Epiphone Les Paul Studio

this is a 1998 korean-made guitar with 22 frets. 2 humbuckers each with a volume and tone control. 3-way selector switch. cheap pick-ups and tuners. set neck, which is nice. mine is a green-ish color.

for the price, i think the sound is pretty darn good. i play regular rock n roll with a little bit of weird sonic youth-style craziness thrown in and i think this guitar works well. it's generally bright. the bridge pick-up is best for more straight-forward and louder rock, while the bridge pick-up (which i prefer and which has a particularly full sound) is good for playing around a bit more.

i bought this used, and my guess is that the original owner had it set up pretty extensively. the action is terrific. this guitar is one of the most playable guitars i can think of.

this guitar definitely has some problems, the main one being that all of the hardware is pretty cheap as a means of keeping the cost down (the strap-buttons, however, are great). the tuners are pretty bad and the guitar goes out of tune more often than i'd prefer, and the input came loose and i had to have it fixed. however, i do think it would withstand live playing and i definitely plan on using it when i start playing out. i'd bring back-up, however. still, it's a pretty consistent instrument.

never dealt with the company

i've been playing on and off for about 7 years, but i've only been serious about it for the past few months. i also own an acoustic guitar, which is in about the same price range as this les paul. if this guitar were stolen, whether or not i'd buy it again would depend on how much money i have at that moment. if i had enough to spare, i'd find myself a lower-end gibson. if not, i'd definitely buy another LP studio from epiphone. the playability on the guitar is fantastic and i can't recommend it more highly to someone who is more of a beginner and wants an instrument that will encourage him/her to play frequently.

Purchased in 1998 in small music stoire in Gainesville, Ga. I'm not even sure if this is the right model for this forum, but its an Epiphone Les Paul type of guitar thats very light and very thin solid body of what looks to be ash?, it's very light weight. there is no binding the edges are rounded off,the cutaway is not sharp as a Les Paul, this one is more shallow. It is solid black with two humbuckers and a Steinberger model tremelo with locking nuts. The neck is maple with black no-name tuners. there is a sticker on the neck heel that reads "LP-2/EB". The neck is bolted on.

Suited my playing style at the time, metal, and it was used with various crappy solid state combo amps and a plethora of cheap pedels. Sound was okay with full, balls out distortion from a proco rat, but was not so sweet with a clean tone, kind of thin and cheap sounding. The original pickups are long since trashed, I beleive they were EMGs

Action was okay from the store set up and never had a problem with the neck movement, the finish was good. The frets wore quiet fast with about two years of hard use, and one of the plastic-looking inlays began to come unglued. The Steinberger tremelo was a royal bitch to keep in tune, you could lock it into place, but it never wanted to stay that way, it always got knocked unlocked. Knobs eventually came loose and dropped off. Locking nut was poor to keep in tune.

I could not trust this guitar live without a backup, no way, no how. Strap buttoms are the usual too small factory ones, and eventually had to scrap the whole rig when one day the wood between the tremelo and bridge humbucker broke through releasing the tremelo and rendering the whole guitar useless. It literally fell apart.I packed it back up in its case and never looked at again for the next 14 years. I opened it up several months back and took it apart for examination. The bolt on neck had a plastic shim installed for neck angle I guess, and there was very little shielding tape in the cavities, go figure.

Never delt with Epiphone, I was so ashamed of buying this stinker I never bothered to contact them. I'm pretty sure that it had no warranty left to use anyway. The music store I purchased it from had changed owners and moved across town.

Been playing 20 years now, only 4 years when purchased. There are so many questions I should have asked before buying, but I was dumb and wanted any Les Paul. I also had little bread to spend, I knew at the time it was not a top shelf axe, I just never expected it to break like it did. Plus the Steinberger name on the trem gave me some confidence that it was a guitar of some pretty good quality. I chalk it up to a learning experience. Epiphone always will have trouble selling me any more instruments, however. Having gained much more experience with guitars and construction (now I build them)nowdays, I plan to fill the trem cavity, replace the neck, and rebuild this axe to something playable. I will resurrect this paper tiger into a servicable guitar. Live and learn.

This guitar is from around 2000, so i've been playing it as my main guitar for around 4 years. This guitar was made in korea (grrrreaaat) and is better looking than it really sounds. 22 fret solid body/neck. 2 vol 2 tone w/ 3way switch. Too bad i dont have the money to replace the junk stock pickups. The machine heads are plastic with a 'glow in the dark' green color.....UUUgly. Nice shiny black paint looks very nice with the crome bridge and pickups.

