Emperador Les Paul Copy

Tobacco colour.
Les Paul copy. Original pick ups were good but have been replaced with Dimarezio PAF in the neck postion and tein hot rail det up in the bridge position. I addition has two micro switches for coil splitting.

Action is brilliant.

With the current pick up configuration this baby rocks.

The twin hot rail pick up has ample nnatural distortion even before placed through effects.

Neck pick up is deep and warm. Coil split switches give another dimension to the sound and tones that can be pulled from this guitar.

Stays in tune very well.

Action is brilliant.

Has played live for over 30 years now.
Aside from some scratches and minor nicks it is in good shape.
Some chipping to the back from metal belt buckles.
have always gigged with moe than one guitar. Both for back up and switching guitars for different numbers.

No opinion on this. Have always done my own work.

have been playing for over 35 years. aside from the Emperador have Ibanez's as other electrics and a mix of acoustics.
this guitar was my first really good solid body electric and is part of the family.
I chose this guitar because of its looks, weight, playablity and sound.

transparent lacquer, natural look, les paul copy (almost a perfect copy), made in japan, maple neck I think (no rosewood fingerboard).

the emperador gibson copy is in original state. Sound is not to bad I guess (rather fat), but I'm more a bass player myself.

Not knowing how old it is, it looks still rather nice, especially the body and neck are in great condition (natural look with black plate). The original metal works are loosing their gold paint, but I already thought they were crappy.

Looks sturdy enough for live play. It evens stay tuned rather well.

Still original, nothing happened to it. Company is not existing anymore,was a mr. Westheimer import company of japanese built guitars is told to me. The internet does not give a lot more clues. Not many peoples seem to own a gibson-like emperador.

I only play a little guitar, bass is my main thing. I like the way the emperador handles, very light.

This looks like a 1974 les paul copy, made in japan. It has a mahogany body and neck, with a rosewood fretboard with pearl inlays. 22 frets, a cherry red finish and 2 nickel humbuckers. It can give a real fat sounding heavy tone with the treble setting on the switch, or a thinner lighter one with the rhythm on. i play it through a mediocre peavy Rage 158, but the guitar still sounds nice with a crappy amp. it has a nickel glued in on the head, i dont know if its the original or not, but it says 1974 on it. the knobs are gold speed,and all the other hardware has been stripped of its gold finish over time.overall, no real big problems with it.

With the two nickel humbuckers, 2 volume 2 tone knobs, real heavy fat sound or light almost acoustic tone, this is the nicest sounding guitar ive heard. the only thing is the pickup selector buzzes a little on 2 settings, but no big deal.

The action on the guitar is really nice and close, which makes it good for pretty much and playing style. when i bought it, it had what looked like a rosewood pickguard on it, but it got snapped off. I took it to a guitar expert and he said that it was real nicely made. The only thing is that the finish is just beginning to chip at the back, but other than that everything is in place and staying there.

It could definetely take som live shows, provided its player can hold 15 pounds on his shoulder for long periods of time. the hardware is great quality, it holds tune really well. The straplocks are solid but a bit worn, but its also like 32 years old, can you blame it? i was forced to buy straploks for it after i nearly killed the guitar and my foot because the strap slid off. overall, very dependable instrument.

Ive bonly been playing for about 2 years, i had a cheap strat copy before this one. No big problems with any features, just a few little things here and there. I also own a bass, that i bought before i got the les paul but after the strat copy. are you still with me? anyways, if this thing were stolen, the world would stop turning instantly.

Mine is a gold top les paul copy. I'm guessing made in the '60s and would cede to those who know more about the origin of these guitars than I do. Interesting thing about mine is the hollow under the bridge on the arch-top. This gives good sustain but at high volumes can be inclined to feedback a little. 3-way pickup selector which switches 2 double humbuckers. Tune-o-matic bridge. I replaced the machine heads with Gotoh as the originals were hopeless - but that was the only thing I did not like about this guitar. 2 volumes controls which didn't work when I bought it and are now hard wired to 11, 2 tone controls. Rosewood fretboard, plastic pearlised fret markers and dots on the side of the neck. Original pickups are fine and give a really fat sound on the "rhythm" setting but scream it out on the other. Oh, I replaced the socket as it was a piece of crap, too, as they were on most Asian guitats in the '60s. It came with the original hard case with gold plush lining.

I use this through a Peavey Classic 30 tube/tube amp plus some of my own amps which I build for fun. It's not noisy, the sound is so ffffat on the bridge pickup and really thin/bright (almost Tele) on the neck p/u. I play heavy rock thru to rock ballads so it does me just fine. I have friends who play Queen covers and Rolling Stones and they get more sounds out of it thatn I can so it's a really versatile full-range of sounds type of guitar. I have bought and sold dozens of guitars over the years, and this is the one I'm keeping.

