Epiphone Les Paul Special 2

Even more amazing than this axe's sound, quality, and value is how they're achieved. We all know that "real" Les Pauls get their fat tone and sustain from a set neck, right? And from a body made of solid, matched mahogany and maple planks, yielding an 11- to 15-pound guitar? Well, this little fella has a bolt-on neck, and a downsized, medium-weight body made of maple/alder plywood. (And give Epiphone credit for being entirely honest about this construction.) Yet it still sounds great, like a Les Paul.

Another nice surprise is that identically-priced copies, of comparable quality and finish, will indicate either Indonesian or Chinese manufacture on the back. So buy an Indonesian one, and you're at least subsidizing an emerging democracy that's developing basic labor rights. (Although who knows what conditions are like at the factory level.)

One minor compromise for the price is the simplified control layout: one volume and one tone knob. It works fine, but if you want dual volume and tone controls, you can always wire in stacked/concentric pots later. That won't require any drilling, and you'll still have an outrageously affordable guitar.

Sounds better than anything else I've heard up to at least $200 -- or in some cases much more. Doesn't sound quite as clean or sweet as a real Les Paul, of course. But it captures an amazing degree of the fatness and sustain you'd expect from the real thing.

As set up by Epiphone, the action on these guitars tends to be very playable. It's not as silky low as you'd initially find on a Gibson, a higher-priced Epiphone, or even a ~$150 Squier. But it's more reliably buzz-free than you'd find on a Squier. So Epiphone is erring on the side of higher action and fewer glitches. The "Set up in USA" sticker on the back of the headstock is reassuring, but you'll still want to have the setup and action tweaked at some point.

The satin finishes are generally very attractive, and the workmanship and switching feels very solid.

Feels quite solidly built -- but read comments from owners who've had theirs for a while.

Read others'comments about this.

This guitar offers simply amazing value. Its price, $150, is what you'd pay just in sales tax on a premium-brand guitar. It's a perfect starter, backup, or alternate guitar -- and an entirely viable primary axe. (This is all assuming that you want a solid-body, twin-humbucker, hardtail guitar.)

This is a 2001 Epiphone Les Paul Special II, made in Japan. It has 22 Medium frets, 1 volume and 1 tone control (Speed knobs, very nice) and a 3 way toggle switch. Has two basic Epiphone Humbuckers. The guitar is Alder an Mahogany and is Black with a matching neck finish. Has a Tune-O-Matic bridge. 24.75" scale.

This guitar is good. Just good. but is EXTREMELY good considering it was only $150. Epiphone has impressed me. The pickups were also good....but after a few months i replaced them with an EMG 85 in the bridge and an EMG 81 in the neck (yes i know that seems backwards but its an awesome setup) With a decent set of pickups in it this guitar screams. When I got this guitar a few years ago I was playing through a 1978 Peavey VT 2X12 (50 watt Hybrid) but now I play through a Peavey 5150 II with a Marshall 1960B 4X12. The old combo made it sound mediocre, because well, the combo was mediocre, but with the 5150 it bleeds tone. Epiphone really has outdone themselves with this guitar, I am confident enough to say this guitar, with pickup modifications, can blow away most Gibsons. no joke. This entry level Epi is better than pretty much all other epiphones. Funny how that works out. But I Digress, Im not saying this guitar is the BEST THING EVER but it is very good for the price. EAR BLEEDING TONE, and in a good way.

When i got the guitar i had to tune it and change the action, neither one was setup. The pickups also needed adjusting. Personally i think the guitar should come standard with EMG's just like the new Raw Les Paul (EMG 81/85. Other than adjustable things the guitar was in tip top shape

The guitar is built very solid. ITS HEAVY. you could probably kill someone with it and only have blood stains on it, this thing is strong. The strap button by the neck keeps coming loose, but still wont come out completely.

Never dealt with them....yet

I have been playing for about 6 years or so. i got this guitar in 2001 and its still a strong backup in my setup. If guitars were priced on quality alone i would put it up somewhere near $1,000. Very dependable, not the best guitar out there but will blow any other beginners guitar out of the water. Im giving it a 10 on the factor of value alone.

I paid $120.00/used on e-bay in 2003.
Its made in china with a sunburst color. 2 humbuckings,1=tone,1=vol.and a pup solector switch. I'm thinking its either plywood or a cheaper wood like agathis,but I'm not sure. Its all stock except for a chrome pup.selector switch and chrome dice vol/tone knobs which I added. It has a stop tail piece and tun-a-matic bridge. Bolt on neck. Cheaper chrome tuner's and a maple neck w/dot inlays. They maybe just apliques but after playing 2 too 4 times weekly,they are still there and have never fallen off.

