Epiphone Electric Guitars

This Epiphone LP was made in Japan. It has a bridge and neck pick-up. These picks can be selected using the Rhythm/Treble Selector. Individual volume controls can be used to control volume of the pick-ups separately. The same is true for the Tone knobs that apply a variable low-pass filter. The guitar uses a standard 1/4" output jack. A standard LP bridge is used such that the strings can be easily changed without having to feed them through the body of the guitar. UTILIZATION This guitar is pretty heavy. It is the first thing you notice when you pick it up if you are used to Strats or Teles. It can take a little bit of getting used to if you haven't played LPs very much. However, this Epiphone LP isn't even as heavy as some of the Gibson LPs that have solid wood bodies. This Epiphone LP has some composite wood which makes it a little bit lighter. The neck is very smooth and comfortable to play. It is not to thick, but not to thin. I have had this guitar for ~15 years. The hardware is kind of cheap, and is probably a good idea to replace. I never got around to replacing it, just because this guitar was never my main guitar. I would also recommend replacing the pickups. It is not that the pickups sound bad, but you can purchase the pickups used in the top-of-the-line LPs and put them in an Epiphone for pretty cheap. It is a good way to upgrade the sound of the guitar for a small amount of money. SOUNDS This guitar is made for rock music. Put it in the treble (bridge) pick-up position and turn up the gain on your amp. The guitar has plenty of signal output to produce some very musical overdrive harmonics. Trying to do the same thing with single-coil pickups will just leave you unsatisfied. The rhythm (bridge) pick up setting is also good for bluesy chords and lead. It cleans up nicely if you back off the volume knob, but can produce some very usable smooth sustainable lead parts. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is a satisfactory intermediate level guitar for anyone who has been playing the guitar for longer than a year and is ready to step up from the entry level $100 range. It doesn't compare with Gibson Les Paul models in either sound quality, woods/hardware, construction quality, etc. But is also doesn't compare in price, luckily. It sounds like a Les Paul. If you a guitarist that likes rock music, and like a lot of bands that play Les Pauls, then you will be happier buying this Epiphone LP than buying a comparable Fender Strat. It might not be the perfect, ideal guitar, but it is worth saving your money until you can really appreciate/justify a $4000 guitar.

Everyone knows the story on Epiphone. Epiphone is the budget line of Gibson guitars. The guitars are made overseas but are made with a lot of the same materials as the more expensive Gibson counterparts. A lot of signature artists are now playing and having their signature models made by Epiphone so more of their fans can afford to purchase them. This is one of the newer signature models from Epiphone. This is the Jeff Waters Annihilation V. Jeff Waters being one of the most influential metal guitarists of all time. This guitar is a typical V with a few extras and mods that make it more handy for metal music. The V has a mahogany body and neck. The guitar has set neck construction with the neck being the thin 60s profile. The fretboard is synthetic ebony that gives you all the benefits of ebony but without the cost. Up top you get 6 Grover tuners and the bridge is one of Epiphones new locking tune-o-matics. The pickups are specially voiced Epiphone pickups made for heavy music. The controls are super simple with just a volume knobs and a 3 way switch. There is also a kill button for funky buckethead type sounds. UTILIZATION Epiphone was smart when coming up with this guitar. They used the 50s style Flying V shape which provides better upper fret access. This is good since this guitar has 24 frets. The synthetic ebony fretboard feels nice and smooth like you want from a fretboard. I love how Epiphone is putting locking tune-o-matics on all their guitars now. They say they increase sustain but what I do know is that they do not fall off when you are changing strings so thats always a plus. Having anything on a guitar nowadays held on by string tension is just silly. SOUNDS The Jeff Waters pickups have great attack and bite. They are much clearer than typical Epiphoen pickups. They sound really nice and keep their definition when playing fast or with a lot of gain. The bridge pickup is great for string skipping riffs that require a lot of clarity and definition. The neck pickup is clear but also smooth so your leads do not sound harsh. Having the ability to split each pickup is not something you usually find on these types of guitars but it adds a lot of versatility to the sound of the guitar. Having the ability to go from a humbucker sound to a single coil sound which each of the pickups. OVERALL OPINION This is a good overall guitar and it is the proper way to do a signature guitar. If you just get the black one no one will really know you are playing someone elses guitar. There are no big gaudy logos on it or huge signatures. It is unique on its own. If you are looking for an Epiphone to play metal with this is a good option. It has a lot of features that are not found on many other Epiphones or other guitars in this price range. These extra features make it great for heavy music but it is also versatile for all the different types of music you may want to play.

