What l see...1. immediately the finish on the Indo looks much nicer, the reflection shows it's much flatter finished. 2 the fret board on the Indo has a beautiful black ebony wood which is also used in the bridge. 3. The mahogany on the Indo is much nicer looking and likely a much better mahogany. 4. I didn't notice til you showed the back that the binding and neck end cap are a much nicer shade of cream white on the Indo vs the plastic bright white on the China model. If l had to choose ld be happy with the Indonesian model based on these differences, as long as the necks are the same profile and equal action can be achieved on both again the interior of the Indo looks 10times nicer, if one was to be called "Masterbuilt" it would be the Indonesian, the glue work was much neater and the corner wood that is used joining the deck and back was clearly not the same wood use on the China model. Day and night to me. Thanks! Great Vid!!
I have 2 Masterbuilt dr500mce _ 2014 Indonesian and has Rosewood Fretboard....not sure what year they changed that to ebony. Ps. My Bridge looks darker, but also seems to be rosewood..not quite ebony. ✌️
Ps. I noticed a difference between my 2014 and 2015 (both plekt and no notable blemishes from the process) as far as the action goes..and note I did have my Luthier friend shim the nut, and shave a little off the saddle on both to achieve insane action without any buzz...and also a fret level...and the action is great on both... but the Saddle on the 2015 is way shorter compared to the 2014...so my point is...the action will never be exactly the same with comparible or even exact models of same year. And though they may or may not have been plekt, because they are not Gibson and built for price, and if you do not spend 1800 to 4000 , I have yet to find a perfect setup out of the box. When I purchased my Yairi...just got a shipment of 20 guitars that were all similar, some different colors...and they all played different, action, neck, and feel..I spent an entire afternoon playing each one, going back and forth and checking off the pros and cons and whittled it down to to 2...but the one that played the best out of all 20 , it had an ugly color (to me in my opinion) compared to all the others, even the 2nd best had Gorgeous colors and tight grain...anyways, I bought the one that had the Ugly color and that played the best...and I was forever in love with that guitar for years until I had to sell to save our house. . I figured I wouldn't be looking at the Guitar while playing it...and play like a dream while I was...so the moral of the story is... Looks do not make a good player and if it's ugly as heck but plays like you like it to, buy the ugly one. And it's better to be good first and look good second. If you are interested, I am letting my 2015 Epi materbuilt Dr500mce (gloss natural) go...need to sell it while I am taking care of my mom to cover some bills...hate to let get go, but family first. Comes with hardshell case and is in Excellent condition , plays like a dream and looks fantastic too. Best of both on this one. Made in Indonesia. I live in OH. Hit me up . Rk n Rll.
Hi!! Found some info in a guitar forum, I hope it helps!! "The DR500MCE had quite a production run with the made in Indonesia, Esonic2 dual pickups and being Plek’d. Towards the end of the run, they were still made in Indonesia, plek’d, dual pickups but used the ESonic HD preamp. Which was just a modified version of the Esonic2, a couple less features. The last production run, was made in China, not Plek’d, and just a single pickup with. A Fishman preamp. The last one I have seen so far that was with the dual pickups and Plek’d was from September 2019. Maybe someone else has a later one, but I have never seen one. As I was informed, the problem they were running into with having the guitars Plek’d was that so many were damaged in the process with carelessness or workers going to fast for production. I have never seen so my guitars sold as refurbished as this model. Be very careful when purchasing one. If it has that copper label or similar covering up the original serial number, know that it was rejected at the factory and sold to a outside vendor for resale. That means if you call Epiphone and ask for information on the serial number inside a refurbished one, they will tell you it’s not theirs and it carries no warranty. The back of all those refurbished ones will also have USED stamped into the wood. Hope this helps. I love this guitar BTW, I own 3 of them all from Indonesia, I also have the DR400MCE made in China I believe." I can add myself that the idea of the Nano-mag pickup is to use it more like an electric pickup (add overdrive and other effects with better results, etc "a la" Kurt Cobain in the Unplugged album) + an electric amp, and use the piezo as a standard piezo acoustic. Having separate outputs allows for switching from one to another, as much as blending to taste. I could "add" the nanomag with some overdrive to "uplift" the choruses in my acoustic solo gigs, and it was great!! and that's just one option!
I believe both guitar uses mahogany wood but different variety/genus/sub-species. I've seen local indonesian luthiers that used locally sourced mahogany with that exact wood grain that you showed here.
