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Hatsubai « Close but still not a true Custom »
Published on 07/01/11 at 20:08The Epiphone Les Paul Custom is, without a doubt, the most popular guitars that Epiphone has in their lineup. The guitar features a mahogany body with a mahogany neck, gold hardware, 24.75'' scale length, carved maple top, optional pickguard, rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, tune-o-matic bridge, binding, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
I might as well start complaining now. The biggest thing I hate about this guitar is the fact that it has no ebony. The Les Paul Custom should come with ebony, yet this one comes with rosewood. It's really no different from any other Les Paul if it has a rosewood board. The nut wasn't too bad on this, thankfully. However, the frets were a bit iffy. They weren't perfectly level, and you could tell that once you start lowering the action. They could have been crowned a bit better. Upper fret access sucks, just like every other Les Paul out there, but you learn to deal with it.
SOUNDS
This one had some EMGs swapped in it, so I'll be going by those in this review. The guitar had an EMG 81 in the bridge, and it ripped. However, the guitar itself was fairly bright, and I think the 81 wasn't a great match in the bridge. Considering that it's an all mahogany body, that's a bit surprising, but it happens sometimes. There are just certain woods that sound brighter than others, and this was one of them. The EMG 85 in the neck was just about perfect, however. It was warm and fat, but it also had some slight cut going on thanks to the naturally bright sounding mahogany going on.
OVERALL OPINION
In my opinion, Epiphone kinda dropped the ball with this. While it looks like a Custom, it doesn't have the ebony board. That's a huge minus for me. On top of that, this guitar was a bit bright sounding, so it didn't sound like a normal Custom does. Be sure to test out a few and get one that sounds thick without sounding muddy.
UTILIZATION
I might as well start complaining now. The biggest thing I hate about this guitar is the fact that it has no ebony. The Les Paul Custom should come with ebony, yet this one comes with rosewood. It's really no different from any other Les Paul if it has a rosewood board. The nut wasn't too bad on this, thankfully. However, the frets were a bit iffy. They weren't perfectly level, and you could tell that once you start lowering the action. They could have been crowned a bit better. Upper fret access sucks, just like every other Les Paul out there, but you learn to deal with it.
SOUNDS
This one had some EMGs swapped in it, so I'll be going by those in this review. The guitar had an EMG 81 in the bridge, and it ripped. However, the guitar itself was fairly bright, and I think the 81 wasn't a great match in the bridge. Considering that it's an all mahogany body, that's a bit surprising, but it happens sometimes. There are just certain woods that sound brighter than others, and this was one of them. The EMG 85 in the neck was just about perfect, however. It was warm and fat, but it also had some slight cut going on thanks to the naturally bright sounding mahogany going on.
OVERALL OPINION
In my opinion, Epiphone kinda dropped the ball with this. While it looks like a Custom, it doesn't have the ebony board. That's a huge minus for me. On top of that, this guitar was a bit bright sounding, so it didn't sound like a normal Custom does. Be sure to test out a few and get one that sounds thick without sounding muddy.