A friend of mine loaned me this for a month just because he wanted me to see how great it was. Being a pretty anti-epiphone guy, I was really skeptical. But I figured hey, it's free. Not sure of the country of origin but obviously it's far east somewhere. Maybe Korea. Longer than normal scale for a les paul style guitar. Obviously the pickups are totally different and the control layout is a bit different. The finish for the price is good. Not incredible. Decent flame. UTILIZATION It's surprisingly playable. And more importantly, it feels right. I've played a large number of guitars and usually the real test of quality is the feel of the guitar. You can tell a lot about price from how a guitar feels in your hands. It's a thing that comes from years of playing all sorts of guitars. Anyway, this one feels pretty darn good for what it is. Solid and reliable in your hands I suppose... Shockingly so. It's not on the level of a very nice PRS or anything. But it feels like it could actually hold up to a tour. Yeah...crazy stuff. And yes it does play nicely with no issues really. The bridge is also pretty decent. SOUNDS The nighthawk has a funny pickup layout that does take some getting used to. But basically, you've got your rock humbucker in the bridge. Then the mellow sounds from the single coil and the mini hum. I'm not really a fan of the mini hum. It sounds like a muddy telecaster. Don't expect any les paul sounds out of this because of the scale length. It won't happen. It's definitely got a fender thing going on in some ways. The humbucker is a bit twangy but it still has a lot of power. Overall I'm pleased. The minihum could be changed out I think. But other than that no complaints. Good sound. OVERALL OPINION I really am love/hate on the body shape and overall look. Maybe it's because it's an epi. I don't think I would buy this myself because it seems to me that this guitar can't decide what it wants to be. For some people this is a good thing. Personally i like more classic designs. Anyway, I think it's a good deal for what it is. And I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality.

This is an Epiphone reissue of the 1961 SG special, although then it would have been known as the Les Paul Special because these guitars were still considered the new Les Paul in 1961. This simple SG design with a set of P90s provides great tone and since its an Epiphone you get it at a very reasonable price. This guitar has a mahogany body and a mahogany set neck. The fretboard is rosewood and has 22 frets with simple dot inlays. The neck is fully bound. It has the 60s profile neck which is nice and thin. Up top it has vintage style 14:1 tuners. It has two alnico magnet p90 pickups. The bridge is a old style wrap wround bridge which the originals had. The controls are a set of volume and tone knobs for each pickup and a 3 way switch right next to them. UTILIZATION Epiphones SG's are some of their better budget models. I would recommend an Epiphone SG over an Epiphone Les Paul. The neck on this guitar is really nice as it is a 60s slim profile. In the name of tradtionalism they threw in a wrap around bridge. Wrap around bridges can be done right like on a PRS or like the many fully adjustable wraparound bridge but this guitar is a vintage design that was designed to be cheap back then. The standards were different back then. 60s cheap is a lot different than 2011 cheap. The wrap around bridge on this is a pretty bad design and if you are changing tunings and whatnot your intonation will be off. The bridge can be easily replaced with an aftermarket fully adjustable model. SOUNDS P90s are great pickups for classic rock. They have a real raw and unfrefined sound that you do not get with a set of vintage humbuckers. This is what made this low end Gibsons so popular back then. Even though they came with the older pickups they worked well for the modern music at that time because they had a great overdriven sound. The clarity and bite of the single coil mixed with the bottom and deepness of a humbucker. This guitar has a great overdriven rock tone because of the P90 voicing. OVERALL OPINION This is a good reissue of a classic guitar. There is something wrong with paying 1500 dollars for a reissue of a guitar Gibson sold for like 90 bucks back in the day as their budget model. Some people may be willing to pay a lot of money for what was a low end guitar a few years ago but it doesnt seem too smart. This Epiphone more matches the spirit of what the original guitar was. It was a low cost guitar that would wring out some rocking tones. Beginner guitar players may not know much about P90s but these pickups sound better than most of the humbuckers you get in most other Epiphones. If you are looking for a nice Epiphone dont look past the P90 SG.