I have been playing on stages with groups since 1967. I'm a jobber now for the last 15 years or so. I am called too play a lot of different types of music and I always bring 2 guitars. The Epi is always with on the jobs. I play through a Polytone mini-brute or a re-issue Twin reverb. This guitar is a wonderful instrument! Several times I had too play in jazz quartets or that ilk and I used the Epi. I adjusted the Polytone and turned down the Epi's tone and it done the job with flying colors. Don't think L-5,it isent but I'm not going too be a star so why sweat the small stuff when I can be having fun?Besides I have had a lot of compliments on this guitar,sound and looks.........Fooled them again!!!

The neck is a little narrow but it feels good in my hands. The finish is flawless! I can't beleive its a budget axe. I clean and wax the guitar on a regular basis and lemmon oil the neck and its wonderful. Subtext: People, just because something is cheap dose not mean you don't have too take care of it..The only trouble I have had in this dept. is the strap buttons come loose evey once in a while but thats all. The neck pocket is tighter then on my 1967 Tele. Something too be said for modern guitar building techniques.

I have lugged and played this guitar through 5 states and over 400 gigs and it has held up wonderfully. The strap buttons could use a little silicone too thighten them but the guitar,it self is road worthy. Now I suspect some out there don't wipe your guitars down after every session and you may use dis-regard when hadling an instrument, so too you I don't know if this guitar would take it, But too the musicians that play for a living and are forced too care for their instruments ,this guitar will be durable as any. The electrics have never been a factor. I always clean the controls with lighter fluid everytime I change strings so dirt really hasent had a chance too build up in the pots. Its been a guitar I have relied on for over 3 years but I do talk a back-up too all gigs. You never can tell huh?

Gibson is a reliable company and they have always been helpful when I needed info. They are not as good as Peavey ot Rickenbaker for customer support but I suspect they are as good as most out there. I have never had my instruments back too Gibson/Epiphone so my experience with them has always been information rather then hands on work.

I like this guitar,not just for a price buster but as a guitar on its own. It feels great though I think the neck could be a little wider and it looks wonderful with great workmanship. I have a few ,what could be called very expensive guitars and some vintage guitars that people would want. So I play guitars that sound,look and feel good but can be replaces in case of last or stolen. This Epi fits that bill too a "T". If this guitar was gone, I would have another just like it within an hour. There are other's just as good and for a cheap price but thats for another heading in the user reviews.

1 volume,1 tone,2 humbuckers,3 way switch pretty basic as far as features are concerned

The sound actually is great, people complain about the muddy pickups or what ever but the stock pickups in this guitar actually arent muddy at all,i get verry bright Kurt Cobaine esque tone out of it when running it through a ds-1 and Garnet 50 watt combo, ive played it at every gig ive had in the last 7 months and it holds up amazing

action was perfect,neck and body are very solid i love the feel of this guitar

its deffintly reliable,built like a tank,ive dropped it and jumped into a drumset with it various times and its still solid as hell

never has to deal with it

Overall i give this guitar a 10, great for gigging and inexpensive so if it breaks i can buy another one without going broke

2006 Chinese Ebony version. 1 volume , 1 tone control, and 1 pick up switch. 22 fret 2 humbuckers that have a decent sustain.tune o matic bridge Chrome tuners. Bought the begginers pack that includes an amp,tuner, strap, picks and a dvd.

Through the practice amp it came with, it's kinda noisy(the amp is), thru my carvin x100b half stack it sounds like guitars worth a lot more.

At first it was buzzing on the e string then out of nowhere the buzz is gone. Factory set up is fine. Paint is beautiful and everything is set up well.

This is my guitarist back up guitar. I think this guitar is a little better than the squire strats at the same price.

n/a

I own quite a lot of gear and was suprised at the quality for the price paid. recommended for beginners who plan on using their guitar more than once or twice.

My Epi Les Paul was made around 2000, in China. 22 fret fingerboard (rosewood) with dot inlays, jumbo frets. When I bought this model they were advertised as being solid mahogany body & neck, and this one is sure heavy enough to be such. Has one volume & one tone control with 3-way switch positioned between them. Two humbucking pickups (passive), advertised as Alnico. Tune-o-matic bridge w/stop-tail. The tuners it came with weren't real great-sort of pseudo-diecast type that didn't hold tune well. I got the solid white (including the back of the neck)model just before they discontinued it. No case or anything else was included with it.

