Epiphone Les Paul electric guitars?
guitars for sale February 19th, 2010I need a new guitar as my band has started gigging a lot more recently, I’ve been playing so far with a (to be honest quite poor) squire strat that I picked up second hand.
Unfortunately being a student I’m on a low budget, apparently some of the lower range les pauls made by Gibsons sister company Epiphone are still of extremely high quality. The common ones around on ebay in the £200-£300 range are:
Les Paul Standard Plus Top (£290)
Les Paul Custom (£300)
I would appreciate some more info on good quality budget electrics, suitable for gigging, or verification that I’m on the right track with the epiphone- but I don’t want to limit myself and I’m sure there are lots of others out there.
I always give a best answer and will especially appreciate your help if you provide some suitable links etc to guitar sales (on ebay or otherwise).
Thanks!
I forgot to add I play mainly indie music, nothing particularly heavy.
If you play indie, then I would assume you’re looking for a unique tone to compliment your unique sound correct? If that’s the case, then by all means do not let brand names hold you down when purchasing a guitar. Yes, Epiphone is a decent brand, I own a Gibson myself, but I also own a Carlo Ribeli, a Phantom, a Vantage, a Samick, a Schecter, and a Crafter. The only other name out of that list that stands out as far as guitars go is Schecter.
My Crafter is an Acoustic/Electric guitar that I purchased over in South Korea while in the Army… The intentions on that particular day however, were to purchase a Taylor. This guitar though sounded worlds better than any Taylor I’ve ever played and it cost me less than $200 w/ hardcase.
Same thing with that Carlo Ribelli I mentioned earlier, I was looking for a screaming guitar and found it in that one. I ended up using it for many years to follow while gigging.
All in all, my point is that yes, you get what you pay for… most of the time… If you look hard enough though and are patient, you can find some of the most beautiful sounding instruments in the least likely places for the best prices.
A note back on your initial question… out of all the secondary brand names (Squier, Epiphone, Charvel, etc…) I would recommend Epiphone.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:37 am
If you like the Les Paul’s, I’d recommend checking out ESP’s "sister line", LTD. I’d say that the quality is better than the Epiphones as you’re not paying for the Gibson name. The EC line is modelled after the Les Paul body style.
http://www.espguitars.com/guitars_ec.html
References :
February 19th, 2010 at 6:11 am
Take a look at the michael kelly patriot. Patriots have excellent build quality, and the higher end models (600-700 us dollars) even have ebony fretboards, grover tuners, and emgs. The medium and lower range models have rockfield pickups (Might be an in-house brand, not sure), which also sound good. Body shape is kind of like a les paul, but with a more pronounced curve on the cutaway.
Epiphones are great intermediate guitars, but if your looking for something different (everyone has a les paul), try out the patriot.
References :
February 19th, 2010 at 6:16 am
If you want a Les Paul for the Epiphone price, and higher quality, look into Agile.
They’re made in the same plant as Epiphones, but to much higher specifications.
http://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar-ss9.html
Start on page 9 there, and work your way up.
Although if you’re in Europe, shipping might rape you. Hard. Like anything being shipped to Europe from the US and having to pass customs and all that.
References :
February 19th, 2010 at 6:44 am
The best Epis are the ones made in Japan,
some even use American parts and pickups,
then Korean,
then most of the other Asian countries,
some have been made in India, Indonesia, etc.
the Chinese ones are the ones at the bottom,
I try to stay away from them, they are too hit n miss,
not good consistency
PRS has a very good line of imports,
I’d look at them too
(I think they called the "SE" series?
References :
February 19th, 2010 at 7:06 am
If you play indie, then I would assume you’re looking for a unique tone to compliment your unique sound correct? If that’s the case, then by all means do not let brand names hold you down when purchasing a guitar. Yes, Epiphone is a decent brand, I own a Gibson myself, but I also own a Carlo Ribeli, a Phantom, a Vantage, a Samick, a Schecter, and a Crafter. The only other name out of that list that stands out as far as guitars go is Schecter.
My Crafter is an Acoustic/Electric guitar that I purchased over in South Korea while in the Army… The intentions on that particular day however, were to purchase a Taylor. This guitar though sounded worlds better than any Taylor I’ve ever played and it cost me less than $200 w/ hardcase.
Same thing with that Carlo Ribelli I mentioned earlier, I was looking for a screaming guitar and found it in that one. I ended up using it for many years to follow while gigging.
All in all, my point is that yes, you get what you pay for… most of the time… If you look hard enough though and are patient, you can find some of the most beautiful sounding instruments in the least likely places for the best prices.
A note back on your initial question… out of all the secondary brand names (Squier, Epiphone, Charvel, etc…) I would recommend Epiphone.
References :
14 years playing