Gibson is one of the biggest guitar makers in the world. They make many super high end and custom guitars for professional guitar players and collectors. They also make many guitars for beginners and working class guitar players. Many of these guitars are sold under Gibsons Epiphone brand. Epiphone is Gibsons foreign made line of guitars. They are built to much of the same specifications as a real Gibson but have much lower costs due to the overseas production. This is the Epiphone Les Paul Custom in Wine Red. It pretty much has all the same features as a real Les Paul Custom apart from the ebony fretboard. The Custom is bascially a dressed up Les Paul standard. It has more binding on the body neck and headstock and has larger block inlays. I think the large block inlays give the guitar a classy look. The guitar has s 22 fret rosewood fretboard with the large block inlays. The headstock is fully bound. The body is solid mahogany. Customs do not have the maple top on the body. The color is a lovely wine red with gold hardware to give it class. It reminds me of the cherry color you see on many SG's It has dual humbucking Epiphone pickups in the standard Les Paul configuration. There is a volume knob and tone knob for each pickup and a 3 way switch to switch among them. The bridge is your standard tune o matic and stop tail like you would find on most every Les Paul. UTILIZATION Which the specs being much of the same as a Gibson Les Paul Custom it shares all the quirks you would get on the real Gibson. Gibsons traditionally have larger necks than other guitars. In the 50s the necks on Gibson guitars were huge. They were commonly referred to as baseball bat necks. In the 60s Gibson switched to a slimmer profile. This slimmer 60s profile is the most popular neck profile on Gibsons and it is found on most Gibsons and Epiphones today. The upper fret access on this guitar is typical for every Les Paul. Since the body joins the neck at the 17th fret you will have to reach around the body of the guitar to get to frets higher than this. This strong joint helps with tone and sustain but limits upper fret playability greatly. The neck binding on this guitar and generally helps to limit the amount of sharp fret ends you feel when playing. The gold hardware will tarnish with playing but this happens on just about any guitar with gold hardware. SOUNDS The guitar itself has a good innate tone built in but it is let down by the low quality pickups. This is a common problem with lower end guitars that come with no name pickups. You do not get much attack with these pickups. Since these pickups do not have much definition the neck position can get really muddy. With a high gain amp the sound might get muddy due to the lack of definition. With some types of music these pickups are great. If you want a bluesy sound these pickups will do really good and you will be able to get a smooth tone out of them. With a pickup swap this guitar can sound great so I would recommend to anyone who has one of these Epiphones to try it out with some after market pickups. A set of Seymour Duncans would liven this guitar up greatly for rock and hard rock. If you are looking to play metal a set of EMG pickups will work nicely. There are Epiphones that come with EMG pickups stock so if you are planning to do this swap you may want to check out an Epiphone that comes with them from the factory and save some money. OVERALL OPINION Its nice that Epiphone is making this Les Paul Custom in this rare and classy finish. It is different than the white and black Les Paul Customs that are so common. The quality on this guitar is good and I find the quality on the high end Epiphones better than the quality on the lower end faded Gibsons. There are a few smaller companies making much better quality guitars for the price of these Epiphones. A company like Agile will give you an ebony fretboard and Seymour Duncan pickups for the price of this Epiphone. If you want to stay loyal and support Gibson you can check out this Epiphone LPC in Wine Red.

