The Epiphone Crestwood Custom maintains the brand’s tradition of offering gig-worthy guitars at affordable prices. Through a Danelectro Roebuck overdrive and into a Supro Comet, the Crestwood created its own brand of distinctive distortion. With a slap-back delay, I was able to get Gretsch-like twang, and some vibrato, while longer delay and compression yielded a lovely, ambient, dream-pop chime.

The mini-humbuckers had all the attributes of their ilk: a cross between a single-coil and a humbucker, with less low end than a full-size humbucker, less midrange hump than a P-90 and plenty of top end to cut through a mix. You will have to get used to their tight configuration and close proximity to the input jack.

The controls worked well, with the tone pots especially well-voiced, providing easy access to “woman” tone.