Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Custom GX

Gibsons budget line of guitars is Epiphone. 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 Les Paul GX model of the Prophecy line. GX means it comes with the super hot passive pickups. This guitar comes with a set of Gibson Dirty Fingers pickups. This guitar comes with a push pull volume pot so you can split the coils in the pickups and it has a master tone and volume control. The switching is done with a 3 way switch.

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

The Gibson Dirty Fingers pickups provide a unique sound. When I think of the Dirty Fingers pickup I think of old 80s John Sykes tone. These pickups are popular today with punk rockers. The guy from Blink 182 used these pickups in his Gibson and Epiphone signature guitars. These pickups are really hot for a Gibson passive and they were pretty bright. In the bright position this brightness is good. It will really cut through any heavy mix. In the neck position I dont think it is a great pickup. You cant really get a smooth neck position tone with the brightness of the Dirty Fingers. With the coil splitting ability you can get some single coil tones with these pickups and since they are so bright and hot they can get a good emulation of a real single coil sound.

OVERALL OPINION

Epiphone is putting out some good original models now. I would recommend the EMG version over this one but some people do not like active pickups. The red quilt and gold hardware give it a look a lot different that you see on most metal guitars. The coil tap gives you more versatility than you would get with the active pickup version also. If you dont mine the horrible upper fret access this is a good metal Epiphone.

Manufacture "Made in China" (I think he)
24 frets, 2 humbuckers and split Gibson USA Dirty Fingers ".
Mahogany body and neck, flamed maple top.
Easel Tune-O-matic/Stop bar, fully gilt fittings (including screws microphones, the class). The tuners are Grovers, they also golden.
3 position selector, a volume knob (with a push-pull splitter for microphones), 1 tone knob.
As for the handle, so it's a 24 frets, glued, with ebony fingerboard (can not be of prime quality, it is relatively clear, but hey, it's still the ebony).
The profile goes from C to D for better playing comfort, very fine and comfortable, almost like on my Ibanez Iceman, but less wide.
The landmarks are flashes, it makes you better than the blocks to my taste, although they are slightly too dug (nails hang sometimes).
I put 8 because a guitar has less than 700 euros is very well equipped, although in therm finish is far from perfect.

UTILIZATION

The neck is wonderful, it fits perfectly in hand over its entire length, it is not obvious to tjrs access to acute, but hey, buying a Les Paul is known already and we accept .
Then the 24 cases lessen the problem somewhat, we can reach the 20th box without too many problems with a little practice (in any case, few songs that go beyond).
In terms of ergonomics on the other hand ... We have already seen (much) better.
The guitar is very heavy (on one side, if you want it to sound ...), but the problem is mostly on the size of the body in the sitting game is really a problem, she slips on the right knee (for righties), lower body bcp being more massive than the top and cutting the thigh is too high.
In terms of sound, it's still very good, we understand why the guitar is too heavy, sustain is infinite and the reason is excellent.

SOUNDS

I play everything (blues as neo metal) and I must say that this guitar is doing pretty well everywhere.
Having two identical PAF has high output could foreshadow a lack of versatility. It is not so, for the push-pull splitter from further increase the possibilities.
That said, its clear the microphones are not as good as bcp Duncan SH 1 59 'for solo round and mellow for that matter.
Maybe it is interesting to change the neck pickup for this one also (I never touch the bridge, the dirty fingers is just as enjoyable disto).
In short you will understand, the sound is bold, incisive, while being versatile.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for a few days.
Like its equipment (ebony fingerboard, Grover, micro Gibson) and his reason.
I like a little less ergonomic (I expected but hey, that's weird tjrs) and finishes, which are averages.
I played on quite a few other guitars (Squier, Fender Stratocaster, Ibanez Iceman, Takamine) and I must say that his level, it is by far their superior.
The price is excellent value, some will say that Epiphone never ring as a Gibson, but at this price point in the big brother was a Faded Sg, with no finish or equipment "special" (almost no varnish, c is to say ...) and quality more than doubtful.
With the experience I probably would do this choice