My DR500MCE is made in indonesia which I brought here in Kuwait. It has two active pickups the nanomag and nanoflex. The vintage color is soo damn hot. Also the sound quality is soo damn good. ❤️
My DR500MCE is made in indonesia which I brought here in Kuwait. It has two active pickups the nanomag and nanoflex. My guitar also have esonic 2 HD. The vintage color is soo damn hot. Also the sound quality is soo damn good. ❤️
China version looks like Pine wood bracing and also for a split second showing the inside of China made one, the bracing near neck joint has a inch or better gap where it stops and does not go to edge of neck...China made cut corners...I have 2 Indonesian made dr500mce's and the China made ones are very different as far as sound too. The extra glue or press board on the Chinese one dulls the sound...and also saw a Chinese one that is same year as mine are, and were in a better controlled environment than my house and jam room...that had long splits on top and back. ON THE Indonesian made Guitar, it is obvious the wood is much better quality, aged better, and overall way better construction with mahogany bracing, (instead of what looks like Pine Wood bracing with some type of paint covering the wood grains on the main braces on China made) Sure glad I purchased the Indonesian made . And for the price, the playability and ESPECIALLY, the tone, resonance, low end, and Gorgeous sounds that are comparible to 98% of the $1200-1500 dollar range of guitars on the Market or to date...I and I've sampled over 20 different guitars IN THAT RANGe of price and this Indonesian Epi Dr500mce blew them away. It's balanced of lows to highs still amaze me. And the electronics are pretty cool too...dig the mag p/u and stereo capabilities, but nothing like the old Fishmans..W/Eq....I use a70s mxr eq to take some high end off. The neck, tuners, wood, (last of the rosewood fretboard s , ) playability and sounds surpass any in same price range and beyond as I mentioned above. Best regards, keeep on rockin in the free world Ps. My Epi's are 2014 and 2015
The Chinese one is a Gibson factory and the Indonesia is a contracted factory. I prefer the more controlled Gibson factory even though I usually don't like things made in China.
Bought an Epi DR500MCE EMECVSNH3 online . It's made in Indonesia but has only one output & probably only one bridge pick-up. Has Fishman `Presys' (probably lowest end preamp) sounds reasonably good & full with heavy bass accent. Is this a new model with single pickup?
Cool video. My Indonesia made has 2 pickups with the HD. Sounds great, and looks good. For some reason I have 2 of the paper tags inside. One put over the other and the bottom one has one digit different. Have you ever known that to be? I'll be changing the strings sin and I'm going to peek under the top one to see what number was different. The top tag says it was made in 2019.
Thank you so much. That's interesting. It sounds like maybe yours got double stickered. Maybe two serial number sheets got stuck together on the line. There's probably a guitar out there somewhere that shipped without a label inside it, or it got to QC, and they pulled it off the line. You may have a rare guitar there. It's certainly a conversation piece.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet I looked today at the numbers and they are thousands off. The top one has it as number 8223 as the number made, and the bottom one has it as 0823. The date numbers are the same. This seems very strange to me.
@@a68dart340 you should do it. I’d love to hear it. My most viewed video is a terrible demo I did of a Takamine 12 string a few years ago. I just made it to help people hear what it sounded like, and it has 42K views now.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet the stickers from the headstock have been removed (pawn shop guitar) but the cutaway deems it from Indonesia, so you have answered my question + Thx! Any other tips for this guitar? I have not had a masterbilt before.
They are essentially identical; however, the Indonesian craftsmanship appears to have a little more attention to detail. I’m not sure if it’s a one off difference or as a whole. I’ve played excellent guitars from both countries.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet thanks for a quick reply. Mine is currently out for delivery today. I’m not sure if I’m getting a China or an Indonesian one. Thanks for taking the time to make a video on this.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet I’m actually convinced the reason they made some in China is to use up left over material from the DR400MCE. Personally I feel like the Indonesia model is made better. There were 4. The DR-500MCE, DR-400MCE, AJ-45ME, Guitar Center/MF exclusive AJ500RCE in sunburst and a natural that I have only seen one of in person and snatched it up. They replaced them With Frontier, Excellente, and Texan.
@@joshuataylor672 that explains why the Made in China looks exactly like the 400 with a 500 label. I recently acquired a cheap Mitchell T313CE/N (Made in Indonesia) that has a small ding on it. It has a solid spruce top, mahogany back & sides, Fishman Presys/Sonicore pickup, TUSQ nut & saddle, D’addario strings, and it sounds really good. Indonesian made guitars are very nice.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet not saying for sure that’s the reason for the DR-400 and 500. That’s just my thinking. They only made the 400 for about a year, maybe 2. I also noticed it was only the natural that made the switch from Indonesian to China. Or at least I never saw the sunburst from China. I do know the Esonic 2 HD was a newer version of the pickup.
