Epiphone Les Paul Studio

I bought this guitar as a used demo. It was a demo for the new Gibson-Designed pickups that now come with Epiphone Les Pauls. Therefore it came virtually new. Made in Korea, It has a Blackburst Carved Mahogany top with black hardware. It sports a rosewood fingerboard, 22-fret neck with trapezoid inlays, and, of course, h/h pickups. It had the standard tuners, which look rather chintzy, what with the plastic handles and all. It had the tune-o-matic bridge, and didn't come with any case or anything.

I play rock/classic rock/blues, and the warm tone suits me great. I play with a Crate 30 Watt and a whole range of Boss/DOD effects including OD/Distortion, Stereo Chorus, Reverb/Delay, Compression, and Phase. It's got a very clean tone, and the new Gibson pickups really rock. The neck pickup is full and warm, and puts out a lot of volume. It hit the spot for my lead sections. Also, I'm not normally a bridge pickup person, but this one really sounds nice and warm without being too brassy.

This guitar has an awesome low action, nice and easy to play without buzzing (ever). The neck is nice and small in one's hand, and the frets are clean and make pulloffs a joy to perform. The fit from the factory is really good, I got it in great working order. Only two gripes, 1. The switch for the pickups was torqued and pointed "Rhythm" when you had it on "Treble". 2. The pickguard was not attached properly, but wasn't broken. The finish was beautiful.

The hardware on this guitar is pretty solid. I've only played live once or twice, each time without a backup, and this guitar seems more reliable than the one I used then. The strap buttons don't look all that big, but they won't go ripping off. . . . The finish is nice. . . it came from a music store as a demo, so every schmuck in there was picking it up and acting like a rock star with it, so it's in excellent condition, especially given the abuse it's no doubt seen.

Never dealt with the company.

I've been playing for 5 yearrs, and I've played many guitars, but I knew I had to get my hands on a Les Paul. No musical career is complete without one. Since I have a LOW budget, I found the Epiphone to be satisfying, great sounding, reliable and easy to play. While it doesn't have the perfection of a Gibson work of art, it is still a fin

2000 model, 2 humbuckers, transparent black maple flame top, tune-o-matic bridge, chrome epi tuners. the green 'glow-in-the-dark' plastic gibson tuners werent appealing to me, so i found one with standard chrome epi tuners.

i havent played that many electric guitars, i bought this guitar for its looks and its reputation. i plug in to a digitech rp100 processor and i create any sound i want.
the 3-way switch is scratchy and will cut out. it needs to be replaced with a better design or better manufacture.

acrylic or nitro finish was perfect. i was impressed on the workmanship of the abalone inlays. the flame top has a perfect crossover grain. the look and finish of this guitar is good for the heart and soul.

i would play it in the subway without a backup because im not schlepping another rig down there! hardware seems solid; i would expect the 3-way switch to fail at any moment. i think you should get a locking strap for any guitar you care about.

im not sure why i would call them or what they could do for me. if they could send me a new 3way switch, i suppose it would be worth a call. otherwise, like most things, i expect to pay for any improvements or modifications that i make.

i have an old epiphone accoustic (japan) that i learned to play on. it was the quality of that instrument that led me to purchase another epiphone. my friends play epiphones as well and i respect their judgement.
if it was stolen, i would be upset and probably throw my insurance money toward the purchase of a used gibson les paul just to see what all the fuss is about. i expect that the epiphone would provide greater satisfaction per dollar than the gibson.
i keep it on a stand in my living room. when i play it, it is a joy for me to hear, and when im not playing it, it is a nice piece of artwork.

*It was made in 1998, i believe it was assembled and setup in the USA with foreign parts.
*Has 22 frets
*laminated top
*2 volume 2 tone, 3 way selector Rhythm, Treble, Both
*2 Humbuckers
*Gibson pickups stock (however, review will be based on performance with DUNCAN JB pickup in bridge)
*Passive electronics
*Mahogany neck, Mahogany/alder body and top, rosewood fretboard
*Ebony finish(glossy, mirror like luster)
*single cutaway les paul
*stop tailpiece
*les paul tuners green color
*rosewood fretboard with medium sized neck (i've felt thinner and thicker)
*Came with hard case

It suits my musical style, well i think i built my musical style around it. It gives a jazzy style in rhythm section, which sounds very "slash" from guns 'n roses, replicates sweet child of mine exactly. Treble setting with my JB pickups sounds like Fuel, in the song hemorage. I use it with a valvestate 65 and jcm 900 from marshall. SOunds great through any amp though, never heard it sound bad through anything, even hooked it up to the car with a cd player car kit and a 1/8 to 1/4 adapter. I use boss stereo chorus, dunlop crybaby, and an art levelar. back to the guitar, It gives a dreamy feel in distortion like deftones but with a more organic sound. Its great for old school rock 'n roll. Different strings give you significant differences in sound. GHS give you a less organic sound, ernie ball are great for blues. The sound is as thick as gibson but lacking the roughness, has a dream-like sound in distortion. Has a rich full sound. You can do pretty much any music with it because of its wood combination it sounds like the cross between the fender strat(lacking its full twang) and the gibson les paul. Only draw back its not extremely good at sounding like a gibson or fender, but has the trademark epiphone sound like that of the beatles at times.

