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It actually is as good as it looks in the pictures. Nicely made with a quality feel throughout the guitar. It required minimal adjustment out of the box: a third of a turn for some neck relief, a lowering of the bridge and some saddle sliding for intonation (about ten minutes work) and it played effortlessly. I have to say that as an owner of American Fenders, Gibson's and Japanese Gretsch's, I love this vibey little 60's garage band guitar. And it feels and plays as well as any of those. If you're thinking about purchasing this but are unsure don't be! It's worth it and like other Epiphone models from the past this production will end and this guitar will increase in value. In fairness I should point out that I will be doing a little bit of light fret work on the fret ends/fretboard edge in the future. It's totally playable as is but a little masking tape, a small file and 30 minutes work will really make a beautiful playing guitar. In closing, I am extremely happy with this and every transaction I make at zZounds. Great guitar! Thank you zZounds!

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i've had my cherry crestwood custom around 6 months now and this little guitar is super cool , first off it is a solid mahogany neck no scarf joints and it has the headstock wings like a gibson and mine has a beautiful 2 piece mahogany body,its pretty light, weighing in at 7 lbs 2 oz, the body vibrates in your hands when you strum it. The mini humbuckers are killer for this guitar , serious tone machine, dial back the tone and get some pretty cool jazz like tones , also turn everything to 10 and this thing soars, I i couldnt find any flaws or blems on it anywhere, the vibrato works great , and after a good string stretching , it returns right back in tune, the tuners are top notch no tuning issues and the graph tech nut and saddles not only help with smoothing out the vibrato but give this guitar that sort of warm "woman" type tone , all in all a GREAT GUITAR , i will be getting the white one soon , i just think these guitars are so cool. Also they fit perfectly in a EPIPHONE SG CASE I hope this review helps anyone whos on the fence about buying the Epi Crestwood Custom

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I generally don't buy import guitars anymore, but the 70s Japanese version of the Epi Crestwood was one of my first instruments as a kid in the 90s, so I took a chance on this one for nostalgia reasons. Like other reviewers said, it needed a little bit of setup work to bring out its best, but twenty minutes of adjustment has made this thing an incredible player. It's way better than the price would suggest -- particularly the vibrato, which is Bigsby-ish, but far more usable. COVID-19 supply constraints notwithstanding, I can easily see why this bad-boy has been sold out since the day after I bought mine. Pick one up when you can -- you'll be glad you did.

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I was lucky enough to get the cherry version just before Christmas. If you're interested in this guitar, don't hesitate to grab one as soon as they're available. I can only speak to the one I have but the finish is beautiful and perfect. Other than lowering the bridge to get the action I prefer the setup is perfect. Here's what I have; lowered the bridge to 4/64 or 1/16 on the low E (top) and 3/64 on hi E (bottom) at the last fret. Fretting at 3rd fret I have .009 clearance at the first fret on E, A and D strings and .007 on G, B and E. Fretting at the 1st fret and 19th fret I have .009 to .010 relief 7th or 8th fret. PU height is 3/32 neck and bridge. Intonation was right on the money. It took a few days for it to warm up and settle down. Absolutely no fret buzz at any fret on any string and you can bend as far as you want without fretting out. The PU's sound great. The pots do cut out a little before 0 but it isn't bad. All it needs is oil on the fretboard and my favorite strings. Oh yeh, by my scales this one weighs 6.4lbs and the body is 2 bookended pieces. Beautiful. Two things, mine shipped from the midwest. They didn't put anything inside the outter box to keep the inner box from flopping around. It wasn't damaged but you could see inside the inner box where the tuning keys beat it up a little and, the piece of wood that goes on the tremolo tailpiece was loose in the bag. Turns out it's held in place with a tiny set screw in the lower leg of the trem tailpiece and there is an Allen wrench taped inside the box. I own several Epiphone Les Pauls and as nice as a couple of them are this is the nicest Epiphone I've ever had. I don't think you'll be disappointed. And besides, you're dealing with zZounds, they're awesome!

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This guitar is awesome for the price. If you have that "old soul" aspect to your swagger and like the innovation and ingenuity of a more humble and honest era, this is the guitar for for you! The neck has the classic Epiphone 60s slim taper feel. Not the most shred-friendly guitar (like an Epiphone flying-v which is probably Epiphone's most shred-friendly guitar) but the next step down, with the body allowing easy access to all 22 frets. This is pretty much a spot on replica of the 1962 Epiphone Crestwood. The company's first solid-body design. The only difference cosmetically is the new butterfly pickguard, which you will either love or hate. It's boldness is enough to pull the extreme of either emotion. I have thought about taking it off to give it more of the "Vintage" look. The other is the 3 aside head stock with the Epiphone "bikini badge". The original had a more attractive (in my opinion at least) "batwing" 6-one-side head stock, which I really wish they would have kept. I feel most users would appreciate the "then uniqueness" of that headstock in today's era. The original Gibson style Kalamazoo humbucker pickups will give that satisfying crunch during rhythm play. Lead play offers fat mids with that classic epiphone twang. My two main issues are the tuning doesn't hold up all that great. Most Epiphones in this price range (I have 4) offer grover tuners usually. This guitar offers the original Epiphone deluxe 14:1 ratio tuners. Seems like the industry standard these days is 15:1 or 18:1. The 14:1 makes it harder to get that "spot on" tune. It suffers from the g# syndrome as well on the 4th string. And my second is since the Tremolo is attached to a regular Gibson style tune-o-matic vs a floyd rose or Ibanez industry-leading bridge lock it comes out of tune with more-then-modest whammy bar usage (then this exponentially adds to the first issue of it being more time consuming to retune). Still nice to have vs not. The spring loaded return system is an engineering pleasure to observe for the mechanically inclined. The guy before me said it best with "this is a nice little hot-rod" of a guitar. For the price it is awesome and offers a unique style on its double cutaway body that is easy to customize. A must have for the 60s-70s reverb&twang lovers. Handles gain much better than most guitars in this price range and still enables nuances and subtleties to be heard in above average fashion with high distortion. I definitely recommend this hidden-gem, lesser-known Epiphone model. If you are history-savvy enough to have come across it's existence do not hesitate to add it to your collection!

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I would have returned this guitar if not for being out of stock at the time for replacemnt and I really do like the look and feel. But the QC on this one is the worst I have ever seen. And if I was not a luthier that could repair it, I would have had no choice but to return it. Out of the box it was useless. The 3 way switch was broken allowing no neck pickup signal. The tuners were missing several screws and were being held.in only by string tension. The bridge ground wire was not even attached. The pickguard has a large scratch on the underside from installation. Plus the setup was terrible. So after about an hour of work and spare parts from my bin, it is now.a good player. Very sad to see this on a new guitar. This was my first new epiphone and will be my last. I even emailed epiphone about the issues and found their service just as poor as the product. No response from them whatsoever from email, leaving voice mails and social media contact. I would avoid new epiphones at all cost after this experience! Stick with reliable companies such as Gibson and fender.