I got an email today from zzounds that my back-ordered Joe B. Epi LP was shipped.
I am really looking forward to getting it. Good thing I have a couple days off coming
up so I can have time to get familiar with it.

_________________
Bobby
Coming again soon to a club near you
... or at least one near me. Hopefully.

One thing i see about the Epiphone LP Custom Pro that i like is they have coil taps on the humbuckers which makes the guitar much more versatile for clean stuff etc.

My original LP Custom never had that option.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Update -- After considering all the comments here, I just ordered a Epiphone Les Paul Tribute Plus (in Faded Cherry Burst finish) from Sweetwater. With the Labor Day deals being offerred, I couldn't pass it up... It'll be nice to have another sound to go with the Strats and Tele...

I'll post pix when it arrives! Specs are:

SPECIFICATIONS
Body Material: mahogany
Top Material: Carved Hard maple
Neck mahogany
Neck Options: 1960s SlimTaper™
Neck Joint: Vintage “Deep Set” glued-in
Dimensions: 24.75” scale
Nut width: 1.68”
Fingerboard: rosewood with pearloid trapezoid inlays with 22 medium jumbo frets
Fingerboard radius 14”
Pickups: Gibson USA ’57 Classic Humbucker 4-wire (neck) and Gibson USA ’57 Classic Plus Humbucker, 4-wire (bridge)
Controls: Switchcraft 3-way pickup selector, Neck Pickup Volume, Bridge Pickup Volume, Neck Pickup Tone (push/pull/series parallel), Bridge Pickup Tone (push/pull/series parallel)
Binding: Fingerboard 1 ply, cream
Bridge: Locktone Tune-o-matic™/Stopbar
Hardware: Nickel
Machine Heads: Grover® Locking Tuners

Congrats! You'll love the 57 Classics. So much for Epiphone having cheap parts. That statements only holds true on the low end Epi's.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Yep, note also the Grover tuners and Switchcraft 3-way pickup selector.

Nice score, I really doubt you'll be disappointed.

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Yeah, at the price point, I'm very satisfied with the specs, especially the Gibson pups, carved maple top, and Grover locking tuners. Even better, it includes a fitted hard case... And, while I've never bought anything from Sweetwater, it sounds like they check out and do at least a basic setup on the guitars before they ship them..

Hi the Epiphone dot 335 vintage sunbrust guitars are dam fine axe for the money! Get some great tone out them no probs..Still go back to my strat but..

I've bought things from Sweetwater. No guitars though, I like to play them first but I have bought other stuff. Very professional company. Even if you buy a capo they call you to be sure you like it and it arrived okay.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

That's a fine fiddle there, sir! I'm intrigued by the "series/parallel" option, I thought they were wired for coil tapping instead. Interesting... Tell you what though, if you swap out the volume pots for push/pulls and wire those for coil tap while leaving the series/parallel option on the tone pots, you'll have a veritable swiss army knife of tone options!

Congrats on a sweet guitar! Can't wait for pics and a tone report!

I used to own an Epi LP Standard back in the day and I always enjoyed playing that guitar... at least for rhythm stuff. I'm definitely more of a Strat guy for what I play and enjoy, but I had no issues with that guitar over many years of owning it.

However recently I have had poor experiences with Epiphone stuff. It's often very nice looking equipment, but the playability and sound just don't do it for me, at least in their low-to-mid range guitars. Most recent case in point was a new ES339 I picked up in vintage burst that was just beautiful to look at. However after owning it for just a month I had to get rid of it. It sounded awful. Everything was muddy and washy sounding, with no clarity or attack. These pickups - the ProBuckers - are being heralded as a great new Epiphone design. They were awful no matter how much I fiddled with setup, and even the guitar tech I paid to set it up better came away with the same impression. Yeah it's a hollow-body design, but the sound shouldn't be THAT washed out IMHO. At the end of the day I just couldn't justify owning a guitar I hated just because it looked so good.



I may end up looking at another LP down the road, but I'll be very careful and selective to ensure I end up with a guitar I'll actually enjoy playing.