Why would anyone send more money to China 🇨🇳!!! Gibson and Epiphone should have better sense than to continue with china products! Give me a damn break Gibson,,, wake up!!! Can Mark Agnesi not talk some damn sense into Gibson???????
The simple explanation is the accountants at Gibson likely find price & volume to be more important than patriotism. Head over to Epiphone’s website, and view the price of Epiphone’s USA made models. USA labor = higher prices. I don’t think you’ll find any American workers who will work for $0.71 - $1.10 per hour or a monthly average of $530 per month like Chinese factory workers. Gibson/Epiphone sells a high volume of their Asian made instruments to offset the lower volume sales of USA models. Like, I said, the accountants control what is made where. If you want to buy American, find a local area luthier to make you a guitar. This would get you a much better quality instrument than anything Gibson makes.
What l see...1. immediately the finish on the Indo looks much nicer, the reflection shows it's much flatter finished. 2 the fret board on the Indo has a beautiful black ebony wood which is also used in the bridge. 3. The mahogany on the Indo is much nicer looking and likely a much better mahogany. 4. I didn't notice til you showed the back that the binding and neck end cap are a much nicer shade of cream white on the Indo vs the plastic bright white on the China model. If l had to choose ld be happy with the Indonesian model based on these differences, as long as the necks are the same profile and equal action can be achieved on both again the interior of the Indo looks 10times nicer, if one was to be called "Masterbuilt" it would be the Indonesian, the glue work was much neater and the corner wood that is used joining the deck and back was clearly not the same wood use on the China model. Day and night to me. Thanks! Great Vid!!
Glad I could help.
I have 2 Masterbuilt dr500mce _ 2014 Indonesian and has Rosewood Fretboard....not sure what year they changed that to ebony.
Ps. My Bridge looks darker, but also seems to be rosewood..not quite ebony. ✌️
Ps. I noticed a difference between my 2014 and 2015 (both plekt and no notable blemishes from the process) as far as the action goes..and note I did have my Luthier friend shim the nut, and shave a little off the saddle on both to achieve insane action without any buzz...and also a fret level...and the action is great on both...
but the Saddle on the 2015 is way shorter compared to the 2014...so my point is...the action will never be exactly the same with comparible or even exact models of same year. And though they may or may not have been plekt, because they are not Gibson and built for price, and if you do not spend 1800 to 4000 , I have yet to find a perfect setup out of the box.
When I purchased my Yairi...just got a shipment of 20 guitars that were all similar, some different colors...and they all played different, action, neck, and feel..I spent an entire afternoon playing each one, going back and forth and checking off the pros and cons and whittled it down to to 2...but the one that played the best out of all 20 , it had an ugly color (to me in my opinion) compared to all the others, even the 2nd best had Gorgeous colors and tight grain...anyways, I bought the one that had the Ugly color and that played the best...and I was forever in love with that guitar for years until I had to sell to save our house. . I figured I wouldn't be looking at the Guitar while playing it...and play like a dream while I was...so the moral of the story is...
Looks do not make a good player and if it's ugly as heck but plays like you like it to, buy the ugly one.
And it's better to be good first and look good second.
If you are interested, I am letting my 2015 Epi materbuilt Dr500mce (gloss natural) go...need to sell it while I am taking care of my mom to cover some bills...hate to let get go, but family first.
Comes with hardshell case and is in Excellent condition , plays like a dream and looks fantastic too. Best of both on this one. Made in Indonesia. I live in OH. Hit me up . Rk n Rll.
Hi!! Found some info in a guitar forum, I hope it helps!!
"The DR500MCE had quite a production run with the made in Indonesia, Esonic2 dual pickups and being Plek’d.
Towards the end of the run, they were still made in Indonesia, plek’d, dual pickups but used the ESonic HD preamp. Which was just a modified version of the Esonic2, a couple less features.
The last production run, was made in China, not Plek’d, and just a single pickup with. A Fishman preamp.
The last one I have seen so far that was with the dual pickups and Plek’d was from September 2019. Maybe someone else has a later one, but I have never seen one.
As I was informed, the problem they were running into with having the guitars Plek’d was that so many were damaged in the process with carelessness or workers going to fast for production. I have never seen so my guitars sold as refurbished as this model.
Be very careful when purchasing one. If it has that copper label or similar covering up the original serial number, know that it was rejected at the factory and sold to a outside vendor for resale.
That means if you call Epiphone and ask for information on the serial number inside a refurbished one, they will tell you it’s not theirs and it carries no warranty. The back of all those refurbished ones will also have USED stamped into the wood.
