Butt, butt....................
I can't get past the Epiphone name...drives me crazy.
I guess I still feel that way about the lower end, less faithfully built models, but I never felt that way when I got an Epi Japan Thunderbird (same bass as the "Orville" bird). I was actually really impressed with it. There was a time when I was totally enamored of all those "lawsuit" type Japanese guitars and basses. I don't think they replace their American counterparts, but I liked that they were not the same old same old. I approach these new models in the same way. They are what they are (and are not a replacement for a modern Gibson or their vintage counterparts), but they might be cool anyway, in their own right.