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2011 Custom Shop Custom Deluxe HSS Strat
2011 Custom Shop Custom Deluxe SSS Strat
2011 Custom Shop Jeff Beck Strat
2012 Fender Select HSS
2013 American Deluxe Tele
59 Bassman 410, Blues Deluxe 410
Two Rock Studio Pro 35 and 410 Cab

I haven't been following this thread for a few days so I wasn't aware of what was written in many posts.First of all I'd like to put things straight with something Gorgon has printed. He mentioned at least twice that my 1965 John Lennon model Epi Casino was made in the US.The J.L. Casinos were all in fact made in Japan,as far as the bodies,necks etc. go and were merely assembled in the US so the high quality of workmanship is mainly the work of Japanese craftsmen.

It's unfortunate that Gorgon hasn't had the positive experiences with Epis as myself and several other forum members and many good friends of mine have had.When I plug either one of my Les Pauls into my JCM 800 stack they sound absolutely raunchy and they could hold their own against just about any other humbucker equipped guitar.A lot of people have made very complimentary remarks about the tone that these Epis can turn out.Even my Indonesian made Casino can give out a pretty decent Beatle vibe moreso than any other guitar other than the John Lennon models of course as they really nail the Beatle vibe spot on.The MII Casino sounds pretty Beatlesque when put through a Vox AC-15 or 30 or a Fender Twin for Abby Road and Let It Be songs.Plus it feels really good in the hands. The Epi John Lennon EJ-160-E acoustic/electric sounds very much true to the tone of the Gibson J-160-E,especially when played through a Vox amp for songs like I Feel Fine,Things We Said Today etc.All in all there aren't many guitars in the Epi's price range that can top their quality,tone,playability etc.,not in my considerable experience with my 6 Epis and others I've played anyway.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

well said Derek the playabilty (is that a word) on the whole of the better epi's ,i feel is better than that of many gibsons that i have owned and played , i haven't tried out the new models but the spec sheet for them looks like what i would want in an epi usually the first thing i do is rip out the engine bay and replace everything with quality parts (epi are taking the fun out of modding these suckers ) once done (modded) my epi's can take the stand next to to any gibson ,in fact at a few jam sessions players thought i was playing a gibson untill i pointed out it was an epi
One mod i must recomend for any epi with the standard tuneomatic bridge is to replace it with a Gotoh (nashvile) unit , you get better intonation and sound transference all for the price of 20 quid ,if you own an epi LP or SG or sheraton/dot try one , it's like night and day (soundwise) , personally i love epi's my SG has been in the herd since 2006 and my LPC is one of the best sounding guitars around cheers
Alan

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Hmmm. I was thinking about getting one of those. I guess you saved me a munch of
bunny.

I wonder if the Epi 335s have the same issue. I want a good affordable jazz/blues guitar
and I though sure one of those would fill the bill.

_________________
Bobby
Coming again soon to a club near you
... or at least one near me. Hopefully.

Speaking of Epiphones... I have played the Sheraton II at a music store and just wanted to die and go to heaven right there. I played a "natural" finish model, not the sunburst. Something about that guitar really hit me. It just...sang.

I know this is a Fender forum and all, but daaaay-um, that Epi Sheraton II was sweet! That guitar will follow me one one of these days!
http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Archtop/Sheraton-II.aspx

It was made in the US and Japan then. There is a world of difference there than the guitar parts being built and assembled in some third world sweat shop. I can't understand why some of you find that so hard to digest? There are Epiphone LP's being advertised over here for just over £200, you are not trying to convince me that this thrown together trash is equivalent to a Gibson LP? The owners of the guitar want to convince themselves that it is because it's a cheap guitar and it makes them feel better. So it go's with most Epiphones i've tried or heard about. Incidentally i owned another Epiphone a Sheraton model that Alan was talking about. Pretty good guitar but here again we have it, there was a missing screw on the scratchplate meaning the scratchplate flapped up and down at that point instead of being screwed down into the body Not impressive by any stretch of the imagination. Plus the pickups were terribly microphonic and whined at high volumes. I had to take it to a luthier to get the pickups wax soaked to stop it.

Anyway my opinion is that there may be current Epiphone's that have upped the ante and are good guitars but there is an awful lot of substandard rubbish guitars being churned out by them also.

I personally don't want to buy a guitar and then find i have to change everything on it. i would rather save the money and buy something better, if i had the money to save that is.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.