Epiphone Les Paul Standard

1997 Korea - Factory 2nd due to cosmetic reasons in the flame top. Mahogany body with 1/8" (not very) flamed maple top. :-) Standard Gibson configuration of two humbuckers, 3 way switch, and separate volume/tone controls. Reasonable sounding (but squealie) stock PUs and cheap (but mostly stayed in tune) plastic tuners. Translucent Purple finish that absolutely kills over a guitar with a decently flamed top.. on this one, it still looks like a cool color.. I've actually gotten several compliments on the look already, and I've only had it two or three weeks.

I've replaced the PUs with a Dimarzio SD in the bridge and a duncan Jazz neck in the neck, and put Sperzel locking tuners on it. With the replaced PUs, this thing screams. It sounds every bit as good as the Gibson LP studio that I had previously. It has the standard LP sound and it crunches very well. I play rock and Christian contemporary (praise & worship) and this guitar is a good compromise for me. It wails in the dirt position, and cleans up very nicely with the Jazz neck.

The neck and setup is very acceptable. Not as good as the Carvin I have, mind you, but it's still a fairly speedy neck. Concerning the build quality, some things are obviously cheaper than on the comparible Gibson models, the FB inlays are cheaper, the top is thinner, the cavities aren't very clean or shielded at all. But when you consider that this guitar goes for about 1/4th the cost of a comparable Gibson, the cost cutting features are acceptable.

Hard to say, I've only had it a few weeks, but it feels very solidly made. I wouldn't use it wihout a backup just because of the weight... this guitar is fairly heavy, so I would want another one there to trade off after a little while anyways.

No idea.

This is a great line of guitars... classic dual humbucker stylings, with a decent sound, at a beginners price. I've been told the build quality varies, so it's probably a good idea to play a bunch of them first, but I seem to have gotten lucky with this one through mail-order. It sounds and plays like a much more expensive guitar. I wish it were a little lighter, thats my only gripe about it.

1996 LP style in Honeyburst.. wicked!!! It is a multiple-piece mahogany body with a thin bookmatched maple veneer on top of a carved maple to. Two passive humbuckers with a switch arrangement of the Gibson. The neck is two-piece mahogany with 22 frets, and the usual Tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tail piece. The usual Les Paul setup but with cheap components. Can't complain for the price.

I play mostly punk and alternative and an occasional pop song. It suits quite good. Run it through a multiple effects chain and a Peavey Bandit 112 and a Classic 30. the tone is quite good but the pick-ups are just terrible. after changing the pick-ups everything was just fine.

The guitar I had to negotiate for because it was the last one left in the store and it had some chips in the finish. The overall adjustments were quite good although the action was high, and I like the action medium high. The routing is terrible. When I replaced the pick-ups with Razor's Tribute humbucker and Tribute humbucker plus I saw that they were poorly done. Messy with splinters sticking out. By the way you have to try the Razor pick-ups. they are very good. The nut is plastic and I went right away and replaced it with a bone nut. You can just hear a big difference. Replaced the electronics with good quality ones. after all these mods I took it out to show-and-tell and everyone just loved it.

With proper changes: electronics, and bridge and tailpiece, this thing rocks. The downside: voided warranty. But I tell you it is worth it. It is quite heavy but all Les Pauls are so. The tone, once the pick-ups were replaced and adjusted it sounds just awesome.

Never tried it

I have a pretty good collection. This is one of my favorites for playing punk. I like the neck and fret job. You have to invest some money to replace the pick-ups, electronics and most of the hardware, but once you do you can get pretty close to a Gibson. If it got stolen I just might buy it again.

Well, what "features" do you have on a Guitar? but anyway... This amazing guitar has tone and volume controls for each pickup, 22 frets, rosewood fingerboard, 'Vintage' tuners, angled headstock. Mine came in a cherry sunburst, but i have seen translucent green, vintage tabacco sunburst, a kinda blue sunburst, and purple. Oh, yeah, this guitar has passive electronics, mahogany body, and I bought it in Singapore for 650 bucks, with a hard case.

I love the sound of this guitar! I can get anything, from just a little crunch to a rauncy overdrive to full blown heavy metal roar. This guitar just kicks ass! I play through a Marshall Jtm 30, with a boss DS-1 distortion pedal and a Jim dunlop crybaby. This combination really works for me.

