Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar 

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

This guitar was so much more than I had expected it to be. I actually like it better than My Gibson Les Paul Custom. I now have 17 guitars and right now this Epi. Wildkat is my favorite. My only changes were adding a roller bridge and adjusting string height and pickup height which I always have to do on all electric guitars. Those P90's sure sound sweet plus have the bite when you need it. It is also so beautiful in appearance and playing. I could say more positive but not really needed. Bob Hardison, Columbia, Tn. (you may eliminate my name if you need to)

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

I never expected that this guitar, Wildkat LTD, to be this great looking and also sounding. I will place it into at least triple price value of what I paid for it It is another guitar that I will never trade or sell. The setup was so good that the only thing that I had to do was lower the bridge which was just using a screwdriver to lower the adjustments which took only about 5 minutes or less. I love this guitar.

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

Wow, right out of the box this puppy sings. This is the second guitar in my life that I bought new and felt good and justified on the purchase. Plays like a $1000+ guitar. Love it.

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

I just received my wildcat. talk about impressed. I own a strat and tele and love them but this guitar is beyond cool and I can't put it down. I need to adjust the action but after that, it should be perfect. I reserve the right to come back and reevaluate this initial review since I just got it. the color is absolutely beautiful (antique natural) and the keys feel solid, the knobs are fine and that tone......it sounds so warm on clean channel and man, does it howl with some distortion! right now, I don't think you can beat this guitar for the money. not even close. It is very close in overall size to a les paul. I don't know why but I expected it to be slightly larger since it's a semi hollow body but I am extremely happy so far.
my type of music to play is blues and early rock. besides the cool factor, this guitar appears to be perfectly suited to what I like to play. i'll be back with another review in a few weeks!

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

Have to admit I purchased this thing for looks figuring I could swap some parts out and get a sound I wanted but when it arrived I was very happy with the guitar.
Finish is excellent, it looks great, love that headstock name plate, looks like an old Kay or something.
I did swap out the bridge for a roller bridge because it seemed the right thing to do, I had ordered it before the guitar arrived, but honestly before I did that I didn't feel tuning was an issue. My only gripe is the set up could have been better. String height was nowhere near what the sign off inspection card said it was and the intonation was sharp on most strings which wouldn't have been a big issue except Epiphone makes such a big issue about the set up being done in the "Good Old USA". Kinda make us look bad. The level of the frets was good, no overly high or low frets, just a few high spots on individaul frets here and there so the action could have been a lot lower than it was. The other thing is personel preference but I would preffer non-potted pickups because I like a dirtier sound and take my chances with microphonics. My one biggest wish would be that Epiphone would go out on a limb and start producing a few more models that aren't simply cheap versions of Gibson models. I think they hit it out of the park with this one. I own about fifteen different guitars and this one is now one of the three that hang above my amp on the wall waiting to be played not one of the others sitting in cases waiting to be remembered.

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

This is one of my 10 favorite guitars and I'm at 70+ right now. I came into some money and one of the investments I made was buying good quality instruments. They hold their value or appreciate and I get to play them in the meantime. I bought a '71 Gibson ES-355 in the '80s for $1200 and recently had it appraised for $6000.

I bought this guitar because it was a limited run and it looked way cool to me. I like a nice, warm tone and play through tube amps mostly. I forget what year it was but Epiphone released a model that was out of production each month that year. One of these was the Wildkat. It's fire engine red and semi-hollow with a Bigsby. It stays in tune providing you wrap the strings tightly around the pegs and use good quality strings. I use Elixers.

You can get anything from jazzy mellow tones to growling nastiness that is great for roots and rock music.

I have done a fair amount of recording with this guitar and it's very quiet. The last time I used it I used a small tube pre-amp into a Behringer's solid state 50W with stereo special effects. Nice! It does well with pedals, too.

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

Received my WildKat a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed by the classic/vintage looks but I was unimpressed by the underwater/muddy sound. I am a fool for a pretty face so I kept her anyway. I replaced the bridge pickup with an Fetish aftermarket P90 and she brightened up nicely and has a nice snarl now, the muddy sound banished.

To swap pickups on the WildKat you have to de-solder the stock p90's from the chrome covers (and then re-attach the new ones back onto the covers) with a propane torch so be warned because they are soldered together at the factory and if you don't do this and just screw everything into place the pups will sit to low under the covers, too far from the strings and won't pop through the cover holes. They will also be loose in the case and rattle.

Unlike what some have said, about doing a whole re-wire job, I don't think it's needed. My WildKat sounds great now w/out all that. I also spliced the pups into the old leads (snipped off the terminals and simply soldered the wires together insulated with glue from a hot glue gun) to make it nice 'n easy. I don't like complication.

I did not see any problem with the tremolo and tuning but I did put in a cheapo roller bridge to replace the old bridge. I have absolutely no tuning issues. Any one with tuning issues should re-examine how they wind new strings into the tuners because if you are not careful and do a sloppy job, you will create tuning issues. It's simply about the way the strings are coiled on the tuners. If you do it sloppy you make lumps/bumps that will just wreak havoc as you tune the guitar. It's not the Tremolo but the sloppy way the strings are wound on the tuners that is upset with a little tremolo action.

Well, it sounds great to me so I ordered another P90 and installed it in the Neck as well.

Nice!

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

Very versitile hollow body! The control for the pickups allow a multitude of tones, also the sound and action is great!!

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

I researched this guitar for some time, especially when I determined that the neck was maple. Some vendor descriptions said it was maple in the description and mahogany in the specifications or vice versa. The neck was definitely maple, to my relief, so I made my purchase. I anticipated tuning issues from other reviews due to the combination of a Bigsby B70 with a tune-0-matic style bridge, so I already had a Schaller roller bridge on hand when this guitar arrived. The action was great, very much like my 1956 Les Paul, but there were the anticipated Bigsby-related tuning issues, and the frequently encountered Gibson issue of a too-shallow groove in the g-string nut slot. These are easily-addressed problems, though, and I deepened the nut slot with a 3-inch pass with a jeweler's saw,sanded and lubed all the nut slots, and installed the roller bridge according to instructions I found online by simply tapping the knurled bushings of the Schaller into the threaded bushing of the 'kat with a small strap-sided hammer until securely seated. A very modest outlay in parts and an hour labor and I have a very fine guitar for a variety of purposes. It now holds a tune very well,even with moderate Bigsby use,and has great tone. I gigged with it that weekend in a small club and it drew a lot of comments as well as looking great and being easy to operate onstage.You won't find many guitars that will do as well as this little charmer for the money. I've spent thousands on guitars that needed more setup work.

Comments about Epiphone WildKat Ltd Electric Guitar:

I'm not on the road constantly but play every week as a worship leader or heading up Reverend and the Blues Pushers. I love this guitar; it's tone is warm yet sensitive with the p90s and semi-hollow body. Like any new guitar I got it set up properly by my guitar guy and it plays with ease. I put heavier strings on too. Those make it really come alive. It really counters the pull by the Bigsby giving you lots of room for some fun playing without popping out of tune. It's a standard in my collection.
Can't beat it for the price.