Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard

epiphone have produced some nice looking guitars, and my les paul is definitely one of them. it came from the epiphone factory in china, (unfortunately) though its nice black cherry red colour is what firstly pulled me in.
typical 22 fret les paul with two volume and two tone knobs and tune-o-matic bridge also pulled me in as all i ever wanted was a les paul..
The good features of this guitar is a set mahogany neck and epiphones 14 degree headstock angle as well as standard grover tuners provide the player with a guitar that will stay in tune whilst thrashing it!


UTILIZATION

the les paul shape with a single cutaway allows some easier access to the upper frets though it would be wise for epiphone to start filing down the back side to allow even better access.
One thing i didnt know back then but now do is pickups definitely make a difference, as a young chap just wanting the prettiest guitar i could find i did not care about the les pauls standard epiphone pickups which can get a nice clean sound but no good for the heavier types of music as i so much long for.
As a typical les paul it does way a fair bit so i dont recomend throwing this one over your shoulder without a lock-in strap and it did hurt to hold for a long show at first. And again as people know these guitars can take a beating! im not exactly nice to my gear and this guitar has not given me one bit of a problem yet in the two and a bit years i've owned it.

SOUNDS

i run this through my vox effects pedal and then either direct into my computer or out into my vox vt 50 clean channel, as i said it is no longer good to me for my style of music but as my first decent guitar i dont want to let it go.
I recommend getting after-market pickups installed either emg's or seymour duncans black-outs, though after installing these you may as well have gotten a different guitar.
The standard pickups do deliver a nice dynamic clean sound, they just get muddy as the player goes towards the "dark side" of gain and distortion.
Though yes, for my jazz/blues/cleans this guitar is next to brilliant.

OVERALL OPINION

ok, admittedly for the price this guitar is good. though retail at most stores now is around $900-1100 Autralian. Add some good pick-ups and that brings it to 1300 at which price i'd preferably get my shecter or a jackson or even an esp/ltd.
The looks are brilliant and the cleans are still amazing but it simply does not suit my style of playing. Its heavy, muddy, stays in tune, fun to look at but less fun to play.
All in all, good for beginners.
If i knew know what i did then, i would get a shecter haha!

This is the standard and quintessential Epiphone in the entire lineup. The guitar has a mahogany body with a maple top, 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

This guitar wasn't too bad. The fretwork was pretty decent, especially considering the price you're getting. However, the nut was cut incorrectly. It would bind every time you would tune, and you could tell by the "ping" that would occur. Whenever you'd bend, you'd go out of tune. That's a sure sign that the nut is cut incorrectly and needs to be reshaped. The upper fret access is the same as any other Les Paul out there, and the layout is just like every other Les Paul style guitar you'll come across.

SOUNDS

The guitar didn't sound too bad. The stock pickups were a bit iffy, but you could get them to work for those looking for that hard rock kinda vibe. I'm mostly a metal player, so I'd personally replace them with something else. The nice thing about this guitar is that it resonated nicely. Considering how much trash can come out of some of the lower lines of guitars, this one was pretty good. The price also made it even sweeter as you don't have to pay a ton to get that Les Paul sound that everyone knows and loves.

OVERALL OPINION

Those looking for a decent budget guitar that has that Les Paul sound, this is probably the one you want to look into getting. However, just be sure to play a bunch. I'm sure that it'll need a proper setup once you buy it, so also look into spending some money on having a luthier make it play to its utmost potential.