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tjon901 « Official Les Paul copy »
Published on 06/07/11 at 14:40Epiphone is Gibsons lower price line of guitar. They have pretty much the same specs as the Gibson models. The electronics are not as good but they are made from the species of wood but the wood may not be the best quality. The Les Paul standard guitar was introduced in 1958. They came with the first PAF pickups and when people talk about the Gibson tone they are talking about these. They have the standard Les Paul setup with mahogany body with a maple top and a mahogany neck with a 22 fret rosewood fretboard. Two humbucking Alnico Classic pickups with dual volume and tone controls with a 3 way toggle switch pickup selector. The up position on the switch selects the neck pickup. The middle position on the pickup selector selects both pickups. And the down position on the pickup selector selects the bridge pickup. It has a tune-o-matic bridge and stop tail piece.
UTILIZATION
The Epiphone Les Paul standard has all of the same advantages and disadvantages in playability that every Les Paul has. If you are use to modern guitars with thin necks the Les Paul neck will be very big for you. Because of the set neck design there is a large neck tenon and joint. This can make the upper frets hard for some people to reach because the body essentially joins the neck at the 17th fret. After the 17th fret you are reaching around the body to get to the frets. The tuning stability is good because there is no tremolo. The quality of hardware Epiphone uses is not that great. I have had problems with the input jack unscrewing itself and things like that.
SOUNDS
The pickups Epiphone uses are not that great. They are pretty muddy and dead. You do not get much attack with these pickups. Since these pickups do not have much definition the neck position can get really muddy. These guitars are chambered like the Gibson Les Paul standard guitars. This takes away some of the thickness from the tone. With a high gain amp the sound might get muddy due to the lack of definition. With some types of music these pickups are great. If you want a bluesy sound these pickups will do really good and you will be able to get a smooth tone out of them. With a pickup swap this guitar can sound great so I would recommend to anyone who has one of these Epiphones to try it out with some after market pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are looking for a cheap Gibson Les Paul alternative there are better guitars out there. Epiphone makes the only official Les Paul copies but there are some other copies that are of a lot better quality. I would recommend looking at an Agile Les Paul copy. You can get a guitar half the price of the Epiphone but with better quality, and for the price you pay for this Epiphone you can get an Agile with an ebony fretboard and Gibson quality hardware.
UTILIZATION
The Epiphone Les Paul standard has all of the same advantages and disadvantages in playability that every Les Paul has. If you are use to modern guitars with thin necks the Les Paul neck will be very big for you. Because of the set neck design there is a large neck tenon and joint. This can make the upper frets hard for some people to reach because the body essentially joins the neck at the 17th fret. After the 17th fret you are reaching around the body to get to the frets. The tuning stability is good because there is no tremolo. The quality of hardware Epiphone uses is not that great. I have had problems with the input jack unscrewing itself and things like that.
SOUNDS
The pickups Epiphone uses are not that great. They are pretty muddy and dead. You do not get much attack with these pickups. Since these pickups do not have much definition the neck position can get really muddy. These guitars are chambered like the Gibson Les Paul standard guitars. This takes away some of the thickness from the tone. With a high gain amp the sound might get muddy due to the lack of definition. With some types of music these pickups are great. If you want a bluesy sound these pickups will do really good and you will be able to get a smooth tone out of them. With a pickup swap this guitar can sound great so I would recommend to anyone who has one of these Epiphones to try it out with some after market pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are looking for a cheap Gibson Les Paul alternative there are better guitars out there. Epiphone makes the only official Les Paul copies but there are some other copies that are of a lot better quality. I would recommend looking at an Agile Les Paul copy. You can get a guitar half the price of the Epiphone but with better quality, and for the price you pay for this Epiphone you can get an Agile with an ebony fretboard and Gibson quality hardware.