Epiphone Les Paul Classic Quilt Top

Dual "Made in USA" humbuckers, trans. orange quilt top, chrome grover tuners, rosewood board with 22 med. jumbo frets, mahogany body with maple top.

My band has a funk, rock, soul sound. I bought this axe as a backup for my Gibson SG Special Faded. I have several strat like guitars that I love, but they sound too different from the Gibson and do not sustain quite as well. This LP sounds very close to the Gibson SG. It has the thick, fat, Warren Haynes type lead tone that I rely on when using overdrive on the neck pick up. The bridge is really very good, with biting, edgy, classic rock tones spilling out like a mo fo. Clean, it sounds surpisingly good, especially in the middle pick up position. Though when distorted, I don't hear much difference between the mid and neck positions. Strange. All in all, I prefer the tone of my SG, which is more complex and a tad fuller; but the difference is so subtle that I don't think many others would notice. This is a perfect back up for the Gibson. Heck, it might sound just as good with Gibson 490's. I should note that I owned an EPI LP Classic years ago (made in 1995) and the pick ups and tuners on this are far superior.

Was surprisingly well set up off the rack at Guitar Center. Intonation is good and I put some 10's on it, lowered the action a hair and was set. The fret woork here was better than on my Gibson which needed a fret levelling to get rid of some annoying buzz. I played the guitar for hours and compared it with several other Epi's and high end Gibsons for comparison. It came out ahead of the pack in many respects (though it did not have the tonal magic of the Gibson Les Paul Special Faded -- man did that thing sing).

I gig regularly and plan to use this as my back up for a Gibson SG Special Faded, as mentioned above. I have every confidence that it will be useful to me. I think I could even use it as a main guitar, though I prefer the neck and tone of the SG. (The Paul wins in the look dept. though).

Gibson is great in this area, though I have never called Epi. Is it the same customer support team?

I have been playing 20 years and have toured the states and Europe; and apart from my own band, I get paid for my services (though not enough to splurge on a Gibson as a back up). I consider my skills to be professional level and my needs are that of a professional musician. Hence, I don't buy junk. This is a pro instrument, with quality build, tone, looks, and playability. It is a remarkably good Les Paul and compares favorably to my Gibson SG. Check out www.urbansun.net.

Same features as the previous reviews. Glad to see the Grover tuners and Gibson designed pickups. I got the wine red quilt top which is absolutely beautiful. The wife even thought it was pretty! (Had to get a pretty one to justify the purchase! :-) The neck is perfect! I was worried that it might be too fat, but it is perfect. I dont like the ultra slim necks or fat necks like BC Richs. The first thing I did when I took it out of the case was look at the neck, and I dont think Ive ever seen a straighter neck on any guitar.

I plugged it into my Digitech RP100 > Peavey stereo chorus 400, and OH MY GOD! This guitar has the sweetest sound I could have imagined. The pickups arent too hot, or too cold, just perfect. I play everything from Rush to AC/DC to disturbed, and it fits the bill for anything. The RP100 will give all the gain you could want, so I guess its up the the amp for that. It has all the "bite" and "growl" you could want - unless you like pickups that will melt the pick guard.. I dont like pickups that are too hot, because thats all they can do is distort, without being able to turn them down to get a cleaner, more vintage sound. This guit has the perfect sound for me. No noise at all even with the distortion cranked.....

It was set up with the action way too high, you could have stuck your pinky between the low E and the 12th fret. But a few turns of a screwdriver on the bridge, and alot of turns on the G string saddle it has perfect action and intonation. Other than that, setup was fine. I looked at this sweetie for a good 20 minutes trying to find anything else wrong with it, but it is perfect..

Its been a while since I was in a band, and it will be a while before I will be again, but I would have no problem gigging with it. I wouldnt gig with any guitar without a backup, but this one would my primary axe for sure. Also, I dont plan on dropping it, but I would think it would hold up the test of time against any guitar. Its a Les Paul, so how much more solid can a guitar get?

I got it through Musicians Friend, and there was a slight problem with the advertised color, but they made it right by me with 1 phone call...

Ive been playing for uuuuuh... 28 years... OK, im 42!! Ive owned about 20 guitars in my life, and have always wanted a Les Paul, but could never afford the thousand plus price tag.. Ive played plenty of Gibbys though, and have always been impressed with the feel and sound. And if anyone is in the same boat as me, and wants a Les Paul, and doesnt care that its made overseas with a different name on the headstock, then dont hesitate to fork out 500 bucks.. you wont be sorry.. Epiphone Les Pauls ROCK!!

