Epiphone Les Paul 5-String Bass

I bought this bass for $250 in 2000 from my band teacher. He has been a bass player for over 20 years and he was reluctant to hand his bass over to me(i had only been playing about 1-2 years). He thought it was great. And my bass teacher who has been playing bass over 30 years has played and he loves it. I love it. But of course it does have its problems. Such as the much mentioned pickup control. I came lose and twisted inside the bass after about a month of use. I went in and fixed myself as well as tightning the inout jack which was sort of rolling around in side. Also inspite of the BEAUTIFUL finish the paint seems to scuff easy so be very carful with it. I really like the lowest position on the selector b/c to my ear it has a nice ballsy sound. Overall worth the money

I play metal like SOAD and other rock like chilli pepper kinda stuff. I found it satifactory for metal, good for peppers or AFI type, and great for slap. Im running it through a crappy little horribly overdriven 15 watt practice amp and a bp200 proccessor until i have enough for a stack. The bass itself isnt noisy its my amp because at the store where i take lessons, on an Ampeg b2r and bse-4X10 cab it sounds nice with lots of lows and good mids and highs.

I honestly didnt like the setup out of the box so i tightened the tension and raised the string height and fut a fast fret coating on the fingerboard. I like the way the braidge and tailpeice work, but i am looking for a better replacement if possible. Fast action, pretty finish

This bass truly is a tank in regards to the wood but the oaint is another story. I had the bass sitting upright on a semi dirty floor when picked it up there were multiple little scratches on the bottom.

never dealt with them

I would buy another but havent been able to find one anywhere. I wish the bass had more choice of color like the gold one the main singer of Puddle of Mud has. My first bass was a 4 string ibanez that was $180, this bass more than surpassed that bass

I think Its clearly stated, pickups could be replaced, nothing too special, but okay

heavy metal bass player here. I use an eden bass pre into a mesa tube power amp into a 2x15 cab. I like my tone extremely clean, no distortion at all...we play to fast for it. I've found the Eden is key to my sound. Tried lots of bass and lots of amps.... The paul into the eden is really sweet...lots of low end. Not overly rich, spent that all on the rack, but for the money, hell, I love it. It should tide me over until I can drop a few grand on a really nice one.

Everything was pretty good...Had to drastically resetup for our tuning, dropped C and tuned the bass, low to high C-G-C-F-A. Works really well, but need a custom set of strings...I like really tight strings and no one makes a set that is JUST right. once done, everything was a-okay

This thing is a tank. never been dropped (instant strap locks) but has been beaten up plent of times. No scratches yet, but holding. Would never, ever gig w/o a back up, thats just stupid....and bass can break a string, have the pickups go bad, or have god hate you that day and decree that bass just won't work today...

Don't know the year, otherwise pretty much the same as everyone else has written. The neck is quite heavy (if you let go of the bass, the neck very quickly swings down away from you).

My setup has evolved into: bass -> Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver DI (the best musical purchase I've ever made: transformed the sound) -> Peavey TNT160 for lows (built in crossover) -> Crate GFX65 for highs. Overall I've been pleased with the sounds I get out of this. I play a lot of acoustic rock, alternative, some a little harder. I originally bought it because I anticipated needing flexibility in the pickups and after about 6 months settled into one setting that I really liked (bridge pickup only), as this ended up having the fullest and punchiest sound. The biggest complaint I have on the sound is that while it sounds great for the lower strings, higher strings sound thin and there's not really any way to adjust the pickup up to get a better sound. I've played live and recorded with it and been pleased with it's performance in both settings.

The setup when I got it definitely needed adjustment. There was a great deal of fret buzz on the G-string, first fret. I fixed this by filing it down by hand and adjusting the overall string height as best I could. The bass has a large neck, which I don't mind because I have big hands, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone with small hands.

