thedoctor7530

I was bought this guitar to me as a 13th birthday present from my Mum and Dad. I really liked this guitar until I picked up an Epiphone Les Paul Standard, which blew the encore away in every single aspect of it's design, playability and build quality, especially considering how much the guitar cost to begin with. Even the Squier Affinity and Bullet range, as well as Vintage guitars would be far more sensible options as a beginner guitar compared to any Encore model that I've played.

This was the first guitar that I had bought with my own money when I was 16 years old. Initially, I was on my way to buying an Epiphone Casino, however a used 2005 MIK Epiphone Sheraton 2 appeared for sale locally at £220. I actually knew the seller, and I had in fact seen and heard the guitar in action as part of the band performing the music for the school production. It came with a hard-case and the seller kindly dropped the price to £200. I bought the guitar, and whilst I still wish that I had saved up a little bit more for the Casino, my Epiphone Sheraton has been used live and in the studio, and it works great for the medium gain rock and roll sounds that me and my band have been going with. One of the best semi-hollows you can ever buy, and for the price, one of the best value guitars out there.

Once I started getting into more indie and experimental artists like My Bloody Valentine, it was only natural that my next guitar would be some form of Fender offset. Every local Kurt Cobain wannabe owned a Squier Jaguar or Mustang, but nobody owned a Jazzmaster. I decided that this model would be the one for me, especially considering that I didn't own a single-coil or solid body guitar that I actually liked. My Strat replica refused to stay in tune, and the Encore Les Paul I didn't even want to think about playing ever again. While I was pleased with the guitar's smooth neck, bright Duncan Designed pickups and general aesthetics, I did inevitably mod my Jazzmaster with a Mustang bridge, reworked pickup selector and gold pickguard to mimic the look of the original '58 Jazzmaster. The standard bridge that comes with all Jazzmasters are simply horrible for lead playing, and whilst I do use the tremolo arm for glide guitar work, I don't like how loose it can feel due to how the arm is inserted into tremolo hole. I will eventually install a Staytrem system to make the tremolo feel tighter and more responsive. The floating tremolo creates surprisingly decent tuning stability as well. I really, really like my Jazzmaster at the moment despite the loose tremolo arm, and I will probably buy another Squier Jazzmaster, just like mines at the moment in the future, only in Candy Apple Red. That is of course if I can't afford the Troy Van Leeuwen Signature model by then.