The Bottom Line: Good guitar for the price, looks like a Gibson, factory setup is kind of rough. A little work and you have a great starter or backup guitar.
higle's Full Review: Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus
I've played acoustic guitars for a number of years, and only about a year ago decided to buy an electric guitar. I wanted something that was a step above your garden variety K-Mart Strat knockoff, but didn't cost an arm, a leg, and three toes like a genuine Gibson. I started shopping around.
In my shopping travels, I played several guitars, and really liked the look, action, sound, and playability of the Epiphone Les Pauls. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference looks-wise between an Epiphone and a Gibson (save for that $2000 Gibson name on the headstock). The fit and finish were satisfactory. The only immediate difference was the cheap and ugly green plastic tuner keys, a-la moldy lime Jello. Whatever. It was marked $400, with the case. I could live with the tuners. I bought one, in black, with the Bigsby style tremolo system.
When I got home with the boxes, set up my new Marshall 30 watt amp, and got the plastic off of the pickups, I was ready to rock. And rock I did. This guitar sounds great with the distortion turned up a bit, the action was super-low... I was riffin' like Jimmy Page, and lovin' it. Power chords sounded terrific on this thing. I was driving the neighbors nuts with my renditions of Black Sabbath and Rush tunes.
After a week or two to let the excitement calm down a bit, I started paying attention to little details, like all the buzzing from the strings. Jeez, did that thing buzz. And the pickups, well, sounded muddy. They sure picked up the low end, but the treble was covered completely by a sea of bassy growl. Fiddling with the amp and tone pots yielded little results. Like Mick Jagger, I couldn't get no satisfaction.
I didn't want to fool with the Tune-o-Matic bridge, so I took it into my local guitar shop to have it set up. That fixed the buzzing, but no help with the treble problems.
Eventually, I bought some Seymour Duncan pickups, installed them, and my tone problems were gone. I was surprised by the variety of sounds that I could get after the pickup change. Everything from Blues, Jazz, to crunchy Rock were right there. I was finally satisfied (well, except for the Jello tuning keys).
I also had a brief problem with the pickup selector switch. It was going through a period where, when switching, there would be absolutely no sound at all, like the switch wasn't making a connection. Being a curious little monkey, I took plastic plate behind the switch off, and found the problem. The silicon dust that they put into the bored out parts of the guitar to keep the electronics dry had gotten into the switch. A shot of WD-40 remedied that.
The moral of this story? This guitar is good. It feels, looks, smells, and kind of tastes like a Gibson Les Paul. It's clear where Gibson saved their money when manufacturing these bad boys, though. The pickups are lackluster, the setup was obviously an after-thought, and the switch problem was kind of unnerving. But for $400 and a little bit of work, I had a guitar that I would be comfortable gigging with, and would definitely recommend for a guitar student studying rock theory. Even without the pickup change, the guitar would be suitable for rhythm playing. Pretty good overall.
This plain top Epiphone Les Paul Standard is an electric guitar that delivers all the signature sound of a Gibson Les Paul at a fraction of the cost. ...More at Musician's Friend
Fantastic prices with ease & c...(Stock status: N/A)
This plain top Epiphone Les Paul Standard is an electric guitar that delivers all the signature sound of a Gibson Les Paul at a fraction of the cost. ...More at Amazon Marketplace
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