2003 MIK Epiphone Les Paul Classic Quilt Top (Transparent Blue). Bought new from Musician's Friend for $499. All the typical trimmings associated with this model and discussed in previous reviews. However, this one has chrome Grover Tuners -- not the plastic green thingies.

Pickups sound fine -- no worries there although they'll probably be replaced -- pickups are usually the first thing everyone changes. No complaint here though for stock pickups. I use it through a Fender Blues Jr and a small Marshall 10 wat solid state practice amp. Guitar has a rich fat sound and sounds nice. It can play clean and it can get crunchy too. Really an awesome guitar.

Really, can't find a flaw on it. The transparent blue quilt top finish is just superb. Binding is smooth. all switches and pots properly installed and feel sturdy. Very happy with the Grover tuners so far. Setup was fine -- plays great. I was really surprised, for the money here, compared to a GIBSON LP -- I think it's perfect.

Built like a damn brick and about as heavy as one. Damn, I thought my telecaster was heavy! But, hey, it's a Les Paul -- I would have been worried if it was a lightweight. Finish is nice and thick, but smooth -- no excess finish anywhere. Strap buttons solid. Looks like this thing will last a lifetime

I'm rating Musicians Friend here -- they are always great!

This is a perfect value. Why would anyone "introduce" themselves to the world of Les Paul by buying a $1,400 Gibson LP? Way too much. Buy this for about 1/3 the price and if you fall in love, then throw down the cash for a Gibson if you want to.

I really like the neck, perfect width for my hands and jubo frets! This thing is a dream to play. Haven't experienced any of the problems sited in other reviews of this guitar. I read the reviews here before I bought and figured I'd have to replace the tuner (but these are just fine!); thought I'd have to replace the switches (they're fine); the only thing I may replace on this baby is the pickups -- and that's just because everyone's ear is different and guitar players are kind of weird when it comes to pickups (we gotta have what we think is best). I was getting ready to chunk this old Marshall S/S practice amp of mine, because my other guitar (telecaster) sounds like crap through it -- but this Epi LP sounds just fine -- I think I'll keep the amp. Really, don't be afraid of this guitar -- Epi seems to be reading the reviews here and have made some pretty good changes to the product here.

great trans black finish, grover tuners, vintage gold colored speed knobs. Korean made.

I use a pignose (all tube) g40v with a celestion vintage 10, this guitar has all the classic les paul sounds. Neck alone, classic santana, bridge alone, AC/DC, and all the Zep sounds in between. The pickups are much better than I expected. I read allot of reviews that people didn,t like the sound. I think it sounds just like it should. I use emg,s (s,85,81) on my other guitar, these don,t quite have the clarity on the top end but, I think that is part of the les paul sound.

It,s funny the only thing done here in the US was the set up and it sucked. The intonation was way out. I had to flip the g string saddle around to get it to intonate properly. The factory action wasn,t bad, very low action. I use heavy strings and had to reset everything accordingly. The top isn't bookmatched, it's a single piece. The only construction flaw I could find was, under the neck pickup, there is a big gap where the neck is glued into the body. It doesn't affect the tone and probably won't come apart. the finish is stunning.

The entire guitar seems sturdy and like it will easily stand the test of time. The hardware is good. The toggle switch crackles once in a while but nothing major.

limited life time warranty.

Iv'e been playing for 24 years. I like great tone. this guitar has it and looks great too. Intonation aside, this is a great deal for the money. Even if your anal, you could replace all the hardware and electronics and still have far less invested than a gibson.

This is a recent Epi Les Paul. It has 22 frets, a quilt top, like every other Les Paul control wise and pickup wise. Tune-o-matic, grover tuners. The Grover's were in it when i bought it, im not sure if they are stock.

I play mostly metal with some lighter pop stuff. I use it with a real cheap Rogue 100 watt amp. It can be nosiy at time, espially with alot of distortion. Very deep sound, but I put an Invader in the bridge position so it helps with the noise and it does make it very hot. Tons of variety in this guitar. I like pretty much everything except the crappy strap buttons and the lack of binding on the headstock.

