Would have given a 10 if there was a mini-switch to go from nanomag to magnetics.
Sound
:10
This is where my review will differ from many of the others. I'll start with the magnetic pickups, they sound like an Epihpone Les Paul, if thats not the sound you looking for don't buy this guitar or change the pickups. I have three other Epiphone Les Pauls all modified a little differently. I have Les Paul Custom Black Beauty with Seymour Duncans (Jazz, JB, and Classic 59), a Les Paul Classic with S-D Phat Cats in it, a Les Paul Classic 12 string, and now the Ultra-II. If you can not get great sounds out of this guitar you are not trying. It has been a long quest for me to find an electric guitar with near acoustic capabilities.
My quest started with a Peavey EXP with a Fishman - moved on. Then I tried a Schecter C-1 E/A, close, but not there yet. Then I installed a ghost on a Dillion DRS500, closer, but not there. Then I bought an Epiphone Chet Atkins (changed out tone capacitors - usable, then the Ultra-II and I am there!! I play through a Marshall Combo (AVT-250) and can make this guitar sound just like a plugged in acoustic/electric hollow-body. Then with the roll of some knobs - the classic Les Paul sound, or blend to your taste for other great tones.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:10
Ordered mine from Musician's Friend and it plays and looked great right out of the box. I have not touched a thing. I have given it a very close inspection and find no finish flaws or workmanship issues. I got the midnight black quilt - it is beautiful.
So of the reviews state this guitar is made in China. Mine was not it was made in the Unsung Plant in Korea.
Reliability/Durability
:10
I see no reason that this guitar will not be as tough as all my other Epiphones.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
Been playing for over 35+ years, doing my current style of music (Classic Rock and occassionally some Country), with the same band for 14 years....gig after gig they hold up. Never needed Customer Support.
Overall Rating
:10
This is a great guitar. It sounds good, lighter than a standard LP, unlimited sounds, and very aatractive.
Product: Epiphone Les Paul Ultra-II Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 05/28/2008
at 10:26pm
by JazzCaster
Features
:7
Made in China in 2008. Fake foto-flame top is actually a thin piece of cardboard, not real wood. The rest is plywood, except for the neck which is 3 piece breakable mahogany. The nano mag is built into the neck.
Sound
:3
Magnetic pups sound very weak and muddy when distorted, harsh when cranked. The nano-mag sounds exactly like a piezo to me. Even with the bass and treble controls, I could not get a good sound out of it. The nano-mag controls are hard to use, you have to flip the guitar over every time you make an adjustment, which is a major pain in the ars. There should be a toggle switch like the Fishman Powerchip uses. It sounds like crap using an acoustic amp without some additional EQ, like 7 bands, to tame the harshness.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:5
Action on mine was high, I don't really care about the rest if it doesn't sound good. Fake flame top is going to bring the resale value way down for sure. Epiphone pups are about as low quality as they come.
Reliability/Durability
:3
The gold hardware on mine was already starting to get tarnished. Be aware of this if you keep your guitars a long time. Epiphone switches, pickups, jacks, and controls would all be replaced if I had kept it.
Customer Support
:7
Gibson is a good company to deal with in my experience.
Overall Rating
:3
I have been playing 40 years and hate this guitar. I traded it in (+ about $100 cash) for a Gibson Les Paul Vintage Worn and couldn't be happier. Better pups, hardware, electronics, finish, case, and overall quality. The biggest differnce being the overall tone. I will stick a Fishman on my LP soon and have the best of both worlds.
Product: Epiphone Les Paul Ultra-II Price Paid: USD 699
Submitted 05/23/2008
at 03:09pm
by Redneck Guitarist
Features
:10
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II, 2008, Korea, 22 frets, Chambered Mohogany top, Quilted finish, Master Volume, Bridge, Pickup Volume, Neck Pickup Volume, Nan-Mag Pickup Volume, 2 Alnico Classic Humbuckers and a Nano-mag, Active & Passive (hybrid guitar), Tune-O-matic bridge, Rosewood, Arrived stringed with a Hex wrench for the neck adjustment.
Sound
:10
This Axe is stuck to my hands, it won't come off. Excellent tone for Blues, Jazz, Country, Rock, Acoustic. Rigged up with a Crate DXJ-112 for stage and studio work.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:10
I did have to re-string and set-up for my personal taste but that happens with every new guitar that I get, otherwise I love this instrument.
Reliability/Durability
:10
Yes, this guitar is great for stage work, light, agile, attractive. The Gold plated H/W will probabbly rub off with my handling but I can depend on it to perform and I never Gig without a Backup, I'm not stupid.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
I have owned many Epiphones and I've never interfaced with Epiphone on any instrument. They are fine instruments for a working guitarist. Limited Warranty blahh blahh.
Overall Rating
:10
Playing 41 years, 25+ professionally. I gig with a Mexican Stratocaster, a Japanese TSB-550 AriaPro Bass, Epiphone PR100. This instrument is comparable (even better) than the Gibson LP's. I great instrument and a reasonable price.