The 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.

If you dont know who Joe Bonamassa just think about this. Everyone knows who John Mayer is, just think of Bonamassa as the John Mayer of 15 years ago and you will get it. Bonamassa was a child prodigy blues player back in the day and he is still going strong today. He literally grew up in a guitar shop. He was jamming with the best when he was like 15. Gibson recently made him a signature guitar with all his specs and it is a great guitar and the right way to do a signature guitar. Now Epiphone is making a more affordable one seeing how the Gibson one is like 5000 dollars. The Epiphone one is what most Bonamassa fans will be able to get. The guitar has great features and you can really tell that it was designed by someone who knows what you need live and on tour. It isnt just a normal guitar with a silly paintjob on it, it has real useful attributes that you will not get on a normal Epiphone Les Paul. The guitar at its base is a 50s style Les Paul Gold top. It has a mahogany body and neck with a maple top and rosewood fretboard. The back of the guitar is painted black whereas the old Gold Tops would have a natural finish on the back. The pickguard and pickup rings are black also. It has upgraded 14-1 Grover tuners. The knobs are a mixed style with 50s top hat knobs and 60s reflector knobs. The great Bonamassa features are; Gibson Burstbucker pickups the same pickups the 5000 dollar Gibson model has. There are also straplock which are pretty rare on factory Les Pauls. There is an Epiphone branded locking bridge so the bridge does not fall off when you take the strings off. UTILIZATION Even being made in China the quality on this guitar is very good. The fretwork on my example was great and the nut was properly cut. The action was nice and low out of the box. The binding was all correct also. The guitar has the long neck tenon and the 50s style neck so be careful if you have small hands. The 50s neck profile Gibson necks are called the baseball bat necks for good reason. They are very big around and some people have problems playing them. The advantage of having such a large neck is that helps the tone of the guitar. The bridge that locks in place is something that every Gibson and Epiphone should have there is no real excuse not to have it. The upgraded tuners are nice and are a good alternative to locking tuners another thing I think all hardtail guitars should have. Strap locks also are another thing every guitar should come with. Everyone uses them live why bother putting bad strap pegs on the guitar to begin with. SOUNDS This guitar is nice and meaty and has a nice meaty tone to it. The guitar is like 10 pounds so you can really feel it. The guitar comes with Burstbucker 2 and 3 pickups. A 2 in the neck and a 3 in the bridge. With Burstbucker pickups the higher the number is the hotter they are. The 2 pickup is a little hot and bright for the neck position. I had to roll off some tone knob to get a neck pickup tone I liked. Once you did that you can get nice smooth leads with the neck position. The 3 is good in the bridge. The 3 has great bite and clarity. It might even be too bright for some people depending on what kind of amp they are using. I think they used a 2 in the neck to compliment the 3 in the bridge. I would have preferred a 1 in the neck and a 3 in the bridge. With a 1 in the neck it would have no problem getting smooth neck tones. OVERALL OPINION The worst part of this guitar is that they are only making 1000 of them. That shows you how Gibson feels about making Epiphones with features that block away 75% of Gibson Les Pauls. They dont want too many people to get them. With the Gibson pickups, locking bridge and Strap locks on it this guitar is pretty much perfect out of the box. If you want a good sturdy gig ready Les Paul and can find one of these guitars you should grap it.