Very reliable. I've used this bass at practices, performances, and recording almost non-stop for more than a year now. It's taken a few hits without showing any wear. My biggest problem is string breaking, which I've done on a few basses now, so I can't blame that on the instrument. (I've fixed this in part by finally getting an amp loud enough to hear myself.) Occasionally some of the hardware (1/4" jack, etc.) comes a little loose and I have to tighten it. I've not had a problem with the buttons because I replace those immediately with straplocks (as I do with all my instruments).

I've not dealt with them.

I've been playing bass for about two years now, but have been in music much longer (piano, vocal, guitar, trumpet, etc.). I've worked some as a sound engineer as well as a producer, and have a pretty good ear. I own some cheap gear and some higher-end gear, and this bass falls somewhere in the middle. I am pleased with the sound I got for the price. In retrospect, I would have tested a few more before buying, but when it came down to it, I needed a bass and this one had everything I was looking for at the time. My entire bass setup has been a process of buying equipment as I had the money for it, seeking to get the most value out of each purchase, and I think this one gives you a good, usable sound for the money.

A Korean made passive electronic 2-pick-up long scale 5 string bass. Beautiful Flamed top and finished in Vintage Burst. Looks like a Rosewood fretboard and Mahogany body. It has an adjustable bridge with a neck that is very "chunky" and Gibson like. Some may find it just too large for comfortable fingering but I love it due to my large palms. It has Gotoh style tuners that feel a but cheesy. There are two volume & one tone control plus a 5 position rotary tone switch.

I have 21 basses many of which are high end. I'm jaded after playing Alembics, etc. The factory strings on this bass are garbage and do impact my rating. Although it can give an amazing variety of sounds the pick-ups aren't very hot and appear non-adjustable in height. No real punch at any setting. I think quality strings will help some, but this is no tone monster. Not horroble but not "WOW"

Overall the bass is well finished. It did have some sags in the paint. Thre tuners were not mounted straight and hit each other when you tune if they are in a line. The chicken head switch pot was very loose right out of the factory box. I lightly tightened it with a socket only and the finish cracked. A flat out bad design with the switch mounted on a curved surface. Set up was OK. Fretwork was acceptable. A GREAT Value but not a high end product.

Although seemingly heavily built the bass does seem thrown together and the tuners are definitely not if a high quality. It should last however. I'd take it on a gig if I can get it to sound decent. A lifetime warantee is attractive.

Don't know...

I've played for decades and have a vast collection of basses. In all honestly I bought this bass for looks. It is beautiful. The sound, well.... I'll get it to sound good with lots of EQ on my amp and new strings. It plays well if you like a Gibson style neck. The price, almost a give away. All things considered ESPECIALLY PRICE I give it a high rating.

not sure of the year of manufacture I bought in May 2001. Korean made. My bass is vintage sunburst, very nice finish. The body is mahogany with a flame maple top. The set neck is maple. The bass has two volume controls, a tone control and a 5-way selector switch. I am not sure what the selector does, I have not checked out the guts yet. You can get some nice growl on various settings. Bridge is chrome, as is tailpioece. Ok construction. Tuning machines are sealed, appear to be Gotoh or Gotoh clones. Nice machines. Nut is cheesy plastic. I immediately replaced it with a custom-made graphite nut, but I do that with all my instruments. No case was sold with this bass.

I like the sound. There is a very slight hum with some switch settings, I suppose they are doing some coil cutting (not sure yet). I will probably do a sheilding job just for kicks, cause I like the bass. Nice slap sound. Very nice. The dual-rail pickups are quite decent. Strings were ok, but I put a set of Fodera's on it and it sings. I wish the bridge was set a tad father back so I could intonate it properly, but it's not too bad. Not the best bass I have played, doesn't even compare to a USA Jazz, but for the money I consider this bass pretty darned good as far as sound.

Set up and action were good. I did a fret leveling on it, just because I am a perfectionist about that, but the setup was comparable to most any bass in it's list price range that I have played. All hardware was in good shape on the model I received. I bought this from Samash.com, they had it shipped in from a store, so it may have been on the floor but I could tell no signs of it being shopworn. Lucky I guess. As I mentioned, I replaced the nut, as I do with *any* instrument I purchase.