It was set up great out of the box, i had to ajust the action, but only becuz i put some heavy strings on it. There was nothing i had to really adjust anything on this guitar. The binding is kinda of sloppy in some spots.

I think it would be extremly hard to break this guitar in any way. I have played with it alone, without a backup a couple of times. STRAP BUTTONS SUCK!

I have been playing for 3 years, and I love this guitar. Although it isnt my favorite (it loses to my Ibanez RG570) i do play it all the time at gigs. I definatly recommend some new pickups. Im putting some EMGs in it for Christmas.

I got mine from Guitar Center new for $370. Trans-black finish. It's Korean made, which pretty much breaks down any stereotypes that I had about Korean craftmanship, as the guitar is very obviously well made. Grover tuners, tune-o-matic bridge. All chrome hardware. The action is very smooth and makes the guitar easy to play, especially for something that didn't cost me more than $400. Overall this thing is completely awesome. I affirm the cheap toggle switch dilemma; It's cheap alright. It makes a slight crackling noise sometimes when switching between pickups. And the bridge pickup sometimes makes a crackling noise. This is a little annoying, seeing as I just bought it, but it is definietly covered by the manufacturers warranty, so its all good. I'd give it more of a 9.5 or 9.75

I mostly play blues, rock, ska, some heavy stuff. This guitar pretty much suits everything. It's sounds awesome with a clean compressor, gives it an awesome warm and punchy tone, similar to that of B.B. King's. When playing through a normal clean channel though, it does tend to sound a bit on the muddy side. This can sometimes be fixed by tweaking the EQ on your amp. But whatever this guitar lacks in clean tone, it more than makes up for in distortion; Explosive, rich and warm distorted tone combined with "continental sustain" are the two leading factors that make this guitar awesome, and are what made it famous.

No feedback. I had a Strat before this guitar, and the single coils made a lot of annoying noise. The Humbuckers on my Les Paul make little to no noise, which is a little ironic, considering the sound that they make when you're playing.

I play through a zoom multifx pedal and into a 30watt fender frontman practice amp. Guitar sounds great with or without the pedal.

9 because of muddy cleans

Action is great. Very smooth and playable. Everything is set up correctly and up to a high standard. Everything was well set up correctly at the factory, except for the pickups, as I explained above.

Beautiful Transparent Black finish. looks incredible. no flaws with it.

I expect this guitar to last long with no problems. The finish is good quality, I'm sure will last long. everything seems very solid and well-built and dependable. My only reservation is the crackle in the pickups.

I emailed the company with a warrany question. A Gibson employee replied within 24 hours. Very good support, but the answer seemed more like an auto-response.

I've been playing about four years, and have owned four guitars. If it were lost or stolen, I would definetely buy another one. I love the distorted tone, action, and finish. I would've like pickup covers, but thats just a cosmetic issue, and my prefereence. Overall an awesome guitar. and Great for the price

Got mine off of E-Bay for $315 ... I really wanted the Blue quilt, and for some reason that color was discontinued or something because MF doesn't stock it anymore. Mahagony body, nice quilt top, pretty much a standard LP, nice heavy weight to it. I hate the lighter LPs that Epiphone makes, they just done have the tone and resonance that this one does. It's got the cheap toggle switch everyone talks about, and I'm not too fond of the faux abalone tuners, they look kind of cheesy to me. Maybe I'll replace them with normal chrome ones to match the rest of the hardware. If I did that I'd replace the gold nobs as well. Other than that it looks pretty good.

I play a lot of church music because I play on worship teams a lot, but I play pretty rocky at times. I also play in a fledgling band that's aiming for a modern hard rock sound. So I needed a guitar that could do a lot, from nice clean to heavy dirty. And this guitar does it all pretty well. It's got great tone and is very warm, and sounds great clean and distorted and with effects.

I bought it practically brand new off E-Bay, and it came in the original box with all the tags. Finish was perfect and the quilt gorgeous. Intonation and action was great out of the box. Heck, I think it was even in tune when I pulled it out of the box.

I've played this every week at church, and on a couple gigs in the last few months. The guitar still looks pretty good, I've noticed there are pick scratches already appearing on the finish, but that just shows how much I love to play it. The toggle switch is kind of noisy and flaky, I'll have to replace it someday.

Never dealth with the company, haven't bothered to send in the warranty card. I'll probably just play this guitar into the ground and then try and buy a similar one.