Product: Epiphone Les Paul Ultra-II Price Paid: USD 699.00
Submitted 03/25/2008
at 03:55pm
by WhiteOp
Features
:10
2008 Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II with nanomag pickup in faded Cherry Sunburst with gold hardware
Body: Mahogany, Strategically Chambered
Top: Quilted Maple
Neck: Mahogany
Neck Profile: SlimTaper, Satin Finish
Neck Joint: Glued-In
Truss Rod: Double-Action, 2-way
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Fingerboard Radius: 12
Frets: 22, Medium Jumbo
Scale Length: 24-3/4
Nut Width: 1.65
Neck Pickup: Alnico Classic
NanoMag Low-Impedance
Bridge Pickup: Alnico Classic Plus
Bridge: LockTone Tune-o-matic
Tailpiece: LockTone Stopbar
Front Controls: Neck Humbucker Master Volume
Bridge Humbucker Master Volume
Master Tone
NanoMAG Master Volume
3-way Toggle (Humbuckers)
The Alnico Classic pickups have a very surpising warm tone with a nasty bite when needed and are good for just about every type of music except metal. The Nanomag pickup is embedded in the 23rd fret and disquised very well. You can use the humbuckers or Nanomag pickup by themselves or mix them which supplies a very nice almost "Strat" sound at times or get a very good Acoustic sound with good body. If you use the humbuckers by themselves it sounds just like a Gibson Les Paul IMO. This makes the Ultra II stand out from the crowd and will probably become a regular feature in some new models to come in the Gibson models.
The only grip I have is that they should have put in a toggle switch to change from the humbuckers to the Nanomag because you have to turn the volume knobs up and down for each pickup to turn one or the other "off".
Action, Fit, & Finish
:8
The guitar was set up very well when received. String height, action, and intonation were pretty much right on.
The only thing I didn't like which is minimal was the neck which isn't finished, just stained, however, this does allow you to slide up and down the neck much faster so it is a plus; the minus is that the finish might wear off later.
Reliability/Durability
:9
Built as good as most Gibson Les Pauls I've played; just doesn't have as fancy an inlay. The body is definitely a little lighter than a regular Gibson LP but is still very solid and well made. The wood resonates well and you can get good sustain and tone.
You could gig with this guitar every night, no problem. Just keep your hands off the gold hardware or the finish might wear off. They need to come out with a model with chrome hardware.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
No experience with Epiphone customer support.
Overall Rating
:10
I give this guitar a solid 9 and I have been playing for 30 + years now and have owned and played a lot of Gibsons, Fenders, Ibanez, and Epiphones. The tone is very warm and the sustain is just as good as any other Gibsons I've played. They need to offer the guitar in other finishes with chrome hardware. If they do they will sell a bucketload of them.
I wish it had a toggle switch to isolate the Nanomag from the humbuckers instead of having to use the volume controls. I could probably wire one in myself but don't want to yet.
If someone stole this guitar, I'd have bury him in the sand near some fire ant mounds then pour sugar all over his head...while I play on my recovered guitar sitting right next to him...lol
Product: Epiphone Les Paul Ultra-II Price Paid: Canadian 660
Submitted 03/09/2008
at 06:08pm
by Bearister
Email: bearister1 at gmail<dot>com
Features
:9
Just purchased (March 2008). Must have been made within the last year or so.
This model is an elaboration/refinement of the Les Paul Ultra reviewed elsewhere in detail on this site. The main change the Ultra made to the Les Paul design was a hollow routed "chamber" below the maple top, giving it a more semi-hollow body sound, which it definitely does. The Ultra 2's main difference from the Ultra is the addition of a 'Nano-mag' pickup located just south of the 22nd pickup, literally 'in' the fingerboard. This is an active pickup, powered by its own 9v power supply and with a separate set of gain/bass/treble controls built into the rear of the guitar. There is also a master volume control for this pickup on the front of the guitar. Finally, there is a choice of outputs: Either through a single 1/4 inch output for all pickups, or separately for the "standard" pickups (through one jack) and the Nano-mag output through a separate jack, for stereo output.
The "normal" pickups seem to be the classic "standard" Alnico Les Paul Humbuckers, with separate volume controls. The control setup differs from a normal LP in that there is a single 'master' tone control for the humbuckers, one of the tone controls having been 'replaced' by the master volume for the Nano-mag.
I'll be blunt: I bought this guitar MOSTLY because of the available Nano-mag. I've owned several 'real' LP's in the past and played plenty of others. I've always found it kind of a limited guitar for my purposes.
My guitar had a "Made in Korea" sticker, which surprised me because I thought they were being made in China. I had to root around to find one in my neck of the woods and was told that new shipments were not expected until late this summer into Canada, perhaps indicating that manufacturing is being shifted elsewhere. The serial number prefix is 'U', suggesting this was not made in the Samick factory where my Epiphone Joe Pass model was built.
