In general YES gibsons are objectively better guitars but I have experienced that you can have 500 Epi guitars in a warehouse and they are all EXACTLY the same, but the same selection of Gibsons will have a range of variance to them. I could fix poor quality electronics but I couldnt fix ugly even though I still love that guitar and play it regardless. I fixed the electronics for $80 on the epi but the gibson needed fret work and there is some ugly wood on the fret board + some badly planed seams where wood is glued.Īside from the poly finish on the epi, it looks great and sounds great.
I currently have 3 gibsons (SG special, LP standard, LP deluxe) and 2 epiphones (Prohpecy LP and my fave is most relevant to the OP's question is an ES 339 pro P90- version) in my collection. I mention these two because they are the same year but they arent the same model. But since Epiphone doesn’t currently make the Riveira (other than the Japan only Elitist model) you’d be talking about comparing to the Epi ES-335 Pro or Dot. the gibby has some real QC issues, the epi just has a scratchy pot and a short in the toggle. Also both Epi models originally came with mini-humbuckers.