This guitar is perfect for me. It's as close to a real Les Paul as I'll ever be able to afford. And it's got the mass and warmth that one would expect from a good LP. I play it through a Mesa Boogie Trem-o-verb and a Marshall Valvestate combo and it sounds fantastic on both.

Mine's a 2003 model, it came with 2 humbucking Gibson designed pickups. The body is made of Mahogany, with a quilted maple top. The finish is a gorgeous transparent black. It features a tun-o-matic bridge, and grover tuners.

I play rock, jazz, blues, anything with a guitar part and this guitar covers all the bases. I substituted the bridge pickup with a Dimarzio super distortion and the tone is outstanding. Very rich distortion like it's supposed to sound. I especially love the mile-long sustain.

The action came a little high but I set it in about 3 minutes so no complaints there. The mirror-perfect finish is absolutely beautiful and void of imperfection. The plastic nut will be replaced with a bone or graphite one.

This guitar is perfect for gigs because it is affordable, playable, and beautiful. So far there have been no problems with this instrument whatsoever. I deem it as highly dependable, but I still always use a backup guitar.

Never dealt with them.

I've played guitar for 14 years, I own a Schecter strat copy, a Peavey predator, a Washburn Explorer copy,an Alvarez regent, a Tanara accoustic, a Fender Super Strat, a Takimine accoustic, and a Peavey Centurion 3 head, through a Randall snakeskin cab. I also use a Danelectro fabtone distortion unit.
If this guitar were stolen I'd buy another one the same day, even though it wouldn't be quite the same as the one I have. I've compared this to alot of other guitars including a Gibson '56 goldtop Les Paul, a Jackson Soloist, a Fender satin Strat, a Washburn Dime3, and a Fender American Standard, with the Dimarzio in there this guitar makes tonal mince meat out of all of them (though I loved the Goldie!) I wish I had a couple more of these guitars so I could put different pickups in each one for tonal diversity with the same look.
Buy one of these! it won't break you and it's REAL quality for half the price!

I picked up a 2003 brand new from Musician's Friend, made in Korea. Mahogany body and looks like a maple neck. I can't tell if the quilt is solid or a laminate but it definently has a maple top on it. It has the basic LP set up, gibson designed alnico pick ups whick I proceeded to pull out and put in a seymour 59 in the neck and a custom custom in the bridge( it sounds a hundred times better), grover tuners, rosewood fingerboard. The finish is great on it.

Since I changed the pick ups the guitar sounds great. I use a digitech processor with a marshall lead 20 practice amp or a 5150 50 watt combo.

It was set up decently fom the factory so I went and did my own tweaking to the bridge and neck and it plays great, nice action, the guitar signs when plugged in. The are no flaws that I can see.

Overall I believe this is a solidly built guitar and with a few minor changes,(electronics), it will last a longtime if taken care of.

I have been playing for about 12 years and own a few guitars, Fender strat, Alvarez acoustic, epi 58 explorer, Warmoth. I liked this guitar mostly because of the sticker price, I would like to own a gibson les paul but I'm not about to pay 2,500 for a guitar, to me there is no logic in it. I'm a big fan of finding a nicely built guitar and do the little things to improve it, plus it's more fun to work on your own guitars and you have a greater respect for the instrument. This is a nice guitar and I would recomended it to anyone that is contemplating buying one. I also own an older epi LP and this new one is built much better than the older one.

I bought this Epiphone Les Paul guitar at Guitar Center For $399.71 on August1,2003.It has a beautiful amber quilt top,Grover tuners, chrome hardware and two black humbuckers designed by Gibson.

This guitar sounds great,both humbuckers have a very deep tone not muddy but clear. It sounds as good as other guitars that I own with EMG,s,Dimarizo,s and Seymour Duncan,s pickups in them and also this Epiphone Les Paul is very veery low in noise. This Les Paul is great for all styles of music but I play heavymetal.

This guitar was set-up the way I wanted it when I bought it, it play like a dream. The finish is just fabulous I own a dozen guitars and this amber quilt top Epiphone Les Paul looks better than all of them. Thes guitar is one of the best buys I,ve ever gotten on a guitar abnd the workmanship is great.

This guitar will last forever if taken care of, it,s build great and the strap buttons are solid and with this guitar I would gig without a backup.

I,ve never dealt with them....................

Overall rating I would give this guitar a 10.