The action came great. Felt like i was playing air guitar. Pickups, i didn't like too much, they were what made the guitar short of professional, the duncan's i have now make it sound what it was trying to sound like. Had no flaws though, and the paint looks as though the whole guitar is composed of it.

Its great, beat the crap out of it and it sounds even better. The hardware will last for years but the pickguard and the selector switch plastic cover fell apart. But with the removed pickguard and new selector switch cover(69 cents), it was very solid. The finish makes it seem like its not made of wood, very well done paint job, you can see yourself in it even with hadprints. Strap buttons are very solid. I can truly depend on it, but would use a backup of the same kind when i put it out of tune, which takes a while but it happens. I gave an 8 because of the pickguard and the selector switch cover, but everything else was great.

lifetime warranty

I've been playing it for 3 years, sounds great. If i went pro, i'd keep it, wouldn't trade it for any gibson, prs, or anything, maybe another epiphone, but i'd use it to add to my sounds, because it doesn't fall short of anything. I'll hang on to it for a long long time.

I've had this guitar for 2 years now and I love it. 22 averagely sized frets, with a nice action on the rosewood fretboard. Normal sized neck width, & smallish gage. I can achieve all the sounds I want with the 3-way selector switch and amp tigether, from clean and bassy, to wildly overdriven with lots of treble. Incorporates two fairly powerful humbucker pickups, which look traditionally placed against the Les Paul single cutaway body shape. Great black finish on the guitar makes it look like a Les Paul Custom (wish it was)! With the guitar I was given a free gig bag, spare set of strings, lead, and pitch pipes.

I tend to play mostly clean music such as Stereophonics, Travis, Coldplay, etc, so the clean sound outputted is very clear and sharp. I had a fairly tight budget so I could only afford to buy a 15W Watson XR15 amp to go with this classy instrument, though my amp does the job well, and I can achieve a respectable range of sounds. I have to say the overdrive is very good, & the humbucker pickups work well with them as they're quite powerful. Fairly noisy with the overdriven setting, though I like noisy stuff :) Like it lots.

The guitar seems to be set up pretty well... only my pickup selector switch casing broke off after about a month, so I had to buy a new one. The top; yes, properly bookmatched, and the brodge looks fine. There was only a very small, hardly noticeable scratch on the back of the body near the jack. The rest of the guitar looked fine, very well manufactured.

Yes the guitar will stand live playing, I've played in a few pubs and stuff with it, and it sure does withstand live playing. Everlasting hardware! The finish is very durable and strong also. Solid strap buttons, and yes I can definitely depend on it. At one time I didn't tune it for a week and it still stayed in tune. It's a great instrument.

I've never had to deal with Epiphone, though I understand that the warranty is very good.

I've been playing the guitar nearly 4 years, and I bought this guitar 2 years ago. If I was to go back to the shop where I got it from, I wish I had asked about other guitars available aswell, though I had my mind set on a Les Paul! But I'm very happy with it. I love the way the guitar visually looks, as it's got a black body, and a black scrathplate, black headstock, so it looks mean and powerful because of this. I also love it because it's so easy to play, the fretboard is so smooth. I'm thinking about getting a guitar pedal or maybe an FX unit in the future so that I can achieve an even bigger variety of sounds. I'd never sell this instrument cos I love it!

Korean Built, 22 frets, "honey-sunburst" finish, 3 way selector, H/H config (passive pickups) Tune-o-matic bridge, truss rod key included.

Pickups were a bit noisy, not the same quality of sound that you get from a proper gibbo LP, middle switch setting sounded rubbish (very low volume)

The angle the neck meets the body is totally wrong, the tune-o-matic had to racked right up to avoid fret buzz. The bridge was fairly poor, the high E string kept breaking at the bridge, and I had to get the saddle fixed to stop this.

This guitar would not withstand live playing, the pickups are very tempremental (which led to a very stressful recording session, where the pickups would cut out halfway through a take).

Got it fixed by a friend.

This was the first electric I ever got, and it more or less sucks. I wouldn't buy one again. If you want a Les Paul, then save your money up and get a proper Gibson one.