Hope this helps.
I love this guitar BTW, I own 3 of them all from Indonesia, I also have the DR400MCE made in China I believe."
I can add myself that the idea of the Nano-mag pickup is to use it more like an electric pickup (add overdrive and other effects with better results, etc "a la" Kurt Cobain in the Unplugged album) + an electric amp, and use the piezo as a standard piezo acoustic. Having separate outputs allows for switching from one to another, as much as blending to taste. I could "add" the nanomag with some overdrive to "uplift" the choruses in my acoustic solo gigs, and it was great!! and that's just one option!
Very cool! Thanks for the valuable information. That will help a lot of people.
I believe both guitar uses mahogany wood but different variety/genus/sub-species. I've seen local indonesian luthiers that used locally sourced mahogany with that exact wood grain that you showed here.
Nice, thank you. It's good to get verified information straight from the source, and yours is as close as it gets. Thanks!
My DR500MCE is made in indonesia which I brought here in Kuwait. It has two active pickups the nanomag and nanoflex. The vintage color is soo damn hot. Also the sound quality is soo damn good. ❤️
Very cool!
Agreed, Mine is Indonesian + I don't plug in, but this guitar has a Beautiful tone for a great price! Diggn it!
My DR500MCE is made in indonesia which I brought here in Kuwait. It has two active pickups the nanomag and nanoflex. My guitar also have esonic 2 HD. The vintage color is soo damn hot. Also the sound quality is soo damn good. ❤️
Yes, I agree! For the price, they are hard to beat.
China version looks like Pine wood bracing and also for a split second showing the inside of China made one, the bracing near neck joint has a inch or better gap where it stops and does not go to edge of neck...China made cut corners...I have 2 Indonesian made dr500mce's and the China made ones are very different as far as sound too. The extra glue or press board on the Chinese one dulls the sound...and also saw a Chinese one that is same year as mine are, and were in a better controlled environment than my house and jam room...that had long splits on top and back.
ON THE Indonesian made Guitar, it is obvious the wood is much better quality, aged better, and overall way better construction with mahogany bracing, (instead of what looks like Pine Wood bracing with some type of paint covering the wood grains on the main braces on China made)
Sure glad I purchased the Indonesian made . And for the price, the playability and ESPECIALLY, the tone, resonance, low end, and Gorgeous sounds that are comparible to 98% of the $1200-1500 dollar range of guitars on the Market or to date...I and I've sampled over 20 different guitars IN THAT RANGe of price and this Indonesian Epi Dr500mce blew them away. It's balanced of lows to highs still amaze me. And the electronics are pretty cool too...dig the mag p/u and stereo capabilities, but nothing like the old Fishmans..W/Eq....I use a70s mxr eq to take some high end off.
The neck, tuners, wood, (last of the rosewood fretboard s , ) playability and sounds surpass any in same price range and beyond as I mentioned above. Best regards, keeep on rockin in the free world
Ps. My Epi's are 2014 and 2015
Very cool. Thanks for the insight.
The Chinese one is a Gibson factory and the Indonesia is a contracted factory. I prefer the more controlled Gibson factory even though I usually don't like things made in China.
Interesting.
Have you come up with a fix for the strap to endpin problem on these Madterbuilts?
What problem?
Bought an Epi DR500MCE EMECVSNH3 online . It's made in Indonesia but has only one output & probably only one bridge pick-up. Has Fishman `Presys' (probably lowest end preamp) sounds reasonably good & full with heavy bass accent. Is this a new model with single pickup?
Very cool. The serial number will tell you the date on your guitar. I think they did change preamps at some point.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet Nov 2020 Samik Indonesia
Cool video. My Indonesia made has 2 pickups with the HD. Sounds great, and looks good. For some reason I have 2 of the paper tags inside. One put over the other and the bottom one has one digit different. Have you ever known that to be? I'll be changing the strings sin and I'm going to peek under the top one to see what number was different. The top tag says it was made in 2019.
Thank you so much. That's interesting. It sounds like maybe yours got double stickered. Maybe two serial number sheets got stuck together on the line. There's probably a guitar out there somewhere that shipped without a label inside it, or it got to QC, and they pulled it off the line. You may have a rare guitar there. It's certainly a conversation piece.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet I looked today at the numbers and they are thousands off. The top one has it as number 8223 as the number made, and the bottom one has it as 0823. The date numbers are the same. This seems very strange to me.
@@lodiwish that is weird. Maybe a factory worker found an extra label, and just stuck it on there. Lol!