This thing is built like a tank, imho. I absolutely love the neck. So far everything works fine. I adjusted the truss rod when I put on the Fodera strings.

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I have been playing bass and guitar for 30+ years. I own one other bass at this time, a custom made fretless. I would buy this bass again, especially at the price I paid. My favorite feature is the neck. I find it delightful. The bass is heavy, but it's a Les Paul style, what would one expect? I remember as a kid my LP Goldtop made my shoulder ache on gigs. I still loved it. I wish this bass had two tone controls. I chose the bass solely on price, I would never find a bass of this quality with a set neck, at the price I paid. I am glad I bought it or I would have sent it back. Among the instruments I own, I have two other Epiphone instruments and an Epiphone tube amp, and love all of their stuff, for the price. These are not the quality of USA Gibsons, but Epiphone is doing a good job of putting some nice stuff out there for very reasonable prices.

Epiphone, a division of Gibson, 5-String Lez Paul bass. Most of the one's i see are of sunburst color but mine is black with grey zebra stripes. It's a solid body, EXTREMELY HEAVY, that's the worst part about this damn thing. It's got a long Mahogany neck that's pretty wide which makes it a little difficult to hit the low B on fast riffs. It has two dual rail picks, a 5-way tone selector switch, and three knobs - 2 control the pick ups, the other seems to be some kind of overdrive. Personally I like the overall appearance of this thing - it looks new, yet vintage.

I play some punk and hardcore slap, but lately i've been playing alternative. The slap sounds great, the mids are punchy, and the low B stays tight. I play on either a crappy 10 watt amp which sounds fine, and a vintage fender bassman. The sound is crisp at low volumes but at high volumes the low notes don't carry as well but I think that's because of the cabinet i was using - a really old 4x10 fender cabinet. You can get some pretty rich sounds out of this thing even out of a trashy little amp, but i've yet to push the limits on it.

Well...i bought this thing on sale for only $180 new. The only flaws on this thing was on the 5-way selector switch. It got loose after just a week of usage and eventually the wiring was messed up. I had to get this fixed but it only cost me $20. Other than that it's fine, i was willing to dish out the $20 since i bought it at such a cheap price...ordinarilly, i wouldnt pay more than $300 for it - there are much better basses out there that are lighter too.

Aside from my switch problem this thing is fine. I've only had it for a little over a month and i dropped it once and slammed the neck against the door a couple of times. it looks perfectly fine, no scratches at all. However on a gig, i would carry a back up just in case because of my experience with the switch and the wiring.

I haven't dealt with any of Epiphone's/Gibson's representatives yet.

Well...it was worth it for $180 but it's true, you do get what you pay for. I don't regret buying it but I wouldn't replace it if it were lost or stolen. The low B and E strings need a little more punch at high volumes, and the thing is heavy. Other than that, it's a good bass for me at the moment since i've only been playing for 6 months, but i'll be looking for something better later.

Made in Korea, Y2K. This model has been discontinued after a very short production. 5 strings, Les paul body, bookmatched flame maple top, 2 volume pots, one tone pot, 5 way selector switch, and 2 dual rail pickups. Crappy chrome-plated tuneomatic bridge and stopbar tailpiece. Included truss rod hex wrench and instrument cable. I actually had 2 of these and they both had problems, so I sent them back to the retailer (samash.com). Don't know if my bad experiences are unique, but I will share them and let you decide.... That said, had these things been built like they were supposed-to, it would probably be an OK instrument. I decided to give it a try because of the very low price- $220

It's difficult to rate the sound. The first one I was sent was poorly-constructed and obviously used- the back of the body was all scraped-up, the knobs were all different heights, and the electronics were quite noisy. Pots were scratchy and the pickups buzzed. The second one they sent had a big dent in the finish, but the electronics were fine. Since there was no accompanying literature about what exactly the 5 way switch did, I am a little confused. Also, rotation of the volume pots seemed to only show any difference in the upper register of the turn. I can only guess that maybe epiphone knew that these were the last batch of these and didn't put much care into making a decent instrument. I didn't have either long enough to replace the crap strings that were on it, so perhaps things could be improved. These things probably should have been stamped as factory seconds.

