I'm starting to pick up slide guitar and I want a dedicated guitar. I'm told that the Gibson LPs are the best guitars for slide, but at $2k a little expensive. I've seen the Epiphone LPs at $500.

What is the difference?

Do those differences make a big impact if you were to use the guitar as a slide guitar?

The main differences are the quality of the materials and hardwear and how much the people who make them get paid.
Epiphones are pretty good guitars, and if you don't like the sound you can just change the pickups

Tele, I understand that the hardware will be of different qualities as well as the pick ups.

What I want to know is the following. Will the build quality be different. I mean will the tolerences of the neck and body be so different that you will notice the difference when playing.

I assume that the quality of the wood will be different. While both will use maple and so on. The Gibson will have prettier grain.

I've always found the craftsmanship on epiphones to be superb.
The join between neck and body on my old SG was perfect.
Some of the epiphone Les Pauls have really nice tops. If you're willing topay the money, you can have one that is just as pretty as a Gibson

I have an epi and it sounds just like a gibson the only difference is people get paid alot more in america so it jacks up the price, with a gibson ur just pretty much paying for the name!



Topher

To the best of my knowledge...Gibson bought out Epiphone in 1957, yes...the same year that Gibson came out with the Les Paul guitar. They are both very good quality instruments that have been around for many years. Epiphones just didn't receive the notoriety like the US made Gibson guitars, hence the difference in price. I have played on many Epiphones and will say that they are an excellent choice if price is an issue. Good luck!

Epiphone was well known even before Gibson. Gibson bought them out, then they starting making them in Japan in the 70's.

ok, les pauls have been made since 54 not 57... and there are more differences than you guys have covered.
An epi LP does not have a maple top... it has a 0.5mm thick maple veneer, which has no affect on tone whatsoever, it's PURELY for cosmetic reasons. The wood is not just of a "prettier grain" on gibsons... it's a completely different species of mahogany... Epi uses Luan (sp?) an indonesian species usually referred to as "mahogany"... gibson uses South American mahogany, quite different! Epi also uses Alder when available Indonesian Mahogany is of inferior quality or out of stock...
so you may get an epi thats made from mahogony, OR mahogany and alder, OR alder... it's a gamble.

and no, you cant just look at the guitar and say, "yep, i got me a mahogany one", because they've started using veneers on the sides AND backs, so what you see are african mahogany grains (0.5mm thick) glued over the wood specified above.

the rosewood is of a lesser quality on epi's.

the electronics are really cheap on epis...

etc etc...

so its not just cheaper labour factors, it's a WHOLE list of things. i own an epi and love it, so i'm not here to epi-bash, just to educate you guys about the REAL differences... these are the things store people wont tell you (because 95% of them dont know).

ummm... some do depending on which model etc...

ummm... some do what brian? i said like 10 different things.

The maple tops!

Another thing 1952 was the date not 1954. ooops

you are right about the year... as for maple tops, tell me one epiphone LP model, apart from Japanese, that have a maple top. None of them do. It's a well known fact, check out the epiphone forum for more info. They have maple veneers, a wafer thin slice of maple that has zero effect on tonal properties of a guitar.

If you've taken pickups out of an epi LP and noticed that there was a slab of wood glued as the top, it's either alder or mahogany. Epi korea/china never has used real maple tops.

Joe Perry Boneyard


http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=229&Collectio nID=6

It has a 1/4" maple cap not veneer!

oh, we're going into signiture models now... i thought we were talkin everyday run of the mill epi les pauls... then lets not forget the ace frehley and i guess a couple others too.

but the les paul standard, classic, studio, special, custom plus, they're all veneers.

you said tell me one epiphone LP model!!!

Well.... I agree with the cheaper models uses veneers but the higher end use 1/4" caps!

Enough already.

Looks like all cyberpunk409 wants to do is argue

I have an Epi LP Studio and I love it. It looks good, plays good, and sounds good. I had a Gibson LP Custom before that and the craftsmanship on the Epi, in my opinion, is just as good as the Gibson. Does anybody know how I can research the history of my guitar through the ser. number?

I know Gibsons serial number is the 1st and 5th number. Unfortunity your Epiphone Les Pauls is mass produced oversees and won't hold any value on the market. They are good guitars though!

to research your epi's history using the serial number, visit:

http://guitardaterproject.org/epiphone.aspx

hope that helps

it's not supported on the website you listed as noted!

That website worked, cp409, thanks. I was amazed to find how many of those guitars are being produced worldwide. No wonder they're inexpensive. Brian's right, they're still good guitars.

I have an Epi LP custom zakk wylde, (the orange one) it comes with Emg's H4 (non active) at the neck and bridge positions (H4's are supposed to be a non active version of 81's) the construction is superb and the sound is surprisingly fat and deep for a guitar with Emg pickups. The factory setup was terrible, the strings came to high. I was scared at first (when buying) cause I wasn't sure if it would be possible to lower the strings enough without buzzing, I was so in love with this guitar (at first sight) that I bought it anyway, and I managed to lower the strings further than any other of my guitars, now its so soft and comfortable to play that I'm still surprised. What a freaking great guitar, as for the woods I can't tell because it has a solid paint finish.

I still have some doubts about the body of this guitar (Epi LP), if I tap the top of the body with my fingers it doesn't sound as a solid body, it seems like it has some kind of internal chambers, and it is light weight, I've played an old gibson LP once that was really heavy and seemed to had a solid body, really solid.
Could this be true?

The body is most likely made with a light weight wood and the top and back have 1/4 maple caps.

If you have a lightweight LP, it's probably chambered. I have an LP Ultra and it's chambered and weighs in at 5.5 lbs. I'm told they did this to replicate Peter Frampton's LP.

The Les Paul Epi shouldnt be chambered. It's a solid guitar and a fine guitar at that. You can change the set up and pick-ups to your liking, and you'll have a great, sturdy hard working guitar that will last you a life time.

Compare the Epi and the REAL DEAL side by side. The look and feel are near identical. A good eye can see the diffrences in craftmaship and hear a slight difference in tone quality, but it's not much of a difference. FOR THE PRICE HOW CAN YOU COMPLAIN!

[Edited on 10/26/2006 by ricoboc]

If you go to this web site;

http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=242&Collectio nID=6

you'll see that Epiphone makes 17 LP models, all of which are solid body guitars except for the LP Ultra, which is chambered. Maybe the Ultra is designed to imitate the chambered Gibson LP Ultima, found at this link;

http://www.gibsoncustom.com/flash/products/lespauls/ultima/ Ultima.html

Peter Frampton's chambered LP can be found here;

http://www.gibson.com/whatsnew/pressrelease/2000/jan31a.htm l


[Edited on 10/27/2006 by ej]

[Edited on 10/27/2006 by ej]

Thank you guys for all this usefull information, you rule!!