ezbass

2 NGDs in the space of a week, good work!  Love the paint job on the T type.

2 hours ago, Chronikus said:

discomfort in the fretting arm/hand

Possibly squeezing too hard, relax a little and don't overdo it. Little and often is better than big sessions. I see that you're using your thumb for the E string in the video and this may be a contributing factor to your discomfort. Whilst there is a place for using your thumb for big stretches and wide chord voicing, it's not normally a good habit to start with. I'd use my index finger for that note, in this instance.

2 hours ago, Chronikus said:

problem is timing

That'll come with practise, try slowing things down to start with.

. 

3 hours ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

Poplar does have the reputation, though Fender used it in Mexican made guitars for years on the bodies,

As do/did Music Man.

22 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Proper nut files are extraordinarily expensive,

They really are, especially for an only one or two time use. However, if the nut is already cut to the right height, you could simply wrap a piece of light grit paper (1000 should be abrasive enough) around a string (best to use the adjacent, thinner string for this - for instance, the A string for the E slot) and give it a straight pull through. This should remove any snags and then you can add some graphite as Dad suggests.

8 hours ago, Goldilocks33 said:

She's so keen to get this guitar and lessons rather than school ski trip based on ourfinancial circumstances. 

Given the lack of snow in some parts, this is no bad thing.

Fit and finish of the HB won’t be as good as the Cort, but any playability issues can be addressed by having it set up by a guitar tech. It’ll be money well spent.

For me, as a general gigging board:

'Dumble' homemade overdrive* - MXR blue box octave fuzz - Marshall ED1 compressor - TC Electronics skysurfer reverb

@Musical Mystery Tour that goldtop with P90s .

It's always Tele time in my book.

If you're tightening the claw screws all the way so that the trem block moves towards the claw side of the cavity and the base plate is flush with the body, I'm thinking that this would potentially lower the action a fraction and make the speaking length longer, possibly requiring an intonation adjustment. Whatever you do may require a tweak to your set up.

When you say enormous neck, width, depth, both? I’ve recently rediscovered classical guitars and I’m loving the super wide fretboard and spacing, who knew?

9 hours ago, stevierayvaughan said:

However, the bridge pickup seemed a bit lifeless to me

It occurs to me that the Epiphone ES335 probably has coil taps, as do a good number of their humbucker equipped guitars. Could it be that the tap was engaged resulting in a thinner sound?

As a general idea, yeah, do it. As to which one, we’ll that’s way too personal. I’ve had a love affair with DiMarzio for decades, great range of products, with great tone and a fantastic level of customer service (I once emailed them an enquiry and it was answered by Steve Blucher, his usual level of contact are the Vais, Satrianis and Johnsons of this world, I was blown away that a top guy wasn’t above dealing with Joe Public), they’ve never steered me wrong. Seymour Duncan have great products too and I have used them, with good results, I just never found they customer service to be anywhere near as good. The best thing is to go on their sites and use their pickup selector tools, then find some YT videos of those products that give examples.

Go and see your doctor, neuropathy is weird and different for everyone.

Running the risk of muddying the waters even further, the Boss Katana range get an awful lot of love and have a number of models to suit different scenarios in terms of output, size, etc.

Oh yeah, 

2 quite different guitars physically. One is a grand auditorium with a cutaway, whilst the other is a big old, non cutaway dreadnought. I have a dreadnought and a g/a and from a comfort POV the g/a gets picked up way more and is very articulate and very suited to fingerstyle. However, you can’t beat the dread for that big, sonorous strummed sound and is still good for fingerstyle. I think I’d approach it from the playability angle first, with the sound coming in second. The sapele should give you that warmth that you’re looking for, but with a little more top end presence, coupled with a more directness associated with the body shape. The Fender should be big and warm sounding. 
 

Try them both first if you can, what suits me might not suit you.

Always good to see a Tele in my opinion.

If your Casino is anything like mine, the nut should be OK, awful, sideways break angle notwithstanding (why Gibson, why?). 

1 hour ago, Stebaz said:

Yeah they’re not cheap. If you look around you can get a deal. 212 or 112 that’s the question

Depends on whether headroom/volume or weight is most important. I tend to feel that most 2x12 cabs aren’t really big enough to be efficient.