Just a short comment on the body/material/construction front: The body on my guitar is laminated from at least 4 pieces of mahogany, with a faux flamed maple top. The 4 piece lamination of the mahogany is obvious, but the top APPEARS to be a single piece. Now, don't be fooled, that is not a 'real' flamed maple top - it's some sort of decal or photo trick below the finish.
Does not come with a case for purchase price. Budget another $90 or so.
Sound
:9
I LOVE the variety of sounds this guitar is capable of. The Nano-mag adds a dimension that is just wonderful. It's aimed at capturing the "acoustic" features of the string vibration at a harmonically-rich location on the guitar. It does this in spades. Now, you won't be able to replicate the sound of your Larrivee acoustic, but that shouldn't be a big surprise. I know I will end up using the Nano-mag output alone a lot of the time. In some respects, the sound can be made to be somewhat 'Strat-like' (I know, sacrilege).
Rating only takes off a point because "perfect" would include some sort of 'out of phase' available combination.
The fact that you can mix in as much or little of the Nano-mag pickup output as you want into the output mix is what will give this guitar a dimension of versatility that few elecric guitars (at least without complicated on-board electronics) can match.
I read a review of the Ultra (1) model that suggests the hollowed-out body gives it a somewhat "wooly" sound. The reviewer used that term as a negative connotation. To my ear, I LIKE the wooly sound of semi-hollow guitars. This guitar will likely overtake "most frequent" use status from my 1983 Ibanez AM-50 which has a similar sort of sound.
Although I play almost exclusively without effects, through an old Roland Bolt-60 tube amp, I've found a LOT of great sounds available from this guitar - everything from sizeable crunch to delicate, airy sounds (with lots of Nano-mag, to be sure).
Pickup output is medium. My AM-50 definitely has it over this guitar for straight output, but that's why we have volume controls on amps and the option to add amplification. In my case, I can see using this guitar with both my amps - the Roland and a Fender Acoustasonic Junior (in stereo).
In all pickup configurations, the LPU is very quiet, pretty much par for humbucker guitars (at least, in my experience).
Action, Fit, & Finish
:8
Ok, here's the first nitpick - My guitar came in the "faded cherry" finish - glossy red back overlapping the front gold/orange (faux) flamed maple front, but with a totally cheesy red satin finish on the back of the neck and the headstock. The satin finish feels and plays fine, but looks like like a bad barn-painting job. To have finished it in a gloss finish would have completed an otherwise very classy look.
The guitar is available in a 'Midnight ebony' colour that is more restrained and perhaps solves the criticism of the red satin finish job. If I had the option, I would have taken it in that colour.
My guitar came with an outrageously high, weirdly-tilted action that took about 2 minutes to fix and re-tune the guitar. Otherwise, the fit and finish were both really good. Neck ruler-straight. Frets EXTREMELY nicely finished (unlike a number of other reviewers of the Ultra model found).
The gold-plating on the hardware (which I would do without, if given the choice) SEEMS of reasonable quality. But, so did the plating finish on my Epi Joe Pass. It was not to be. But let's be fair, this guitar cost me $660 (Canadian). Given the gold/orange/red paint scheme of the overall guitar, the gold hardware does look good (at least for now).
Rating is discounted purely on the paint comment, but keeping in mind this is a substantially sub-$1000 guitar. Other than the paint, NO "eyesore" problems.
Finish on the Grover tuners appears to be particularly good. Odd, but welcome.
Reliability/Durability
:No Opinion
Time will tell on the gold hardware. Otherwise, a guitar, like any other piece of equipment, will treat you like you treat it. It's going to be less finicky than my Larrivees (humidity).
Because there were no obvious setup, performance or warranty flaws, I'm happy with it, but won't speculate further.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
Oddly, the warranty is ONLY 1 year (not "lifetime" or "limited lifetime") - maybe that's a Canadian quirk.
Otherwise, No experience/no comment
Overall Rating
:9
Been playing 30+ years. Own 14 instruments currently (2 resonators; 6 acoustics; 5 electrics; 1 electric bass). Have owned somewhere between 25 and 40 'other' instruments previously. Am in the process of culling the herd somewhat for practicality alone.
The LPU2 has the potential to become my '90% of the time' (electric)guitar. A couple of features I didn't mention above, but which deserve comment are a contour cutaway in the body and noticeably lighter weight, compared to a normal LP guitar. Nice.
I would have given it a '10' if they finished the back of the body and the neck/headstock in a solid/glossy finish.
Like I said before, the Nano-mag pickup gives this guitar a dimension that is worth far more than the amount it adds to the purchase price - about $100 - $150. Peanuts.
I WOULD replace this guitar in a heart beat, BUT, I'd make sure I saw the actual guitar I was getting, given some of the quality control problems I've read about and the fact that production may be in the process of being moved somewhere else.
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