Epiphone Bully!

Epiphone E Series Electric Guitar!

For something called a Bully, the Epiphone Bully has sunken more quietly than you might expect into the relative obscurity of “discontinued land” and without so much as a raw, blood-curdling scream.

You see, Epiphone's Bully was intended to be raw, edgy, in-your-face and menacing. It was intended to scream.

Based on the classic, bold, pushy design of the Gibson SG, the Epiphone Bully was a short-lived model that was intended to hit you with a hard wall of sound when you hit it with a pick or finger.

Because of its open-coil humbucker pickups, it offered a tone that was crunchy, wild and fat and couldn’t be ignored.

It was hard and harsh. It was big and loud. It was unforgettable.

But most players never had a chance to forget it because they never knew about it in the first place.

Available only in 2001 and 2002, the Bully isn’t always easy to find on the used market now.

Of course, you’ll never find it if you don’t look.

While the Bully is still touted for that unapologetic sound and its high-end sustain, it had a few things working against it.

It was an Asian model -- as many great models are now -- and its body was laminate -- not solid wood.

But there are other laminate-body guitars that perform well and manage to get a little respect.

Those high-output humbuckers were also a bit much for some players, but Epiphone's Bully is what it is.

Part of the E-Series, the Bully featured chrome hardware, the Explorer-S headstock, an Indian rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays and maple neck with “Super Slide” finish.

A tune-o-matic bridge and stop-bar/tailpiece were also featured -- along with volume and tone control knobs and a three-way selector switch controlling those very hot E-Series open-coils.

If the description of the sound doesn’t indicate to you the kind of players this model was aimed to attract, maybe the color choices will.

There was Blood Stain. And there was Bruise Purple. And there was Just Black. (Not sure how that last one got in there.)

And don’t let its short life fool you.

Epiphone's Bully did what it did well.

It didn’t stay around long enough to catch on, but there’s no arguing with the harshness and boldness of the sound it gave to those who managed to discover it.

Take a look now and you just might discover one.

Epiphone's Bully makes no apologies for its rough-around-the-edges look or sound.

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