Epiphone Dc Pro
This reimagined cult double-cut promises heaps of tone on tap
We had all but forgotten about the Del Rey until Epiphone rocked up at NAMM 2019 and debuted the DC Pro in all its flame maple-veneered splendour. The DC Pro, says Epiphone, is a “modern take on the classic” Del Rey; and while classic is pushing it – if anything the Del Rey is/was a cult favourite, with a strong emphasis on cult – there is no arguing with the statement that, yes, this truly is a modern take on a time-honoured Gibson guitar design. And this is a seriously cool guitar that keeps some of its most newsworthy and distinguishing features hidden below the surface.
Ostensibly, the DC Pro looks and feels like an asymmetrical double-cut riff on the Les Paul. If everyone wasn’t so darn litigious right now we’d maybe even say the DC Pro body has a PRS Custom 24 vibe, too, but let’s not go there. The DC Pro has a mahogany body with a nice, rounded Goldilocks C-profile mahogany neck glued to it. The maple veneer completes the look, affording the DC Pro a little premium Gibson pizzazz, while a fully-adjustable Locktone Tune-o-matic bridge setup keeps things solid and honest. The DC Pro goes with a classic Gibson setup with a humbucker pairing in bridge and neck positions, a three-way selector in the shoulder, and two volume and two tone knobs for each pickup. The modern twist comes via a full two-octave fretboard in the Cites-compliant pau ferro, a trim belly cut to ease the ergonomics, and a few super-cool features accessible via the volume and tone pots.
Firstly, the DC Pro’s volume controls are wired with a treble bleed circuit, which means that you won’t be losing any of your tone’s high-end when you roll back the volume on the guitar. Given how invaluable our volume pots are when controlling gain on the fly, this is a really neat way to ensure your tone remains bright and consistent. It’s always on, always working, so you can forget about it. Where you, the guitar player, come in is on the volume
The Probuckers sing with a sweet, organic warmth
controls, as each offers a pushpull coil-split function for their respective humbucker, allowing you to split the pickup and tease some snappy single-coil tones from the DC Pro. In 2019, a coil-split seems like a ubiquitous feature for production line, humbucker-equipped electrics but this would have been unheard of in 1995 when the Del Rey was launched. We shouldn’t take it for granted. And sure, while there is a little buzz and hum when the humbuckers are split, especially at high volume, to have such tones so easily on hand, and to have the capability to transform the voice of the instrument opens up so many options for your sound.
And, finally, there’s one other welcome surprise hidden in the
DC Pro’s circuitry, especially for Peter Green fans, and that’s the push-pull phase reverse feature on the neck tone knob which comes in play when both humbuckers are selected. So if you want to go full Albatross, with a tone that’s kind of wrong-sounding but nonetheless elastic and expressive – a sort of warped, chime-heavy tone that’s really quite unique – it’s as easy as pie.
The DC Pro’s versatility is hard to beat. Country twang? Step this way. Neck pickup split for single-coil funk strut with clean tones and, heck, some auto-wah for disco magic? The DC Pro has got you covered. But it’s when the DC Pro is working its natural bluesrock tone that it reveals its sweet spot. The Probuckers’ design is inspired by Gibson’s 1950s PAF humbucker, and they sing with a sweet, organic warmth. They’ll handle a fair whack of gain but are at their best working the sonic territory somewhere between bar-room blues and classic rock. They’ll even do jazz, too. The only thing to be mindful of is not to overcook the gain, whereupon the DC Pro loses a little definition, but, after all, vintage-voiced pickups are referencing tones that were minted decades before metal.
There is no question that the DC Pro is a formidable update on the Del Rey. This is one classy performer, and another statement from Epiphone that it’s serious about getting that wholesome Gibson DNA out to the masses. Jonathan Horsley