The Gibson Futura was an early version of what later became the Explorer. In the late 50s Gibson was trying to show that they were a modern and futuristic guitar company so they put out several new model with radical shapes. Many of these guitars caught on the like Flying V and Explorer while others like the Futura and Moderne faded away. Epiphone is bringing the Futura back in its Prophecy line of metal guitars. The Prophecy line has a few guitars of different shapes but they all pretty much have the same basic features.The Epiphone Prophecy series is a really nice line of guitars from Epiphone. These guitars have a real metal attitude to them. All the guitars in the Prophecy series feature 24 fret ebony fretboards on special satin finished necks with EMG or super hot passive pickups. The necks are nicely bound like on custom models They all have cool quilt maple tops and special inlays. The Futura is pretty simple with the controls there is a master volume and master tone knob with a 3 way switch. To finish the guitar off it is equipped with a Floyd Rose bridge. UTILIZATION The Futuras radical shape has its advantages. The cutaway allows for great access to the upper frets. The access is better than what you get with the 24 fret Les Paul Prophecy model. The speed taper neck is a good alternative to a raw neck like you would get on an Ibanez or Zakk Wylde Signature guitar. The satin finish on the back of the neck means the neck is faster to play. The finish on the back of a neck can cause the neck to become sticky when you are playing and cause you to snag on the neck. The ebony fretboard and 24 jumbo frets let you get a good action on the strings. The Floyd Rose has a locking nut so once it is setup you can wail on it and it will stay in tune. SOUNDS The huge Futura body means you get a lot of resonance in your tone. And this resonance with the EMG pickups mean this guitar and really sing. The 81 in the bridge and 85 in the neck mean that you have an iconic time tested metal pickup set that can handle all the heaviness you can throw at it. The 81 in the bridge gives you the high end crunch and distortion that gives it clarity no matter how much gain you are using or how low you tune. The 85 in the neck is a great pickup too. Since the neck pickup is pushed farther back it will get more bite than a normal neck pickup. It has a more fuller sound than the 81 so in the neck position you can get fat lead tones. The 85 is also good too in the bridge. With EMG's quick connect system you can easily swap these pickups position without soldering anything. The 85 in the bridge produces a super thick tone and cleans up better than the 81. Speaking of cleans if you do the 18v mod on the EMG's. With the 18v mod you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one. This provides a more organic tone with more headroom. This tone produces better cleans than stock EMG's and clean tones are usually the weakest part of the EMG sound. This guitar comes with a battery compartment so you may have to mod another one in if you do the 18v mod. OVERALL OPINION The Futura is a cool alternative to the traditional Explorer shape. Since the Futura came first you can say that the Explorer is an alternative to the Futura. Putting out the Futura again is a way for Gibson and Epiphone to put out a more metal version of the Explorer without really changing the Explorer since the Futura was its own design. And they are not putting out an Explorer with a Floyd Rose any time soon. The Prophecy line of Epiphone guitar is a great idea and it is doing well for them. If you are looking for a metal guitar and dont mind it being a radical shape the Epiphone Futura is a good option.

Epiphone is Gibsons budget guitar line. Recently Epiphone has been putting out their own unique guitar models. One of these lines is the Prophecy guitar line. The Prophecy line has a few guitars of different shapes but they all pretty much have the same basic features.The Epiphone Prophecy series is a really nice line of guitars from Epiphone. These guitars have a real metal attitude to them. All the guitars in the Prophecy series feature 24 fret ebony fretboards on special satin finished necks with EMG or super hot passive pickups. The necks are nicely bound like on custom models They all have cool quilt maple tops and special inlays. This guitar is the SG of the Prophecy line. The SG shape fits with the series more than the Les Paul shape does. The upper fret access is much much better than the 24 fret Les Paul model. This guitar has active EMG pickups with an 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck. The controls are simple with master volume and master tone knobs and a 3 way switch. UTILIZATION The upper fret access is much better than on the Les Paul guitar in this series. There are other 24 fret SG guitars out there so the design isnt anything new. The speedtaper neck that is on all the Prophecy guitar