Epiphone Les Paul Studio

It's a pretty standard lp studio model with a solid top and finnished in a wine red. the volume controls for both the neck and bridge pickups work perfectly, same as the tone controls. the knobs are translucent black and the guitar has humbuckers that aren't bad, but also nothing special. The 3 way switch is a bit annoying coz its in a bad place and u sometimes hit it when playing. The cable u get with it aLso works fine.

The sound that the guitar makes is nice and full and bassey on the rhthym setting, or more twangy and tremolo sounding on the treble setting. The guitar is also good for making a lot of noise. I use it sometimes with a phaser pedal which also gives a cool fluctuating sound. Bad points are that there it a bit too much buzzing as the strings hit the frets too much.

The factory must have been having a good day because i cant find anything wrong with it. The action is perfect, the pickups were fine, everything fits perfectly, no loose pegs, and perfectly polished hardware.Most things are adjustable anyway.

The finnish is like a tank- iv'e bumped it a lot, and nothing happened. Im not so sure a bout the humbuckers, as they dont seem to durable, and the slightest thing can dent them. The strap buttons are good and strong- iv'e got a bastard of a strap, but the guitar seems to hold on to it good.

This guitar is very versatile, and can be used for most kinds of music (i guess) i mainly use it for punk and it work good. If it were stolen, after being VERY pissed off, i wound probably try something else just plainly for the reason that i would want to see what other kinds are good. The guitar is easy to play, but palming can be harder than on other guitars ive tried because or the thing that raises the strings. The wieght of this guitar is a bit heavy, and put strain on ur shoulders.Apart from that, it is a good intermediate guitar (intermediate because pro guitarists get something more expensive)and im glad i bought it.

Made in Korea in 2000 (if I interpret the serial number correctly).
22 frets
standard LP features
2 std. epiphone HBs (which are soon to be replaced by Seymour Duncans)
neck should be mahogany, body seems to be alder with a mahogany core, but don't quote me on that
chery sunburst finish, very well done
came with a short and pretty useless cable, but it's the will that counts, right? :)

this guitar was intentionally purchased as a backup, or let's say, an addition to my strat
I play alternative rock and since this is a very wide field, a fender and a gibson or epi are a good team for that purpose.


my setup: Epi LP Studio/Fender Mex. Tele/Ovation Celebrity Solidbody -->RAT-->BOSS HM-3-->BOSS CE-5--> Hughes & Kettner Attax 100 plus extension cab (1x12)

this guitar is not noisy at all and seems not to produce feedback, even at high volumes. the reason might be that the pickups have taken a bath in hot wax. I saw that when I took em out to turn em round...oh yeah, I forgot to tell you: I reversed the humbuckers, the pole pieces now look to the middle of the guitar. actually no hearable difference to the normal setting...almost :)

set up poorly, but that was done in the store where I bought it.
no flaws elsewhere.

no problems here, I've gigged with it and I'll keep on using it live.

never dealt with em.

nice guitar for poor people like me

Features are Standard Les Paul.
And very useful they are to.
Many people (myself included) believe studio's to have some kind of Mahogany in the body.
THEY HAVEN'T
THEY ARE ALDER

Sound is good, due to the set neck and tune o matic bridge. Well, its a big improvement on my floyd rose shred machine (which has zero tone)
Quite a rich sound from a good valve amp.
Good with overdrive/dist.
Clean sounds are full and fruity

Set up was poor straight out of the shop.
Tune o matic doesnt have enough play in it to properly set the intonation!!!!

also, the nut was cut so high, the distance you had to press the strings down to touch the frets was so great, that its puts the notes out of tune!!

neck was also warped, making upper register playing poor

much better after my tech did a good set up though

All the hardware on this guitar sucks
tuners: cheap, flimsy, unsturdy (you know the ones, the green muthas!!!)
pickups: cheap, muddy, microphonic
selector switch: craped out after less than a week
nut: piece of plastic junk, cut very badly

BUT , what do you expect with a guitar for less than 300 pounds?
I knew the hardware on this sucked when i bought it, as i planned to change ALL OF IT

never dealt with them, allthough when i sent an initial email regarding the selector switch to epiphone/rosetti quoting the serial number, they said they had NO RECORD OF A GUITAR WITH THAT SERIAL NUMBER!!!!!!

which did concern me somewhat
have i bought a 'cut & shut' ??????

Been playing for 10 yrs, and played many different guitars. Its taken me a while to realise that floyd rose bridges kill your tone.
This guitar has flaws, but it is a decent price, and has potential for improvement, ie:
New pickups (dimarzio evolution in the bridge, DAMN this thing is hot!) with 3 position mini switches, to allow parallel, series and single coil operation of both humbuckers (giving about 16 different tonal options!!)
New tuners and nut
New 3 way switch, and new tone and volume pots
Strap Locks
A damn good set up by a good tech

After all this, this thing screams, and gets a 10
Before mods, i'd give this a 7
(the cheap hardware doesnt bring the rating down , because they have to be expected at this price

Made in Korea, set up in the US. I think its a 2001 model. basically a les paul shape, but lighter. Its an alder/mahogany body with a mohogany neck. Mines black, but also comes in some sunbursts. Its good on features, basically a Les Paul standard thats been stripped down.