Made in 2000, 22 jumbo frets and all the other features normal for a LP copy. 3 piece mahogany body with alder laminated quilted top. black polyurethane finish. headstock is different from the original LP, it doesn't have the opened book looks. body shape is also slightly different because it doesn't fit into an LP case....and that although epi is a gibsons company - i expect better than that!

as i started to play only a year ago and this was my first guitar, i cannot really say if it suits my music style... but the sound coming from the epi hb's was muddy from the beginning, so i immediately replaced them with gibson's 57 classics (classic plus on bridge). that improved the sound markedly to nice full and warm sounds from the neck pu and brighter, sharper sounds from the neck pu. i used it first through a crate 15w practice amp, but replaced that later with a marshall jtm 60, which also helped a lot to make the sound more brilliant. i guess the variety of sounds you can produce with this guitar is average, just les paul type, though not screaming or really singing.

the setup was ok, i adjusted the pu's to the highest possible position, but that's just my liking. no real flaws were to be seen, only, compared to my tokai LP copy, the fretboard is very rough and not half as nicely finished. moreover, i definitely totally disliked the size of the frets; they are so high that it's almost impossible not to inadvertently alter the tone-pitch, especially on the bass-strings. i found it very hard to place my fingers softly enough on the strings not to produce a bending.
the g-string resonated with one of the tuners - annoying! the tuners actually did not keep the guitar in tune for a time longer than half a day - and that without location and or temperature changes!
the overall finish was ok for a beginner's guitar in the 400US$ price range, only when i exchanged the pu's i noticed that the neck pu hole was not painted with black isolating paint as were the electronics hole and that of the bridge pu. i wonder why?

finish seems to be tough enough, hardware except for the tuners, too. since i don't have live experience, i cannot comment on the other topics.

no need to deal with customer support

no, i wouldn't buy that one again; in fact, i try to sell it just now. actually, i bought it because i desperately wanted to start playing guitar and didn't want to wait any longer. this guitar was in my price range and i liked the looks of it, although, had i had the choice, i immediately would have gone for goldtop or a violin burst. after half a year, i came across a fernandes super grade and was amazed at how perfect it was in all aspects. i dug into that and a little later bought a new tokai love rock, and since i own that, i see how much difference there can be between guitars - totally amazing! the guitar stays in tune, has a wonderful fretboard with medium frets, a very bright sound that was only improved by putting the 57's in, and looks simply wonderful with its violin burst finish. i cannot imagine a real gibson to be any better in any aspect.
but back to the epi lp: i think that for the price paid it is a slightly sub-average guitar, good only for beginners or people who don't have that much money. but even then, it should be possible to find something better than that - a s/h fernandes or tokai for example. maybe i just had the bad luck to pick an axe from a bad series, so my review reflects only the quality of this particular guitar.

I believe mine was produced in 1998. It has all the Les Paul essentials. 22 frets, 4 control knobs (two volume and two tone), 3 way selector switch. It has dual humbuckers (not really sure of the exact type), but they have nickel plated covers. Mohagany body, rosewood fretboard- super glossy finish on top of ebony. Hard tail bridge and non-locking vintage style tuners. The gear ratio on the tuners seems to be around 6:1. The neck is solid and seems to be just the right size for an average-sized hand. This guitar normally comes with a gig bag.

This guitar can mimick all the sounds that I need it to. I play from light rock to heavy metal. I use it with a Marshall Valvestate VS65R and they make a great combination. The humbuckers are very quiet. When I play clean I get a great brilliance that is hard to get out of a Humbucker guitar. And when I play overdriven/distorted I can crunch like Godsmack, and Rage. This guitar seems to be designed to reproduce that AC/DC sound as well as Led Zepplin. If you like blues rock (like I do) you'll really appreciate this guitar.

I didn't have any problems at all with the guitar. I didn't have to make any adjustments or waste any time. It was all plug and play. What I really love about this axe is the finish- the ebony with clear coat looks incredible on stage. I couldn't tell if the lady fans were staring at me or my guitar. :) I did decide to go with better tuners after a few weeks. The origionals are a bit lacking when it comes to staying in tune and they just didn't look as good as my new Schallers that I have installed.

This guitar will easily withstand live playing. The hardware is very reliable and I use this as my main guitar. It has fallen from my shoulder strap and I was able to pick it right back up and play without even thinking about it. The finsh seems to be scratch-resistant- though it doesn't say that anywhere. I depend on this guitar and would easily use it in a gig without a backup.

Never had to deal with Epiphone- I understand they have a lifetime warranty in case I ever do.

I have been playing for a couple years now and I have had a chance to get my dirty hands on just about everything out there. This guitar feels so good when you play. I like the fact that the Studio is a lighter weight Les Paul since I normally play for about 4 hours at a time everyday. I got a great deal when I purchased this guitar. I know that if it were stolen- I'd send out a search party and buy two more. I was going to buy the Gibson origional version of this guitar, but when I played this one I decided to get it right away. The only thing I didn't quite like was the tuners, but I expected to change out a whole lot more of this guitar when I bought it. I never find factory tuners to be that great so I don't consider that a factor. I would just like to say that Epiphone did a great job in reproducing a legendary guitar. For the price, this guitar has incredible value.

