Epiphone Wildkat Royale Review

Wildkat Royale is Epiphone`s newest and latest effort in the field of semi-hollow bodied guitars. It is created in the vein of Epiphone`s most successful and famous archtops and blended with solid bodied sustain. Wildkat Royale has a semi-hollow single cutaway body made of mahogany back, sides and center block and laminated maple top. This model comes in available in pearl white color with polyurethane gloss finish. The Royale treatment is mirrored in features like gold sparkle body binding and gold plated hardware. This Wildkat also features two stylish "f" holes on the either side of the bridge. There is no pickguard on this model. Locktone`s gold plated tune-o-matic bridge is paired with a licensed Bigsby B70 Vibrato bar which is also plated in gold. Pickup combo on this model consists of two single coils. Though this may arouse a bit of suspicion whether this guitar is up to heavy tasks, all of the suspicion is lifted when it becomes clear that those single coils are not just any singles, but P-90s with dog ear casing. P-90 T with Alnico V magnet is placed in the bridge and P-90 R with Alnico V magnet in the neck position. These pickups are manipulated through a control rig made up of a master volume, master ton and separate pickup volume knobs. Pickup switch is a three-way toggle switch. The neck on this model is made of mahogany and features a standard slim taper d contour from the 1960s. This contour was the first intentionally thinned contour, the first "fast neck" ever built on purpose. it features a mortise and tenon joint. The fingerboard is made of rosewood and has 22 medium jumbo frets with abalone dot position inlays, 1.68" wide PVC nut and 12" radius. The fingerboard on this model measures traditional 24-3/4 inches. Gold plated hardware, three-tuners-a-side "clipped ear" headstock, Grover tuners 14:1 gear ratio and polyurethane gloss finish complete the spec for this model. Epiphone Wildkat Royale`s MSRP is set at $748.