The action of low and fast, it was like that when I bought it. The last owner was a professional group player so no doubt he had it set up for him and I benefitted from that. I have played Strats and Teles and Gibsons ans it plays as well as any of the top-end geets I have used.

This unit is approx 30 years old and still going strong. The body is mahogany so it's also good for hand-to-hand combat < :=). The plating has come off the tune-o-matic and the gold finish is a bit pitted but otherwise, it's fine and has kept its overall appearance.

n/a

If I lost it it would be like losing a child. I have been playing for 4 years and just love this one. I've has others (a '59 Strat, Burns) but this one's a keeper. The only downside of this unit, for smaller people (I'm 183cm tall), is the weight. On stage all nite would be tiring for people of smaller builds. I have 2 other electrics, a Japanese Strat copy and a Gibson copy solidbody (no arch in the top, just a slab like a Strat). The Gibson copy has a Strat pickup in the neck and a double humbucker at the bridge. These are the backup units.

Dont know where it was made, but i do know its at least 18 years old cuz i can remember it since i learned to remember. This bad boy stacks 22 frets on its well worn in fretboard...always has been worn in really so its old. The solid mahoganyish type wooden brown body sports a three way switch dictating the activities of 2 double humbuckers. The original humbuckers that i recently replaced made by a company called goto..reading off the back here..but anyway, they're crap. The new ones are DiMarzio's X2N and the breed, the bloke at the shop said they rock so hey, it sounds good now though. This prehistoric museum piece of a guitar is good. yeah.

Soundwise this bitch bites as hard as they come, setup by someone who wasnt me to sound like it does with the old Marshall Jackhammer which is tear your balls off fatness inspired by the likes of Dimebag Darrel of Pantera, now i got the sound all i need is the talent.

I could pick on it and i will by saying that other guitars out there have smoother and lower actions than this here emperador type specimin...but being mostly rhythm i personally dont give a humbuck.

This guitar has never let me down in terms of faulty components and i trust it never will. It is the Torana of guitars. Whats a Torana? Look it up. Mines a UC. Giving to the fact this axe has no finish but for what seems not much more than a coat of laquer its about as durable as they come. Killable sure but with more than one swing.

This item is a family heirloom which holds no more a warranty than an overipe banana.

10 out of 10 oh yeah. now. Before the pickups sucked so heh..well. But now....im writing reviews about it. Thank you for reading it people. You've all helped me feel just a little bit more important than usual.

Black, 22fret Gibson Les Paul style neck (slim, fast, low action), Les Paul solid body type (unknown wood), H/H, 2 vol, 2 tone, 3 way pickup selector. Bolt on neck (4 bolts). Tune-o-matic bridge, Pearl inlay on fretboard, white beading and edging around the body and neck. Solid plush lined case. Old fashioned Gibson style machine heads which are probably the worst part of the geet.

Good gutsy humbucker sound. Easy to make sound like John Fogerty's D-tuned (black) Gibson. Have yet to compare it with a similar guitar, but I reckon it would stack up pretty well.

The guitar was in a terrible condition when I bought it (Ebay, second-hand, site unseen). I have fitted a new tune-O-matic bridge, a new nut, remounted the machine heads, re-surfaced the frets, cut and polished the paint work, spray-cleaned the switch and pots, adjusted the truss rod, set the harmonics, adjusted the pickups, yada-yada...it is set up very well now...The machine heads require replacing but they will have to wait. Apart from all that, everything seems to be where it should be and the craftmanship of the body and neck construction is very good.

This guitar has obviously been around and been played a lot which in itself could be a good advertisment?... Sounds great after all the work I have done and I have no reason to believe that it did not sound this way in the past. The paint work is very durable as it looked like it had never been cleaned when it arrived, but after a lot of buffing, polishing and scratch removing, it looks almost new. I have gigged with it (that's why I bought it!!) but never gig without a backup anyway...

I can't even find anybody who has even heard of Emperador geets...plus, as you have probably gathered, I do most things myself..
I have read on the Net that Emperador used to make Gibson and Fender copies in the 1970's and 80's but Gibson sued them and finished that story...which leads me to my next question...how come you can still buy Gibson copies (ie Samick)??. Emperador are/were a Korean company?? anyone...anyone??

Have been playing for 30 years, have a Tele, a Ric 340, a Fender acoustic, a Laney VC 30 amp, a Boss GT 3, I (try to) play rock, blues, Rythm and Blues. I needed something with Humbuckers. Add about Oz$80.00 to the purchase price to cover all the stuff done (but not time or petrol!) - would cost more if you had to pay some body to do it all. Purchased from Ebay - the price caught my eye!! To be truthfull, If I had seen it prior to paying, I probably would not have got it, but glad that I did. I would replace it with a similar geet. It will definetly do untill I can afford the real thing, or at least an Epiphone!.