Encore P29

A Les Paul copy guitar with 23 frets, made in UK i guess... 3 way Les Paul style switch 4 volume and tone knobs, two humbuckers. Tune-O-Matic bridge, rosewood fretboard with dot inlays. Bought it with a starter package that included a strap, a 10W practice amp, a gig bag and a DVD. Nothing extraordinary.

Sounds OK, nothing special, though. Gets a strong resonating noise on the amp when playing the 6th string through the neck pickup, I guess it might be the fault of the amplifier. It is pretty good in terms of variety, you can bring out quite a few different sounds using the knobs and the switch. I wish it sounded a bit more like a real Les Paul, though.

Not very good, had to raise the action. The bridge wasn't straight, the action on the top strings was much lower than on the bottom strings. When I played the 17th fret on the 2nd string and the 9th fret on the 1st string it sounded lousy, the string was muted by the frets above. I had to adjust that as well. Tuning pegs were really loose, the 1st string's peg doesn't turn smoothly, I might change them later.

The pickups are OK, I haven't had any problems with the nut. Everything is fine apart from what I mentioned above.

If you bought the same package as I did, the first thing to do is to throw the strap that came with the guitar right in the bin and get another one. You will save yourself from a lot of annoyment. I never used it on a gig but I think it would do the job. If you take care of it, it will have a long life. Get a guitar cleaning package with lemon oil, string cleaner and polishing liquid and use it regularly.

Never had to contact them.

I would descibe this guitar as a school guitar, very good for beginners but you will want to buy a different guitar after a while. I think it does have the quality of Squiers and Epiphones of the same price category and after all, it is a very good guitar for that price.

Bought this as my first electric guitar online at http://www.themusicking.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=Encorep29Electricpackage&cat=13
It looked amazing online, it had everything, 4 knobs, twin humbuckers and a les paul style shape, and all for only ??105 (including accessories though). Where could one go wrong?

With the 2 tuners, and 2 volume knobs, the sound can be varied quite a bit, but I would say that it sounds like clean distortion and not dirty (even when you increase the tone). This is the way i like it, i think its much better the deep dirty rock sound of a yamaha pacifica. I'll give it a 5/10 because its sound cannot be described as either amazing or rubbish

The guitar had flaws on delivery: the 6th string buzzed like crazy because the frets had come away from the neck (probably due to online deliveries etc).
I had it replaced and the 2nd was free of this defect. However, 2 months into using it the wiring inside came loose, i had to open it up and re-solder the wires. Its been alright since then (fingers crossed, every time i bang it gently against a corner or chair, i still fear for the worst)

The biggest mistake of my life was buying without touching and feeling it first. I would have never bought it if i had known how heavy it was. Its really heavy, about 3-4 kgs probably at a guess. It hurts your neck so you cant play it with a strap for more than 5 minutes without wanting to throw it out of the window at someone. And when you play it on your lap, because its so heavy, it slides backwards and tilts (imagine the neck pointing up to the ceiling) and you have to use most of your energy just holding it in place. however if its any consolation, the finish is pretty much scratch resistant (because it seems to be made out of a hard rubber like subtance not wood)

Warranty was 1 year, which says something about the manufacturers confidence about this. Some guitars have life long warranty. But anyway, the only time i needed anything was when it got damaged during transit, and themusicking.com changed it for a new one for me, the second time when the wiring went, i thought it would be easier for me to just solder it rather than call them again and wait 2-3 weeks before it came back.

I've been playing for around a year. I dont own any other electric guitars, but I am really hoping to sell this and get maybe a yamaha pacifica (or something lighter anyway). I would leave this outside and let it be stolen. I would never buy anything from encore again.
Dont buy online! And if you do, always try it out in a shop before hand. The ??10 or ??20 saving just wasnt worth the 2-3 wait for delivery and redelivery and the hastle, for me anyway. Hope this review helps.

great finish on whole guitar. ash body pancaked with poly finish, maple neck , rosewood fretboard.

what people have to understand this is a budget guitar. so i bought it with the full intention of swapping everything off the guitar.

i changed out all the electrics inc pick ups for gibson 490/498, RS guitarworks historic pots and caps set. brass nut. some kluson key tuners. junked the knobs too and replaced with witch hats.

but the key element remains,. the guitars body and neck. i feel that the hard poly shell around the light ash body gives a certain timbre to the sound, creating a very pleasing instrument indeed.

sounds great now, could record with it or gig, no problem at all.

action blowed when i recieved it, but that is to be expected.

only the inexperienced like the poster above would suffer in circumstances like this not knowing his ass from his elbow and doing a review on a guitar with no actual competance to do so.

its adjustable , so ADJUST IT.

built solidly, poly finish on this never fails to amaze the bangs it can take without marking.

yes i will withstand live playing. but only an idiot plays without backup.

dealt with them and found them very helpful.

playing for many years and wanted a guitar just to mess with and do up, this is perfect for that purpose. and i have ended up with a great playing guitar.

i would be seriously angry if it went missing and would get another.

i wish it was a set neck though. unfortunately its a bolt job,.

i think mine was a 2004 model and its an encore so its japenese. 22 fret standard les paul. its an attempt at the les paul studio fireburst and a bad one at that. its a solid body/top with the normal H/H, 2 vol, 2 tone and three way selector. rosewood neck and maple body and a fireburst finish (Black fading into thru-yellow) with silver hardware. its got a tune-o-matic bridge and non locking tuners also made by encore. it has massive fret bars that hiss and i dont no what scale is but its not very low and its fat (NOT HOW I LIKE IT!!) i got ?5 off a channel swithcher whcih i bought with my amp at the same time

umm my music style isnt really dirty. well its clean dirt if that makes sense----decent sound basically. playing metal sounds like your attacking it and this guitar is way too uncontrolable even for the likes of nirvana stuff. the knobs were taken off a batch thing (like airfix bits!) and arent filed down. the two pickups are both the same and make pretty much the same sound whatever you do with them. No vaiety

.......Not Good. pickups were really low on a high neck so it was very quiet. tweaked it, made it higher. still poor. everything in the hardware was poorly done. then again i should of known better. i had only been playing for 6 months without lessons.

it will withstand droping and playing cricket or baseball (perfect for that). it might do good trying to smash amps and people's heads and so on. the finish is the best thing about it. it doesnt seem to scratch or fade. the strap buttons are pretty solid. i could definatly depend on it not to break but i would definatly not use it at a gig to play or as a backup.

N/a

i hae been playing about two years now and i own a tanglewood strat, a sammick les paul and a westfield telecaster. I wish i had asked for a different guitar or at least to have got it serviced. if it was stolen or broken or lost i would not under any circumstances buy another one. i love the paintwork but hate everything else about it, but the hardware looks good. I would of bought a different ne if i had known anything about guitars at the time but the only choice i had was of many other encores and maybe a vintage.