This axe, as originally equipped, fell short in a lot of areas. The pickups were just adequate, not outstanding. I'm not a hard-rocker so I didn't try distorting it, but other reviews have stated the sound was "muddy" distorted. No type of amp I've tried really helped the sound much. I replaced the pickups and tuners with Carvin units, and also had to replace the volume & tone pots and the 3-way switch with some from Carvin because the original controls "hummed" badly with the Carvin pickups. Now its sound is first-rate, even distorted!
I play mostly fingerstyle, and the neck on this Epi is a bit too narrow for me (as most Gibson/Epiphone electric necks are). However, it is quite alright for flatpicking fast leads. The low initial cost of this guitar helped offset the extra expenditures I made improving it.

There were really few "flaws" considering the Special II is a low-budget axe, if you don't count the cheap tuners, pickups and electronics. The finish is quite good; I understand the newer models are alder/maple bodies available in black, vintage sunburst, cherryburst, and wine red. The fretwork is OK for a budget axe. Those wonderful Tune-o-Matic bridges allow you (or your guitar shop) to custom-taylor your action and intonation the way you want it.

Since I did my upgrades on this guitar, I wouldn't be afraid to take it on a world tour, or play the roughest clubs in the country with it. You could probably use it for self-defense and then go right on playing, it's so solid.

My experience with Epiphone's Customer support has been kind of dicey in the past. I've needed help with another Epi I had (not this one) and wasn't real thrilled with them.

I've played guitar for over 40 years. Although I like my Epi since I've upgraded it, I would look for something else if I had it to do over, such as an S-series Ibanez or Mexican Fender Strat or Tele. The low price is what drew me to the Epi, though.
I own 5 other guitars, this one's my only steel-string electric. I play it quite often and am complimented frequently on its sound (thanks to the fantastic Carvin pickups).

This ax features a body made up of alder and maple laminate and a mahagony neck which is bolted on. Although it superficially resembles an actual Les Paul, there are several obvious differences, like the number of volume and tone knobs, and the position of the switch.

It also has a stopbar and a tune-o-matic bridge that gives it some pretty good sustain. The pickups are open coil humbuckers, however, it kind of fell short from the usual "Les Paul growl" you would expect. However, it sounded pretty sweet. This guitar is perfect for playing Dashboard Confessional while clean. I haven't tried it with any distortion though.

The guitar was perfectly alright. No design flaws.

This guitar is perfect for home practice and small gigs. HOWEVER, I frankly think it'll go down bad if played where the moshing is heavy and stuff. In it's six months lifespan, the guitar is still in mint condition. Everything, from the machine heads to the strap buttons are intact. Never really took it out to play though...

Never dealt with the company before.

Standard features, 22 pickups, bolt-on neck, sunburst finish, two humbuckers.

Pickups aren't great, but are surprisingly good for a $96 used guitar

Surprisingly good.

I've been playing guitar--badly--for over 30 years. I've had various Strats and Teles in that time, but have not owned a Gibson/Epi anything since Nixon was in the White House. My main guitars these days are a '91 American Strat and a '94 Mexican Tele. I bought this Epiphone "Les Paul Special II" online, more or less by accident. I got it for $96 (retail is around $200 new). I should note that this isn't a great guitar--the E and A strings are a little muddy, especially on the neck pickup. Better pickups would probably fix that. And the frets are just a hair rough on the edges--again, no biggie. What really surprises me is how GOOD this guitar is--it would be a pretty good deal at $200 brand-new from a big retailer; at under $100 used in good shape, it was one heck of a bargain, IMO. I was amazed at how different this is from the Fenders I'm used to; playing it is an entirely different vibe. The sound is good, and an interesting change from singlecoils; as I said, it can be a bit muddy on the low strings but not all that bad. Neck is surprisingly good, action is good, feels good in my hands, feels responsive. It stays in tune much better than I expected. I'm really enjoying the dual-humbucker vibe, and the Epi is quite a lot of fun to play. I am *very* pleased with the LP Special II--having a world of fun with it and after just a week I'm shopping for an Epiphone "real" Les Paul. THe Special II is a heck of a bargain, IMO, and a much better guitar than I expected for the price. Thumbs up! --Ken

This is the relatively new limited edition Special II with the wine-red color and zebra pickups. It has the standard configuration of the regular Special IIs, meaning, solid body Les Paul shape, dual humbuckers, 3-way switch, and 1 volume and 1 tone knob.

The sound was surprisingly muddy, even though I fully anticipated it since this is an entry-level guitar with low-end humbuckers. I ran it through a Crate GLX-15 and really couldn't get a moderately bright sound of it. It was definitely quiet though.

