Just to round this one off.

I finished up waiting (and waiting and waiting..) and finally buying the Epiphone ej200 ce (black) on the grounds that this was the guitar I actually wanted.

There was some sort of major production review at Epiphone which explained the long delay in availabllity (but perhaps not the scarcity of reliable information delivered by Gibson).

I did buy the guitar from an online retailer - the biggest hitter in Europe, based in Germany (European forum members will know the organisation I am talking about) and the experience was about a trillion times more enjoyable than getting sneered at in high street guitar shops. My order arrived quickly (it was sent within an hour of my confirming payment!) and was extremely well packaged and trackable at every stage. I was even given the contact details of the staff member who dealt with my order.
Oh, and the guitar was a full 100 EUR cheaper than in the off line stores.

but that's quite enough advertising.

So far (and I only received the instrument last week) I am entirely satisfied. It appears, to my untrained eye at least, to be in perfect condition and sounds excellent when amplified. Even non-amplified I find the tone better than most reviews had indicated.

Thanks to all of those who offered advice and experience below.


Marc

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