I play punk and rock, but I need something that has good clean sound. I use a marshall 50 watt solid state with a boss distortion and a morley wah. It sounds great, I tried the standard les paul, but I liked the lightness to this, and the price. The standard is a fuller richer, deeper sound. I liked this because it has more bite to it. It gets a great clean sound, and the distorted is better than any guitar I played in its price range. You could use this guitar for just about anything, except maybe some jazz, or blues, you'd want to go with a hollow body.

Seemed fine, no flaws.

It will withstand live playing, and I would gig without backup.

I love this guitar, it took me a very long time to find the right guitar. I had an Ibanez GAX70, then I got a fernandes native, and then when I finally decided to get a good value guitar I bought an Ibanez s370, but I hated the floyd rose tremolo, so I got this, and its great, haven't found anything bad with it. If it were stolen, I'd probably save up and buy a gibson, but for $400 this is a great guitar

I think mine was made in 1998. Same features as all the other studios. Cherry sunburst finish. Most of the stock parts were quite cheap (i.e. nut, tuners, input jack, toggle switch, etc). I replaced the nut with a Graphtech, got Grover tuners, replaced the stock bridge pickup for a Seymour Duncan Distortion and neck pickup for a SD '59, and installed straplocks.

I play some punk and some hardcore and a little ska only when I'm in the mood. I have a Digitech RP200, but I don't use it that much so it's just running to a Randall RG100 ES head with some unknown cabinets (still trying to find the right cabs). It gets a decent tone (after the pickup change of course). The Distortion Humbucker is not noisy, but it was made for only distortion; and the '59 has a really full/balanced sound. I'm sure this guitar can do many different types of styles. So before PU change, I give it a 4. After pickup change, I give it an 8.

Factory setup sucked but that's to be expected. The fretboard has a few scratches and the quality of the wood is not the greatest. The nut was cheap and therefore replaced by a Graphtech as mentioned above. There seems to be some barbs on the saddle because my A string constantly breaks there. I'll probably get that replaced in the near future. The finish is decent, but there are a few flaws and lately some finish behind the neck is flaking off. I can't say I'm shocked that this guitar was not perfect.

This guitar will last long enough until I get a better one. I can definately depend on it, but not without a backup. I've had for about a year now and it's still in good shape despite my brutality towards it. The screw that held on the strap button did once rip out. I mean the screw tore through the wood, but luckily the straplocks used larger screws.

The warranty seems good, but I've made so many modifications to it, I'm not sure if I still have a warranty.

The guitar now is a "good" guitar, but there could be some improvements. If someone stole it, I would kick his/her ass and then buy a different guitar with the money pawned from his/her car (or anything else of importance) =). But it's a decent first or second guitar because it's affordable and lightweight. After owning the guitar, I feel that I'm not a Les Paul kind of guy (Gibson, Epi or otherwise). At least it's a little better than a Fender...

see previous review

see previous review

This review is an addition to my 7/8/2001 review of this product. A week ago I had my first major problem with the guitar. As I was changing the strings, the low E saddle on the CHEAP PLASTIC nut simply FELL OFF!!! Instead of sending it to Epiphone for 3 weeks and another CHEAP PLASTIC NUT, I took it to my local luthier and spent $35 to replace it with a bone nut. The bone nut looks much nicer than the old one, and I'm told will last forever (figuratively speaking).
While I was there, I had them do a full set up on it. The action was set to medium (the factory had it set high). The neck pickup was way down in the cavity, so the guy raised it a little. Now the guitar sounds much fuller and has a ton more output in the neck position. The bridge pickup, on the other hand, was WAY too high, so he lowered it a little. Now the center position on the switch sounds much more balanced. A few weeks earlier the guy sprayed the 3-way switch with some contact cleaner, and it works like a dream now! 2 months and no problem. The guitar sings now like it never did before. In short, have a pro set it up!

Here's where I have to vent a little. A while ago, I decided to replace the tone/volume knobs with nicer Gibson Top Hats. The only way to do this is to pull the old ones off, and push the new ones on. These things aren't easy to push on. After putting them all on, none of them were balanced. So, I pushed them down more. As I was doing this, i heard a CRACK! "OH SSSHHHIIITTT!" Now there is a deep crack rightnext to the rhthym pot, and a surface crack that runs from the tone to volume pot. In my first review I said that the "finish looks like it will last a thousand years". This is NOT TRUE. It's not as deep as it looks.

They hooked me up with a Warranty place. I decided against taking it there.

Just keep in mind its shortcomings

This Guitar Here was made in some other country and not hand made in the Great City of the United States. It has many frets that play very smooth.its a solid body guitar. Very thin compaired to most epiphones or gibsons. Thsi has 4 knobs that do somthing with the volume and tone. It has cery nice chrom pickups. Its an all black guitar with chrome very sweet guitar palys like a dream or a guitar whatever you prefer.