This is a really nice-looking guitar. I was pretty excited about it and loved the finish and zebra pickups. However, I reluctantly returned it to the vendor because of a single flaw, but a MAJOR flaw. The intonation for some of the strings could not be set. Either the engineering design on the guitar is off, or the CNC machine specs are off. Basically, the adjustable saddle did not have enough "travel" to properly intonate the guitar. I really didn't want to part with this guitar but I also couldn't live with a guitar that doesn't set up.

Since I've only had the guitar for a couple of weeks, I withold any comments about this.

Not applicable.

I've been playing for over 20 years and have owned a variety of acoustics and electrics. I play rock, country, folk, and worship. As I said before, I really wished the intonation could be properly set on this guitar because I didn't want to return it.

This was the first guitar I bought with my own money (my 1st first guitar was a Silvertone amp-in-case-model I inheirted from my dad)...part of an Epiphone player pack that also included a basic gig bag, 10 watt practice amp (not a POS as some reviewers have said, are you trying to gig with the damn thing?! It's a PRACTICE amp for crying out loud, it's not gonna sound like a Marshall stack) picks, strap, and instructional video (this was before DVDs were very common)---anyway, about the guitar itself: alder/maple laminate singlecut Les Paul-style body, 24.75 inch scale mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard, 2 humbuckers, volume and tone knobs, 3-way selector switch, 3x3 headstock with nonlocking tuners. Basic, no-frills guitar.

I play with band that plays a kind of noisy, heavy indie-esque music...our influences include Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana, Pavement, the Cure, Joy Divison, etc., plus we throw some blues into the mix. It's a typical Paul sound, thick and meaty, although somewhat less defined and dimensional than what a "real" Gibson Les Paul delivers...tends to freak out at high volumes, but that's normal for axes in this price range. I play through a Crate GX65 (gotta upgrade soon) with a Sovtek (Russian version of Electro-Harmonix) Big Muff Pi, Ibanez FL9 flanger reissue, and Electro-Harmonix Small Clone chorus. Goes good with effects.

The sad truth is that Epiphones, and more often than not, Gibsons, can be hit or miss in the Q.C. area...the one I've got now is actually the second because I had to return the first one after the nut that holds the input jack fell out and got lost. The switch is tilted mow, but that's not such a bad thing-it's actually easier to reach mid-play now! Pots are kinda scratchy, but that's also OK for me since I just leave them at 10 all the time. Tuners are OK, relatively stable but my G string goes out sometimes...but I think thats becuase I like to bend it alot...love those Chuck Berry bend/release type moves...

The frets need changed, they're turning green :P

This is where it scores big time-the above flaws aside, this thing is bulit like a tank. Thick finish, strudy hardware. Well...now that I think about it, it does crap out from time to time (not very often, but it has happened)...I wouldn't use it as a main guitar, maybe a backup, and gigging without a backup is like bungee jumping from a 5-story building, swimming in shark infested waters, or bending over to pick up the soap in a prison shower--a stupid, stupid, stupid, risk.

A short commentary on weight and Les Pauls-
This particular Paul weighs-I checked it with an actual scale-close to 9 lbs (thin bodied or not, maple's heavy wood). Now I know many other reviews have said this thing is lightweight, but 9 lbs isn't my idea of light; sure it might be lighter than a Gibson Les Paul Custom, which I've heard averages 10 lbs or more, but this thing isn't light. I've heard of people developing back problems from Les Pauls and yet I once came across a Les Paul Vintage Mahogany at Guitar Center that couldn't have been more 7.5 or 8 lbs (got my sights set on that one)...the bottom line is that if weight is a concern, never buy a Paul without trying it out first.

Couldn't tell you, never dealt with the company...though I have to defend their website, which has gotten a lot of mud slung on it by other reviewers--it's concise, straightforward, and gives you pretty much all the basic info you'd need...the only thing I'd like is if they'd show the guitars in different colors...

Overall, this is a good beginner's guitar. Not too hard to play, sounds OK for cheap pickups. I've spent more money on gear than I probably should have...I won't bore you with the list of gear I've owned and sold (at a loss), here's what I've got now; this guitar, plus an Epiphone G400 Deluxe (SG style, good looks and sounds, but the neck-heaviness is starting to irk me, think I might trade it in for a better Paul), a Heartfield RR58 (obscure, underrated American-designed, Japanese made offshoot of Fender), and a cheapo ($60!!) Rogue acoustic, plus I've also got a Korg Z1 synth because I also play keys. I don't worry about it getting stolen since it doesn't exactly scream "valuable", and if it got lost (tell me, how do you lose a guitar? you mean if it died completely or got waterlogged or something?), I'd just pick up another since they're a dime a dozen from anywhere that sells Epiphone.

For the money, you probably couldn't do much better.