This is a fairly standard guitar as far as features go, separate volume and tone controls for each humbucker, three way pickup selector, Tune O Matic bridge, Neck and Bridge pickups (Epiphone). I've been told that the wood used is similar to that used in the Gibson LPs, but Korean instead of American. As I said, there aren't too many features on this guitar, but I found it had everything I needed for a first guitar. I think that having separate controls for each pickup was particularly good in terms of versatility.

I play all kinds of music, when I bought this guitar I was into AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Guns n Roses, so a Les Paul was a pretty obvious choice. At the moment I'm listening to (and playing) alot of chili peppers and Hendrix, so I think my next guitar will be a Strat. But anyways back to the review, I've played this guitar through alot of amps, I own a small axetech amp with a mid frequency boost which I use pretty much all the time. I've also played through Pro Amps (not a good choice), a Marshall JCM 2000, a Fender Princeton, and various Peavey Amps. Out of all of these, I would have to say that this guitar responded best to the Marshall.

I love the rhythm channel on this guitar, just roll the tone right back and you have the smoothest, mellow sound. In my opinion that's where this guitat kicks the hardest, just getting a really fat bluesy sound. Although that's not all it can do, it's really easy to dial into a good sound for pretty much any style you want...within reason!

Here is where we get into the not so good stuff. I've found that one string buzzes sometimes when it's open, and having replaced the string multiple times, had the bridge checked etc I can only guess that it's a problem with some loose hardware somewhere in the head.

I've also had problems with tuning, the machine heads don't really stand up well to my style of playing which involves alot of bending. The pickup selector was poorly wired, although this problem was easily fixed. The saddle in the top E also had a barb in it which meant that if any stress was put on the the strings (ie bending) caused them to snap quite easily. Once again an easily fixed problem.

I'm not overly happy with the way the guitar frets in the upper strings, it seems to be a question of sacrificing tone for action, and the frets seem to be alot closer together than they are on more expensive guitars such as Strats and Gibsons. I know, what do you expect from a cheap first guitar, but hey I'm just pointing out the facts.

Well, as I've mentioned before the guitar has problems with tuning at times, which means I wouldn't gig with it if I had another option. Because I don't have another option I've just gotta make sure I check the tuning as often as possible. The electronics are reliable, I've heard of guitars that get temprementle, but I've never had a problem.

Everything about it is pretty fucking solid, I've abused it enough to know! I'd gig without a backup if it weren't for the cheap machine heads....

Never dealt with the company, no idea about warranty. I've paid for all the repairs I've had done.

I've been playing for a year and a half now, and this is the only guitar I've owned. Before I bought this guitar I played a few other cheap pieces of junk, but for the pric range this one blew them all away. If it were stolen I'd find the motherfucker and beat them to death with it. This guitar has kinda grown on me, despite all the faults I've mentioned I still love this guitar and I reckon it's the best in it's class.

I think it was made in Korea, but assembled in the US

It has a nice vintage tone but better if if you swith pickups, I recommend Seymours.

Nice color better than standard

Not very well

It has an online warranty

I've been playin it for half year now

A limited edition les paul studio copy, set neck, typical les paul electronics and controls. but you could tell by the weight that this is not a les paul, much lighter.

As it came the sound was good for a les paul copy, not quite the amout of crunch or sustain, but better than most copys i have tried with the exception of the takoi, but ten they are almost as much used as a real les paul. After owning it for a few months i installed vintage pickups from a 72 Vee, this addition brought so close to my frinds real studio that you could not tell the difference. So there it is, if you want to make this copy as close to the real studio as you can, find some vintage pickups! the rating is for the before pickup mod, i would give it a 9.5 after!

action was ok for a copy, had to adjust the neck some, file the nut, lower the bridge, still could never get it quite as nice as my friends real studio, but very, very close!...I give it an 8 as it came from the factory.

Epiphone makes probubly the most solid copy of the real thing, very well put together! the only problem i had was a weak output socket, put in an after market and it was fine!

A great company, called them for a new switch cap, mine was missing, and thought i had a problem switch but turned out to be a loose wire, they still sent me both free of charge!

for the price you cannot get a better copy of a real les paul, but it is still a copy, you can get the sound close to the real thing but it will never feel like the real thing, but then alot of us cannot afford the real thing. I no onger have this guitar but not because i didn't like it, if i had a real les paul i probubly would of sold it also, I wanted one guitar that covered more ground, settled on an ASAT Deluxe, read my opinion on this guitar!