THE NECK BRIGE CRACKED AND BROKE OFF while i was tuning it today. I am so pissed off. Apparently this guitar cant handle a .52 E string. This guitar sitting in a nice shiny garbage can will fix this problem.

This guitar does not sound good. It is a step up from the les paul 100 which i previously owned, but still not what im looking for. Dont expect a very clean sound unless your using the Treble setting. The Rhythm pickup is complete crap, theres little or no treble even when its on 10. I got this checked and theres nothing to do but change the pickups.....not a chance i would ever waste more money on this thing.

This guitar was set up decently from the factory. Your gonna want to put those pickups as close to the strings as possible, otherwise you get some serious distortion.

The bridge would NOT allow me to use a .52 E sting which really isnt that big.

This guitar is OK, nothing more. I would bring a backup because who knows what'll go wrong next.

Im sure epiphone wouldnt bother helping me. They've got "better" things to do......sure.

I've been playing for 10 years. I use a marshall vs100r head through a jcm900a cabinet. Im not happy with the sound. Next time im going to buy an ibanez or something better.

Standard Les Paul Set Up. Mine Is Sea Foam Green, Made In 2000, Very Thin And Very Light !!!

When I Got It, I Really Liked The Stock PU's, But They Began To Sound More, And More Muddy To Me All The Time. I Put In A Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon At The Bridge, And A Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates At The Neck.....WOW !!! What a Difference. I Give It A 6 out of 10 With The Stock PU's, and I Give It A 10 out of 10 with The PU Swap !!!!

Set Up Was Very Nice. Great Low Action. No Flaws In The Guitar That I Could Find.

It's An Epiphone......It Is Ready For Battle !!!

Epiphone's Customer Support Is Second To None !

I Have Been Playing 12 years. In Addition to this Guitar, I Also Have An Epiphone Les Paul Ace Frehley Signature Model As Well. I Originally Bought The Les Paul Studio So I Could Give The "Ace" A Break. When I Got The Les Paul Studio, I Just Fell In Love With It. I Like The "Ace" Better, But This Is A Great Guitar. Highly Recomended. Epiphone Has Come A Long Way, And Is Now Making World Class Guitars !!!

Same as others, mine is wine red

The sound of this guitar with the original pick up is ok, but I put a seymour duncan JB in the bridge position and wow!!! with the JB, the sound of this guitar is just great! It beat the sound of the Gibson LP studio of one of my friends. I use it trough a marshall mg250 2x12 and a fender pro stage with a Digitech RP2000, a Boss Metal Zone 2 and a Danalecto beftone, this gear is just perfect for me. Well I play blues to metal to punk to psychedelic, jazz, rock of all kind, etc... and I can say for sure that this guitar is very very versatile.If you don't have a lot of money and want a nice guitar with great tone and not noisy at all, then buy this one and put a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, you'll have the perfect deal.
7/10 with the original pickup
9/10 with JB

I've been using this guitar live from one year and never had problems with. This guitar is like any real LP, this is a tank. I changed the strap buttons for some strap locks, and i think everybody should do this as the price of this is very low. I don't use any backup and don't need to (I think)

Never dealt with

Well, for the price and with the JB pickup, this guitar is just great. I own a shitty squier strat and my LP studio sounds 100000 times better! I also tried many guitars as Ibanez, Jackson, Fender and I can say that I don't regret it. If it were stolen or lost, i'd probably try to find a Gibson LP custom, '87 (lite) if possible, on ebay, but for now i'm happy with this one

Its a damn Les Paul, you know all the features

i play classic and hard rock. This guitar is perfect for everything. I can play black sabbath, zeppelin, godsmack or metallica. it has a great hard crunch with the warm feeling that Les Pauls are famous for. but this axe is for hard stuff. it doesnt sound to great on a clean channel or for some light rock crap or somthen.

you probly gotta have your techman give it a fix up and have it set to how you like it. but with the right set-up this beast will sound perfect.

great, i have banged the hell out of it and its perfect

Overall this is just a great guitar. Its stock settings are commendable. You could change the pick-ups and tuners and it would satisfy and pro. if you dont have the budget for a gibson, this guitar will do for you whatever you want.

Epiphone Les Paul Studio, ArchTop of course, 22 frets, 4 controls: 2 volume, 2 tone, 3way switch, H/H. Passive humbuckers, Epi stock. Mahogany Neck, Mahogany-Alder body. Heritage Cherry Sunburst finish, which looks really impressive, Epi-Stock tuners, Tune-O-Matic bridge stoptail. i doubt the use of 2 woods for the body, since I opened the cavities for the potmeters, and it seems to be just 1 type of wood.

