All user reviews of 4/5 for the Gibson Les Paul Studio Gothic

I paid £250 for this guitar.I bught it from Merchant city music in glasgow.

The actions great,And Its really light the tuners (grover 18.1) are great and really finish the guitar off.

The finish (satin Black) is really cool but is very annoying to keep clean cause of finger prints.

The neck is set in and sustains great.the frets are finished off perfectly.

The guitar is great but its a pain in the arse to keep clean the pickups sound great distorted or clean and are perfect for heavy metal

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I acquired this guitar at Academy of Sound store in Nottingham, UK. I was looking for a fixed bridge/set neck guitar and since I cannot afford a Gibson (yet), I tried some epiphones and then chose this one. I paid 329 £. I was hooked by its dark look and great feel.

It sounds powerful and its finish is great. You can play any style on it but you'll get the most out of it with really heavy tunes.
It has great sustain and the neck is really fast.
The satin finish and the 12th fret inlay are really cool.


It's not very well balanced which is something I'll live with since I like so much everything else about this guitar.
The toggle switch won't take too much Tom Morelo tunes, but I'm gonna change it anyway.

Well it's mahogany all around plus ebony fretboard, which is great combination.
All hardware is black and it has grover tuners also black.
General quality is above my expectations. I only had to adjust intonation a little bit and then it sounded flawless.

If you like BLACK SABBATH, you should buy this guitar.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I ordered my Epiphone Gothic Les Paul Studio from Musician's Friend for $399.99 having never played one before. The pictures I saw of it just looked so wicked it piqued my curiousity. I knew I couldn't afford the Gibson model, and seeing as I'm not primarily a guitar player I thought this Epiphone model would suit me just fine.

Fresh out of the box, I was amazed at how light it was. Its satin black finish was like a black hole - it sucked up any light that hit it. It's the guitar equivalent of the Night Goddess, Nox : dark, sexy, mysterious and utterly female. You'd know what I mean if you were holding one up against you right now. Carved top gives it gorgeous contours, and the ebony fretboard is a nice touch of class.

Though the fretboard has only a single XII inlay at the 12th fret, dot markers along the topside edge of the neck ensure that you won't lose your place.
The Alnico V stock pickups were brutal. I like the bite that comes in on its treble setting and the bluesy crunch that you get when you set the toggle on rhythm. They're much better than the stock pickups that Epiphone usually puts in its lower-priced models like the Specials, the Studios and its "E" series.

The one I have was made in Korea and comes with Grover tuners. Its Epiphone logo is on the headstock and on the truss rod cover with a spooky cross symbol above it.

My guitar came with the usual fresh-out-of-the-box symptoms. A little intonation adjustment took the buzz off the high E string, and the frets further up on the fretboard will need wearing in before I can get good bends.
More seasoned players will probably want to replace the pickups if they find the output not quite up to what they're accustomed to.
Having played mostly on Strat-style guitars, the body took some getting used to, especially with where I found myself placing my forearm while picking and strumming. I've got a tender spot where I've been resting my forearm along the top edge of the guitar.
The balance took some getting used to as well; a heavier neck tends to dip the headstock towards the ground if you let it hang.

For the price, this guitar is very well put together. Strap buttons may need to be replaced, and the toggle switch could forseeably give you trouble down the line, but the finish is flawless, and the mahogany body and neck make this guitar sing beautifully. Seperate volume and tone knobs for each of the humbuckers make this a step-up and intermediate player's guitar.
The satin finished neck give it smooth playability and it's surprisingly fast.

It's hard not to go straight into playing dark and heavy once you've got this guitar in your hands, but you don't have to be a Goth to enjoy this guitar. You don't have to be Azrael - the pale, clove-smoking wolfskin booted dude with the black nail polish to have fun with it.
This guitar was designed as an industrial sonic slicer or to be used to get the slam dancers going at the punk gigs but alternative and blues rockers alike will find something to love about this guitar. Any modifications you'd make will only add to the pleasure you'll get from the Gothic Les Paul, I know mine's definitely a keeper.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Typical of a Les Paul on which all t adj said, some yanamoins Difference:
- Matt black varnish the most beautiful effect but quite fragile and tend to be brighter on the parts most stressed (rear of the neck, upper body)
- A black hardware itself as well.
- The protrait Orville Gibson on the rear of the head.
- A key to bne.
- A finer body of a good centimtre.
- No covers on the pickups (490R and 498T as usual).
- One small Douzima inlay on the box instead of trapzes.
- Of which take mcaniques grover trs good agreement.

6 only for the fragility of the varnish (must carefully handle the bte), for allegedly frtes MRIT more care (other studio LP I've tried calling the same comment, even when some of foutage g. .. for a guitar of this price), and for the soft poo tui color collection outdoor / indoor fuchsia in the full dcalage with the spirit of the guitar.

UTILIZATION

It's a feel of Les Paul with all that was involved, he must love.

The thinness of the body makes it more enjoyable to play a traditional LP (PSE it even when its weight), also hold the handle typical 50's wide rev it worth a 10 (unable to Lilliputians playing on the sleeves of Ibanez, I prfre sleeves that are well in hand, my opinion is subjective trs).

For many times accidentally lowered the volume while playing a Start, j'apprcie also the position of the knobs on the LP

SOUNDS

Aaaahhhh, sound ...

When achte an LP, it's still even for a surprise and not too much of the same ct if the diffrence of violin gives it its own personality.

In clear channel, it's distilled fatty lespaulien typically, all as a bit more crystalline (I noticed the same thing on a LP Custom, also equipped with a button in bne) and a little crunch dj little we attack a little dry.

This is the crunch channel that is best bte out his (dirty) characters, gives a hollow sound, cass and rust that you wash your ears in proper shape. Perfect for punk / post punk.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 5 years, mostly in the studio, if I found a little CHRE the era, a c'tait Gibson, SERIES limit surcrot and perfect for my style music so I function. And even before the price c'tait no flames.

If c'tait again today, I would make a choice as the ratio of qualitprix Gibson has become laughable. At current prices, I prfrerais me to do the same by a luthier and a more robust coating.

For a small period of time, Gibson released Gothic version of their guitars. This one has a mahogany body (and I think a maple top?), a mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, a unique 12th fret inlay, black hardware with a tune-o-matic bridge, two humbuckers, 22 frets, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.

UTILIZATION

Just by looking at these, they're aimed at those who are more into the metal crowd. I noticed that these guitars tend to have some fretwork and nut issues. The frets can sometimes have level issues which will cause issues with you start to lower the action. If you notice some fretting out on certain frets, this is probably a good indicator that you need to get your frets leveled. The edges can sometimes be sharp, too. The nuts can also be problematic at times. If you ever tune your guitar and notice some odd sort of ping, then the guitar goes sharp, your nut is binding. You'll need to get your nut recut if that's the case.

SOUNDS

This guitar actually had EMGs installed in it, so I'll be going by those instead of the standard pickups. The guitar had an EMG 81 in the bridge and an EMG 85 in the neck. The 81 in the bridge sounded thick, but it had enough bite to cut through without a problem. It worked awesome for metal tones; in fact, it was crushing. I was really surprised how nice it sounded. The 85 in the neck was super thick and worked awesome for those legato and shred leads. The clean tones were pretty awful on these, but that's fairly typical with EMGs. However, since it's geared towards metal, the clean tone doesn't really matter that much.

OVERALL OPINION

The guitars are pretty hard to come by at times, but they can be really cool at times. The fretwork and nut issues are still here on these guitars, but they sound really good. A pickup swap is what I recommend, and the EMGs in this sounded great. Definitely worth picking up for a good price.