Action was nice and low, but the strings were poor and flobby - rendering the B string totally useless, and left me wondering what the instrument would really sound like with a little effort in improving some things. The plastic nut didn't impress me - plenty of little shavings coming off around the strings. First bass sent to me was used - besides that, the knobs were all different heights (the selector switch sat so high up I thought I was looking at a scalled model of the space needle). The finishing at the bass of the neck was poor and uneven, and there were flaws around the pickup holes. Finish on the body was nice - nice figured top, but overall disappointing. The second one would have been almost perfect, except for a large crease in the top finish between the neck and the neck pickup- maybe it was cracked before the top finish was applied. This experience has made me very leary of Epiphone - I would never buy one sight-unseen.

Judging by the 2 I had, I'd be worried about reliability- both with electronics and body integrity. Doesn't have the solid feel of other bass guitars. The chrome plated hardware was already flaking- I have no idea how decent the tuners were. The finish looked fine, but this is not an instrument that could take any punishment.

Epiphone/Gibson was helpful in my determination to send these back to the retailer. I play a Gibson SG 61 reissue guitar, and have had good experiences with the company before in terms of advice, etc. I must also say the quality of my SG is WAY BETTER than the Epiphone (DUH). Sam Ash, on the other hand, didn't impress me at all with their service. I had to constantly stay on top of them to handle my problems, and by the way they acted I assume they have these problems a lot. They didn't really seem too concerned about keeping my business, although their return policy is decent- I might buy electronics from them in the future, but we'll see. I don't think I will ever buy another stringed instrument without holding it/playing it first. There is so much variance in build quality that you have to know what to look for and see it firsthand before buying. I even saw a new Gibson guitar at a store the other day that had ridiculous finish problems!

My advice is look at and play the EXACT instrument you are considering buying, especially when you know you're dealing with lower-quality import stuff. I read a review on the main site here that gushed about this instrument, and bought one sight-unseen. In the end, I just had to go for the refund, and will eventually save up and buy something better. If I were to compare the quality of Epiphone basses to non-USA Fender products, I would say go for the Fender. They feel sturdier and sound better. I wish I wouldn't have gotten so hung up on the cheap price. You'll usually be happier if you delay the gratification and get something better later.

5 string bass 2 dual rail humbuckers 2volume 2tone controls 5 position chicken head switch 35'scale neck mahogany body maple neck rosewood fingerboard neck attached to body i call it a baseball bat neck its round and wide made in korea great violinburst finish

you can get some great sounds out of this because of the 5 position switch and 2vol and 2tone which can be blended to suit your needs from bright to middy to muddy. don't get me wrong you can get a good bass sound. les paul body and a long neck make this thing neck heavy you're constantly adjusting the bass and lifting up the neck it sounds good in the studio but forget on stage because of the neck. too bad because this is a good sounding bass. if they would take the time to balance this thing it would be an excellent instrument

factory setup was good low action no buzz no cheapy parts nice bridge gotoh tuners jumbo frets quiet selector switch

this is a durable bass and and i would use it on stage alot more if the thing didn't want to point south all the time. its a solid well put together bass but neck heavy. the finish is beatiful

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i've been playing over 30yrs my main work horse has always been a 68 jazz bass i've recently been converted to the reverend rumblefish as a main axe. i had always wanted a les paul bass this 5 string is an awsome sounding bass but its a comfortable sit down guitar. it has a nice growl on the B , decent action
this is not a soloing bass if it disappeard i wouldn't replace it