This guitar has a high standard of building, for the price. I found that my pickguard had not been cut exctaly right, so there was a splinter there, and i found a few place were the finish was a little thin, but other than that, it was great! Oh yeah, tthe action is very low.

This guitar is really a study little thing. I often just chuck on the bed, and it's still in tune and ready to play. The strap buttons, are a little loose, which could cause a problem. The finish might be a little fragile, but it's still pretty strong. I probably could use it on a gig with out a backup.

N/A

All in all, this is one helluva good guitar. It's sturdy, sounds great, is cheaper than a real one, sounds pretty close to it anyway. Yeah, i'd definatly buy this again.

Standard features, Standard Cherry Burst Maple top, Mahogany body, etc. Tone and volume knobs seem to function exponentially, which can be annoying. The pickups basically shut off if you turn the volume down below 6.

I basically get three tones out of this guitar. 1) Treble at full volume + slightly diminished tone, 2) Treble at full volume + slightly diminished tone / Rhythm at slightly diminished volume + full tone and 3) Rhythm pickup full on. These three tones are pretty distinct, but I haven't found any others that are really worth re-dialing to. The pickups sound very warm, and can be a bit muddy. I haven't heard Seymour Duncans, but after reading these reviews, I'm thinking about giving them a listen and popping a pair in if I like them.
This was / is my first guitar (I just ordered a G&L Legacy) so my only complaint would be that I can't get really sharp/edgy sounds out of it .. of course, this guitar WAS basically designed to be warm / mellow, was it not?
Distorted it sounds neat .. somewhat like an SG, I suppose. Nice for getting very smooth sounding distorted octave chords. I play through a (74) Fender Twin Reverb and I can get some pretty nice growls, etc.

The string intonation was pretty goofy when I got this - I had it adjusted when I noticed this a few months later (like I said, this was my first guitar. :) ) .. the guitar looks nice, although the mahogany back is made of several different chunks instead of one piece. The neck inlays are also _slightly_ mis-aligned. The bridge had a loose screw that I had to tighten to eliminate buz. The action on this guitar is _very_ low, as well. I play with 11's now, and my A string is buzzes every once in a while.

I play for several hours a day and I haven't had many problems.. actually, come to think of it, the output jack came loose and I had to re-tighten it .. after doing so my guitar started farting out if I shook it in different ways. I opened up the jack and found that the + and - wires were bumping each other. A little electrical tape fixed the problem. Other than that, the guitar seems quite reliable. I only took it in to the shop once for a neck adjustment, etc.

Never dealt with Epiphone .. according to the fine print, my warranty is now void. (I replaced the bridge saddles - this constitutes "tampering" with the instrument.)

I basically didn't know what I was buying when I got this guitar .. It was a nice-looking Lefty so I snagged it. I actually got it for $50 less than I should have, because they had a right-handed price tag on it. (woohoo! :) ) Overall, I'd say this has been a great first guitar. It was high enough quality not to frustrate me, etc, and I'll probably still play it often as a mellow sidekick for my new G&L .. Replacing the pickups may also really improve this guitar's sound - I'll have to wait and see.

Made in Korea 22 Standard LP top Standard LP controls Standard I opened the pickups it up and saw "Samsung" on them Passive electronics Standard LP wood, Mahogany..etc

I play a lot of blues, rock and heavy metal. OK for blues and rock but not for metal. Through high gain settings, but it may be my signal chain Sounds great. Not much variety Sounds great, but only for certain styles

Action was quite low Pickups adjusted too high, causing low sustain Top and bridge were OK One of the screws on the saddle was loose, causing ringing sound There is a deep scratch near the bridge that is unnoticable loose controls noisy pickup selector

Yes. No. Finish is OK. Yes. Yes. No.

A few years. Classical guitar, multi-effects pedal, stompboxes, amp No. I'd buy it again ( because it's cheap!) Cheap, Great sound, Little annoyances, loose knobs etc... No. It's very light compared to a Gibson LP.

