After playing on my starter guitar for about 3 years, I decided to purchase a new guitar to develop my playing ability further. I really wanted to get humbuckers on my next guitar as I thought that the fatter, warmer tone was more versatile for my style of rock than the twang of single coils. I really did not want to spend over $400, and really could not find anything at the big music chains, so I decided to buy it used. I got my Les Paul for $325 at a Used gear store, and have been quite satisfied.

The action on the guitar was perfect, with little or no buzzing occurring when I would play on it, even with having to stretch my fingers on some chords. I really can't make a comparison about the action to my first guitar as it was not comparable in quality, but it was low enough to make playing faster a lot easier. Regarding the dependability, I have noticed for myself that Guitars tend to have something go wrong at the worst possible time. However, with this guitar, I have never had any quality issues that prevented me from using it for gigs or anything of that nature.

The size of the neck and body size did not have any effect in my playing, as it was designed so reaching the higher frets was not a challenge like on some other designed guitars. I think one thing people might take a while to get used to is the weight of the guitar. It is heavier than a Fender, but it is indeed lighter than a Gibson Les Paul Standard (which I was amazed at after comparing). There were not any noticeable manufacturing problems on the guitar that I noticed. There were a few scratches since I bought it used, but no quality issues regarding the pick-ups or toggle switch and volume and tone knobs. It all stayed intact even after dropping the guitar on concrete, which shows that this at the highest level of quality, just like it's Gibson counterpart. The one issue I have with the guitar is the tuning goes out often, but I believe that is due to the fact that I play hard on the guitar, which happens even with Gibson's I have played on previously.

The fat, warm sound of the humbuckers is something that I have always admired and enjoyed. It is used quite often in the style of music I listen to (mostly punk) and has that versatile sound with the Treble and Rhythm toggle switch to help adjust to any style I want to play. I guess a good comparison I have found is when I see most bands play that are either punk or a style related to that, I would say about 90% of the guitarists' use some form of a Gibson/Epiphone with the humbuckers. After using humbuckers for about 3 years now, I would never go back to the single coils. I also think that since I play through a Fender vacuum tube head, I think you really get to release the full potential of the guitar with a true overdrive sound and that almost identical Gibson sound. For this price, it's a steal (especially used) and even if you have been playing guitar for years, it's a comparable guitar to use even for recording and live performances.



Recommended: Yes