This Epiphone amazed me at first, but I play it for about 6 months now, and I'm less enthusiastic as I were at first. The sound is just "OK". Nothing special. It has a kind of mellow, not to overdriven output on the bridge Humbucker, the one at the neck position is somewhat cleaner. The pickups aren't shielded THAT good, sometimes you hear some loud humming, but it is occassional and I think due to the place I'm playing in. The Toneknobs don't help the overall sound that much. Just to turn away the treble. The sound could have been brighter IMO, but ok, it's not a high-end guitar, so let's say, for the money, it's definitely good.

Side note: The neck Hum. has sometimes some harsh sounding sound like it's really distorted; I think it's just the heigth of the pickup being installed, gonna fix that soon.

the action was great, it plays flawless, except for one little cut into the 9th fret, above the high E string, which can be harrasing if you do some big stringbends. The pickups are well adjusted, maybe the neck PU is being adjusted a little too high. The top is great. No flaws at all, perfectly laquered. the only flaws I could discover was one little chip which has been fixed, it's almost invisible, only if you give it a detailed look. Overall: Just good, nothing special. It's a bummer 'cos of the cut fret though.

This guitar definitely withstands live playing. It stays in tune VERY good, even if it gets warmer and warmer...The hardware seems it will be good for quite a few years, so no probs with that. The finish is good, no problems. The strap buttons are a bit weak though; At the neck, the strapbutton is kinda unscrewed, just for a tiny bit, but you can notice it. Just need to screw it in for that tiny amount. It's really solid, it's a great guitar to play on, only thing that bothers me is the G-string tuner, which isn't that good; Hard to tune (not THAT hard) and it's easy to detune. But I;ve heard some more things about the G-String tuner from Epi/Gibson, so I guess this is a common problem!

Never dealt with them...

you know the routine. It's a cheap les paul.

Good highs. Good lows. A little weak in the mid range. The stock pickups aren't the hotest, but they are still pretty good.

When the guitar arrived, I had my tools all lined up to set everything. To my shock, it was just about right. I had to some minor tweaking for my personal preference, but holy smokes. Bookmatched top looked good. The finish looks good too.

Sorry, but I wouldn't just take this guitar to a gig. It looks solid enough, but I don't have a level of trust for it yet. Maybe a couple more gigs.

Haven't tried, nor would I.

Great guitar, if you like les pauls. I have found since playing it more, that I don't care for the sloped back neck. But that is just preference. Great for lead guitar since it is easier to access the uppper frets, bad for rythm guitar. Good for what it is a cheap guitar. I would give this a 8.5 in it's price range, but overall when compared to everything I have played it hits between 7 and 8.

It is a basic Korean made Epiphone LP if you have gotten this far you know what features make up an Epi-Gibson. I bought my used for a little over $300

It came with stock gold plated pick-ups, and actually came with grover tuning pegs. The nobs are the more modern "speed nobs" I like them all right, but some hate them.

Incredible sound, very quiet guitar. I have replaced the stock pickups with some Alan Holdsworth double coils, and they rock. I sold my Fender because after playing the Epi, I couldn't stand the constant buzzing of a single coil guitar. I did do some modifications and added coil tapping, but I still prefer the sound of this guitar tapped than a true single coil.

I love the action, but I like the shorter neck. Some people hate the scale... so go buy a Fender. A guitar is never set up to an individuals liking when it comes, of course you have to tinker... what's new? Would you buy a guitar and then bitch because the seat wasn't set to your height?

This guitar holds it's tune very well, and besides an acoustic, it's the only guitar I play live

Don't know if I will ever buy another guitar

Well you know what it comes with and its features, so I won't waste your time. go to music123 or musiciansfriend to go figure it out, if you haven't already. Though I would like to point out that the tuners on this guitar makes your guitar get out of tune at some point, I suggest some "Groover Tuners"? Plus the input gets loose and the knobs can get loose as well.

It gives a pretty decent sound but nothing special. In my opinion it just doesn't have that roaring distortion sound but what do you expect.

read my feature part to see the reliability of this guitar. I had to get it fixed alot of times.

I really never ask them but they SHOULD be supportive since they made this thing.

Its just a $600 guitar waiting to be brought only to get you dissapointed. I suggest you really shouldn't buy this guitar, I would have brought a Squire instead. Just Junk! Gibson should just close Epiphone down.