other guitars). Let’s just
say it adds a bit of personality!
The Crestwood Custom is the big
surprise. The Pro mini-humbuckers are
spectacularly good. Clean, they retain an
open clarity that’s bright but never piercing.
Add a nice drive pedal and it’s one of the
most musical sounds around; that lovely
high-end remains but the voice becomes
incredibly expressive. Each position on the
switch sounds great, and the nearest player
whose sound you might recognise in it is
Johnny Winter, whose Firebird pickups
were, of course, close relations to these. Try
some dirty slide with both pickups on – it’s
Texas blues-rock heaven!
Verdict
At the top of this piece we asked whether
guitars at this entry-level price point could
impress a gnarled old Guitarist reviewer.
Well, the answer is a resounding yes! Of
course, these are not Honduran mahogany
10. Epiphone calls this
vibrato the TremTone.
It’s solidly built and the
arm length is adjustable
via two extra holes (see
main pic). Indian laurel
is used for the wooden
insert and the ‘E’ logo
appears in metal here
11. The large oblong
position markers on the
Crestwood Custom are
unique to the model.
Again, notice the
rosewood-like Indian
laurel fi ngerboard and
medium jumbo frets, of
which there are 22
9. The mini-humbuckers
on the Crestwood sound
crisp and ballsy; they
work superbly with
drive pedals as they
don’t ‘mush up’. The
pickguard’s large white
stripe is painted onto
its underside
9
Crestwood Custom’s Pro mini-humbuckers are
spectacularly good… Add a drive pedal and
it’s one of the most musical sounds around
The Crestwood’s
control cavity is
far from shabby
GIT468.rev_epi.indd 86 18/12/2020 11:40