Which pick up is better the esonic or the one with the fishman pick up?
They sound about the same. I guess it depends on which brand name you like better.
Can you do a video on the masterbilt Texan?
I do not own a Masterbilt Texan. I’m sure they are similar.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet TY. Love the Masterbuilt line and have a Texan.
@@a68dart340 well, why don’t you do video then? I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would like to hear a demo of the Texan.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet lol I never even thought of that lol
I will try
@@a68dart340 you should do it. I’d love to hear it. My most viewed video is a terrible demo I did of a Takamine 12 string a few years ago. I just made it to help people hear what it sounded like, and it has 42K views now.
where I can order for the new one? indonesia made
Musician’s Friend online has them on sale right now for $589.99.
How about the Tone, and Clearly the wood they used are intirely different, Indonesian Wood more mature, and the Chinese one Lighter
Listen to the demos on my page for the tone.
How can I tell where my DR-500MCE/VS was built?
Based on cutaway it looks like Indonseia, does this cutaway rule prove consistent?
It should be on the label or headstock.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet the stickers from the headstock have been removed (pawn shop guitar) but the cutaway deems it from Indonesia, so you have answered my question + Thx! Any other tips for this guitar? I have not had a masterbilt before.
He showed u in the video..."noticeable differences", like the cutaway and etc.
Indonesia all solid?!
All the specs I can find indicate all solid woods.
Is one better than the other ?
They are essentially identical; however, the Indonesian craftsmanship appears to have a little more attention to detail. I’m not sure if it’s a one off difference or as a whole. I’ve played excellent guitars from both countries.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet thanks for a quick reply. Mine is currently out for delivery today. I’m not sure if I’m getting a China or an Indonesian one. Thanks for taking the time to make a video on this.
@@Averitt13 you’re welcome. You will love it no matter which one you get. The more you play it, the better it will sound.
Mine is made last year in 2020 and it's from Indonesia and only has one input for my amp it's a fishman pickup it's also the sunburst version
Cool. Fishman makes great stuff. I’m sure it sounds awesome.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet yeah I like it but one of the wires are rattling inside when I'm play the a note
@@Mmaya94 that’s an easy fix. Check inside to see if a wire came off its mount. Loosen your strings and take a video with your phone, so you can see.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet thx I try that
These are discontinued now.
Oh, wow! I should’ve kept one. Lol!
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet I’m actually convinced the reason they made some in China is to use up left over material from the DR400MCE. Personally I feel like the Indonesia model is made better. There were 4. The DR-500MCE, DR-400MCE, AJ-45ME, Guitar Center/MF exclusive AJ500RCE in sunburst and a natural that I have only seen one of in person and snatched it up. They replaced them
With Frontier, Excellente, and Texan.
@@joshuataylor672 that explains why the Made in China looks exactly like the 400 with a 500 label. I recently acquired a cheap Mitchell T313CE/N (Made in Indonesia) that has a small ding on it. It has a solid spruce top, mahogany back & sides, Fishman Presys/Sonicore pickup, TUSQ nut & saddle, D’addario strings, and it sounds really good. Indonesian made guitars are very nice.
@@RyansCustomShopandGearOutlet not saying for sure that’s the reason for the DR-400 and 500. That’s just my thinking. They only made the 400 for about a year, maybe 2. I also noticed it was only the natural that made the switch from Indonesian to China. Or at least I never saw the sunburst from China. I do know the Esonic 2 HD was a newer version of the pickup.
they say the made in Indo is much better.
I like Indonesian made instruments better.
I wonder did you probe your car as much?????
No, I don't need to probe my car. It's still under warranty.
Wow
Thanks!
Why would anyone send more money to China 🇨🇳!!! Gibson and Epiphone should have better sense than to continue with china products! Give me a damn break Gibson,,, wake up!!! Can Mark Agnesi not talk some damn sense into Gibson???????
The simple explanation is the accountants at Gibson likely find price & volume to be more important than patriotism. Head over to Epiphone’s website, and view the price of Epiphone’s USA made models. USA labor = higher prices. I don’t think you’ll find any American workers who will work for $0.71 - $1.10 per hour or a monthly average of $530 per month like Chinese factory workers. Gibson/Epiphone sells a high volume of their Asian made instruments to offset the lower volume sales of USA models. Like, I said, the accountants control what is made where. If you want to buy American, find a local area luthier to make you a guitar. This would get you a much better quality instrument than anything Gibson makes.
You don't know much about wood..
So, what's your point? Please enlighten us with your vast knowlege. This video was made for someone who asked me to do a side by side comparison.