is really nice and it is a good alternative to a raw neck like you would get on an Ibanez of Zakk Wylde guitar. The ebony fretboard is something you do not see much on Epiphone guitars. The 24 jumbo frets let you get a nice low action. The tune-o-matic bridge is locking so it will not fall off when you are changing strings. This is something that many Gibsons do not have. SOUNDS The EMG set in this guitar is benchmark in the metal industry. The guitar sounds great with any high gain setup. The 81 in the bridge has been an iconic metal pickup for decades. It has a high end crunch and distortion that gives it clarity no matter how much gain you are using or how low you tune. The 85 in the neck is a great pickup too. Since the neck pickup is pushed farther back it will get more bite than a normal neck pickup. It has a more fuller sound than the 81 so in the neck position you can get fat lead tones. The 85 is also good too in the bridge. With EMG's quick connect system you can easily swap these pickups position without soldering anything. The 85 in the bridge produces a super thick tone and cleans up better than the 81. Speaking of cleans if you do the 18v mod on the EMG's. With the 18v mod you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one. This provides a more organic tone with more headroom. This tone produces better cleans than stock EMG's and clean tones are usually the weakest part of the EMG sound. With the SG double cut body and the 24 frets you can really wail on the frets and make your solos sing. OVERALL OPINION This guitar fits the Prophecy line better than the Les Paul version does. The 24 fret neck on the SG body fits well. The SG body lets you reach the upper frets better. And the SG shape just looks metal. If you are looking for a metal SG and dont mine it being an Epiphone this is a good choice.

Epiphone is Gibsons budget guitar line. Recently Epiphone has been putting out their own unique guitar models. One of these lines is the Prophecy guitar line. The Prophecy line has a few guitars of different shapes but they all pretty much have the same basic features.The Epiphone Prophecy series is a really nice line of guitars from Epiphone. These guitars have a real metal attitude to them. All the guitars in the Prophecy series feature 24 fret ebony fretboards on special satin finished necks with EMG or super hot passive pickups. The necks are nicely bound like on custom models They all have cool quilt maple tops and special inlays. This guitar is a Les Paul shape but with an extended fretboard to have the 24 fret neck. This model has active EMG pickups with an 81 in the bridge and 85 in the neck. The controls are simple it has a master tone and master volume control and a 3 way toggle pickup selector. UTILIZATION With the 24 fret neck on this guitar it does not do any favors with the upper fret access. The body still joins the neck at the 17th fret on this guitar so the upper frets are even harder to get to. The speed taper satin neck is nice and is a good alternative to a completely raw neck like you would get on a Zakk Wylde signature guitar. The ebony fretboard with the jumbo frets is really nice under you fingers and provides a good action once setup. The tune-o-matic bridge is locking so it will not fall off when you are changing strings. This is something that many Gibsons do not have. SOUNDS This guitar sounds great with the EMG pickups. It sounds like the real Zakk Wylde guitar. The 81 in the bridge has been an iconic metal pickup for decades. It has a high end crunch and distortion that gives it clarity no matter how much gain you are using or how low you tune. The 85 in the neck is a great pickup too. Since the neck pickup is pushed farther back it will get more bite than a normal neck pickup. It has a more fuller sound than the 81 so in the neck position you can get fat lead tones. The 85 is also good too in the bridge. With EMG's quick connect system you can easily swap these pickups position without soldering anything. The 85 in the bridge produces a super thick tone and cleans up better than the 81. Speaking of cleans if you do the 18v mod on the EMG's. With the 18v mod you run the pickups on two batteries instead of one. This provides a more organic tone with more headroom. This tone produces better cleans than stock EMG's and clean tones are usually the weakest part of the EMG sound. The 24 frets expands the tonal variety you can get with the guitar. OVERALL OPINION I like that Epiphone is putting out some of their own designs now. If Gibson put out this guitar it would be a few thousand dollars atleast. With Epiphone putting it out its very reasonably priced. The playability is great with the satin neck and ebony fretboard and the tone is great with the active EMG's something Gibson is reluctant to put in many guitars nowadays. If you are looking for a reasonably priced Les Paul that can really rip this guitar is in a class of its own.