My Korean-made Epi LP Std. is a '97. The usual LP specs apply: 24.75" scale, 22 fret mahogany neck, mahogany body (3 pieces) with a flamed maple cap, two Epiphone passive covered humbuckers, a Tune-o-matic bridge, and generic "vintage" tuners.

I tend to play prog rock and metal, but I bought the LP as a backup as well as for soloing; my Flying V is possibly the perfect rhythm guitar, but its lead tones are not as warm as I'd like. I typically play the LP through a Peavey Classic 50 2x12 combo with a Boss DS-1 in the front end and a Boss ME-6 in the loop. The acoustic sound of this guitar is surprising; it projects more than any other electric I've ever played. Plugged in, the guitar sounds almost too warm; I think this is from the wimpy pickups Epiphone uses.

The setup and action of this guitar from the store was surprisingly good. The pickups were well balanced (read: they suck roughly equally). The top has a very nice but somewhat understated honeyburst flmae to it, like Page's old '59 LP; it's matched quite well. The matching on the body leaves a little more to be desired; the upper bout has a thin slice of significantly darker mahogany right on the edge, which looks a little odd. The fretwork and inlays on the neck seems to be cleanly done

I bought this guitar expecting to replace most of the hardware (strap buttons, tuners, and pickups). The strap buttons have already been swapped out for Schaller straplocks, and the pickups are soon to be replaced with Seymour Duncans. The finish seems durable enough, but I'm not that abusive of a player. Overall, the guitar is dependable enough for my needs, and I use it without backup at church occasionally.

I've never had to deal with Epi/Gibson support.

I've been playing for about 4 years, and as I said earlier this LP was bought to complement the Epi Flying V that's my #1. I looked at quite a few other Epi LPs, but this was the one I kept coming back to. If it were lost, I'd probably buy another eventually. I really like the looks, finish, feel, and sound of the guitar; my only real complaint is with the pickups, and I knew that when I bought it. The Epi LPs are a great value for the money, and they're an excellent platform for experimenting with modifications (new pickups, switching schemes, etc.).

ok- this is a les paul that's made in korea. the flamed maple top is actually a thin veneer over a plain maple top.- but damn it, this is one great axe! i don't know if this is that 'one in a million' that came off the line, or if they're all this nice- i'm waiting for other reviews. i'm giving the features section a '10', cuz this has every thing the $4000 gibson does.

i took it in to my local guitar shop to have duncan '58's put in it- but after comparing it side by side with a 'REAL' les paul with the same '58's installed, i shined it on- this little puppy sounds just like the real thing.

well, the model i got ('flame top', cherry red) was a second- it took some looking, but i found the blemish on the lower bout- the glue didn't set smoothly in the seam. but since it brought the cost of this axe down to $425 with case, i didn't mind- and like i said, i know it's a veneer top, but it still looks wonderful. the action took some setting up on my part, but that's usual for the axes i buy- i have a thing for slightly higer action than most people. i'll give it a nine ONLY because of the blemish- but i certainly don't ever notice it.

i play in a hard-core country band- four nights a week, five hours a night, and this is my main axe- i break strings sure, but i've gone through two amps since i bought this guitar six months ago, and the thing is holding up just fine.

never tried to contact the company.

i absolutely love this guitar- i've wanted a paul standard since i really got good enough to play one, but they're just way to pricey. my back-up guitar is a real gibson '82 double cutaway les paul special- it used to be my main axe 'til i got this one- that should say something about it!

21 frets, carved maple top, mahogany back and sides, glued-in mahogany neck, 2 passive humbucking pickups, rosewood fingerboard, Tune-O-Matic bridge, 2 volume and 2 tone knobs (one set for each pickup)

nice sustain, full sound, humbuckers are on the cheap side decent sound for the price, but not even close to a Gibson Les Paul Standard

low action with some fret buzzing tension on the strings was too high - strings on this guitar broke much more often than on any other I've ever played beautiful cherry sunburst finish

this guitar is HEAVY! I played a gig with it, and later that night my shoulders and back were killing me, but all Les Pauls are that heavy
reliability was fine though

never dealt with them

a decent Les Paul for a reasonable price sound doesn't compare to a Gibson, but for the price it's a good deal I wouldn't buy it again though (or any other Les Paul model because of the weight)