This is the slightly larger variation of this classic Masterbuilt, so you won’t exactly channel David Rawlings, but it’s got the sound and mojo, with that cool decal headstock.

This one was something of a mess to start. It had had one of those really nasty neck resets where the luthier (I use that term loosely) sawed through the fretboard at the 12th fret to free the neck from the body. But George Youngblood, the master of Guilford, CT, put his amazing luthier skills to work to transparently graft on a section of fingerboard, reset the neck properly and refret, and then replace the bridgework and pickguard with vintage replacements, and make it all right. These student Epis are really awesome sounding and this one plays beautifully as well as sounds great. And while the earlier ones featured that engraved plastic veneer, there something fine and elegant about the decal versions, which showed up about this time.

It’s in the chipboard case it came in, and is really sweet.