Many people do not remember that Zakk had more guitars than the Bullseye Les Paul that everyone remembers. He played a few other designs in the 80s but the Bullseye was the only one that stuck around. Now Gibson has Zakk using other designs so they can sell more guitars. One of the new designs has an orange and black buzzsaw bullseye motif on it. This guitar is the Epiphone version of the Buzzsaw Zakk Wylde Gibson. The main difference with this guitar is the electronics and some of the wood selection. The guitar still has a mahogany body and a maple neck but the fretboard is made of rosewood instead of ebony. The electronics are still EMG pickups but they are not active EMG's. They are EMG's budget line of passive pickups which are pretty poor but better than what this guitar would have come with. The guitar has Zakks Buzzsaw motif and after all these mods it is your typical Epiphone Les Paul. Each pickup has its own tone and volume control and there is a 3 way switch for your pickup selecting. UTILIZATION This guitar has all the same playability enhancements as the other Epiphone Zakk Wylde guitars. The raw neck helps make the neck a bit faster because with a finished neck you can get a sticky feel. If you are use to modern guitars with thin necks the Les Paul neck will be very big for you. Because of the set neck design there is a large neck tenon and joint. This can make the upper frets hard for some people to reach because the body essentially joins the neck at the 17th fret. After the 17th fret you are reaching around the body to get to the frets. The tuning stability is good because there is no tremolo. The quality of hardware Epiphone uses is not that great. I have had problems with the input jack unscrewing itself and things like that. SOUNDS Being a budget copy the electronics are lower end versions of what the Gibson version has. The passive pickups are built to emulate the tone of the 81 and the 85 but it just doesnt quite get there. The bridge pickup is tight like an 81 but it doesnt quite have the same top end sizzle as a real 81. The neck pickup is closer to the active version than the bridge. The 85 naturally has a warmer more passive sound so the passive version does not differ much in the sound department. Since these pickups are EMG's they have the quick connect wiring system so you can easily swap these pickups out with a set of active EMG's when you get the chance and this guitar will really rip then and you will have the true Zakk Wylde sound. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is very reasonably priced with only a few differences. The Gibson version is thousands and thousands of dollars. With an expensive guitar like that you would almost be afraid to play it. With this guitar it is cheap enough that you can play it out anywhere you want and not be afraid something will happen to it. With a 200 dollar pickup swap you will have pretty much the same guitar as the Gibson for thousands less. If you are a Zakk Wylde fan and cant justify playing thousands of dollars for a Les Paul Custom this Epiphone is a good option.

The Epiphone Les Paul Studio is the low end, budget model of the budget model. I'm not really sure why they decided to make this considering how cheap the regular Gibson models go for. The guitar has a mahogany body, it has a mahogany set neck, a rosewood fretboard with 22 frets, a tune-o-matic bridge for tuning stability and tone, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tone knobs and a three way switch. UTILIZATION The fretwork on this guitar wasn't that great. There were some sharp edges, and the frets weren't perfectly leveled. The nut also wasn't cut properly because every time you'd bend, you could hear a noticeable ping. That means that the string is binding in the slot. Both of these issues are fairly common on the lower end Epiphones, so be sure to watch out for that. The fret access is the same as any other Les Paul style guitar out there in that it's pretty poor. Reading those higher frets can be a bit of a pain. SOUNDS The guitar itself was kinda dead sounding. There were other Epiphones I played that were much more resonant and lively sounding. The pickups were also pretty poor sounding. They were very muddy and undefined. What made matters worse is that the neck pickup was bright. I hate bright neck pickups, and this thing just didn't deliver in terms of the tone I was looking for. I'm not sure if it was the combination of woods in conjunction with the pickup or what, but it just didn't jive for me. OVERALL OPINION I wasn't a fan of this guitar as the fretwork was pretty poor, the nut was cut bad and it didn't seem to resonate that nicely. That said, the guitar is pretty cheap, and it's basically pennies if you're buying one used. They can be great beater guitars if you're into that sort of thing, but I'd rather get a Burny instead.