This guitar fits my gigging needs I'm in a band "Shvantz" We mostly play "Iron Man". My neighbors sayu i practice very hard and need to work harder at it if i want to be like Fred Koechendorpher. This guitar is very noisy when plugged into an amp. This guitar mkaes sound sliek a guitar nice sweet tone. I reall y liek this guiatr alot. It makes me look kool.

I was not present when this guiatr was set up but its plays perfect just like a gibson which really awsome. The humbuckers are awsome. No flwas in this guitar that ive found soo fare but i'l keepo looking.

I've hit this guitar against lots of things and it still plays awasomi think it help sto hti it a few times

Great suport of the customer i bought it i should know.

over al this guitar is perfect in eveyway i would never get rid of it unless it broke.

2001 Epiphone Les Paul Studio. Heritage Cherry Sunburst Finish. Most people know the features, but I'll list a few:
-22 frets
-2 "Gibson-Designed" Humbucking Pickups
-2 volume knobs, 2 tone knobs (ugly see-thru plastic)
-Tune-O-Matic Bridge w/ Stopbar Tailpiece
-Non-locking tuners w/ pukey green plastic knobs

My music style includes Classic Rock (The Doors, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd), Hard Rock (Van Halen, Guns N' Roses) and some Grunge (Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots). This guitar is extremely versatile. The stock humbuckers provide good tonal range. I'm currently plugging it into a 120 Watt Crate GFX-212T. My advice is to use this guitar with at least a valve-state or tube amp.
The pickups don't give feedback and are not microphonic. They offer low to high end tone, but lower-end comes more naturally. As with most humbuckers, tones are warm and full. The sound can get muddy if you use ther wrong settings. DON'T ALWAYS SET THE GUITAR TO 10! They give you those controls for a reason. I like to mix the pickups, set volume to about 5 on the treble and 6 on the rhythm. Tone control knobs should also be used to get a variety of sounds.

Factory set-up was pretty good, but i managed to screw up the intonation on the first day...be warned, when you try to change strings, the bridge can fall off! The pickups were quite low, so I had them raised about mid-way. The woodwork was very good, and I could not spot any flaws on the body.
As far as faults, I must report the usual one--the 3-way switch. After two weeks, it started acting up, and now, at 5 months, i really have to spend time to get it working again. Often simply switching back and forth really fast will fix it, but I advise you to take it to a luthier and have them deal with it. And oh yea, the tone pot for the rhythm pickup crackles sometimes when i turn it.

This guitar is my only electric, and I plan to stay that way until i really NEED to upgrade. It will definitely do live playing, but make sure that your 3-way switch is clean before going to a concert! The hardware is still in perfect condition, and the finish looks like it will last a thousand years. The strap buttons look solid, but you should put strap retainers on any guitar you care about (i recommend the Dunlop LokStrap system...about 5 bucks at any guitar store). I would gig without a backup simply because i can't afford one! Even if I had another guitar, this guitar has so far not given me any reason to doubt it's abilities.

AS of yet, no need to contact customer support, but I hear good things about them. But don't be stupid! Send in your warranty card!

I've been playing 6 months and so far this guitar has answered my every need. It it was stolen, I'd go to work on the fool with a pair of plies and a blowtorch. I have to say that i probably would opt for a Gibson model, but that's just me.
I think it would be more likely that i would have modifications done to this, like maybe switching out the tuners for nicer-looking Grovers, or putting in Gibson '57 Classic pickups (oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh...).
My friend has an Epi G-400 Custom and I played it for a while before I bought this. The SG has more of an AC/DC style crunch than the Les Paul, but I prefer the more mellow lows and highs of this guitar. It is superb for playing rhythm for ANY kind of music.
I would just like to respond to the poor soul who posted before about not changing the pickups and all...Obviously he doesn't own and instrument, doesn't know much about playing one, and thinks that buying expensive equipment makes him a better musician. If you sound like sh*t, then you'll sound like sh*t on any instrument! If you are a decent musician looking for a plethora of new tones, then buy this guitar. You will not be disappointed.

I like this kind of guitar, the sound is very good,the neck is good for my music, the humb, have a greet heavy and soft sound, and I like so much the guitar design.

In general i play hard-rock, (Led zeppelin,deep purple,pink floyd,guns n' roses,van hallen),I have mashall amp.
The sound is GOOOODDD

GOOD GOOD VERY GOOD

I don't have any problem

I like all ephiphone guitars

This review is merely a commentary to other reviews. Lots of people say to replace the pickups. HEL-lo! that creates a TOTALLY DIFFERENT GUITAR!!! Buy a sh*tty fender if you want a fender sound. Don't destroy a work of art like a Les Paul. Sure, the epiphone is a copy, but it's the love that counts...your love for the guitar. Personally i love Led Zeppplen (Jimmy Page is the greatest guitarist of all time, f--k off Metallica), and nothing emulates Zeppelin like a Les Paul. I can't afford a gibby, so this is a good choice for me. And i am told epiphone is more consistent than gibson. Say and think what you want, cheapo fender lovers, but i will always hold this guitar in high esteem!

Beautiful Heritage Cherry Sunburst

Copy of the greatest guitar of all time