tlw

And don't get me started on high-priced custom-shop "relics"....

Why hold yourself back , I would love to hear about what you have to say about the ones you own .
 
I'm all ears . 
 
Kenny

As much as I like Gibby's if I were to spend a couple grand on a guit it'd be an Ernie Ball Musicman EVH.
 
They look really dumb but man do they ever play/sound good.

Oh and their locking system actually works properly.

 
My next geetar is definitely going to be one of these two beauts:
 
Probably the RG, and the pick-ups are hand-wound over here in blighty apparently.
 

 

 
 
According to the guys as Andertons, they'll be in the country sometime next month or early November.
 
Nice.

I've had my Epiphone since 1988, and it's one of the best guitars I've played. Pity the bugger is over in England in storage at my dad's house and I haven't seen it for years though, lol. It's an Epiphone Spotlight, the one that was a total ripoff of a PRS and they were told to stop making them. I've never been able to get any solid facts as to how many were made before production was nixed, but I've heard rumors of anywhere between 100 to 2000. It has a beautiful through-neck and coil tapped humbuckers. Definitely one of Epiphone's best. 
 
Note: this one isn't mine
 

What is going to be the issue with these guitars? From what I know this seems to meet the base specs like solid body, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. Is it the electronics or likely a more structural problem like an easily warped maple neck? Or just super cheap hardware in general?
 
I know the finish is not typical as it looks like leather.

SteveStrummerUK
 
My next geetar is definitely going to be one of these two beauts:
 
Probably the RG, and the pick-ups are hand-wound over here in blighty apparently.
 

 

 
 
According to the guys as Andertons, they'll be in the country sometime next month or early November.
 
Nice.

I was a hardcore Ibanez fan when I was younger (still own my old Roadstar) and would argue endlessly with my equally as fanatical guitar buddies (I was a Gibson/Ibanez zealot while they were Fender/Jackson zealots).
 
I would still like to own a top end Ibby and those definitely look nice but as I started getting more into chunky rhythm stuff (via thrash and then punk/hardcore) I found their bottom end tones weren't quite evolving along with my style. A lot of their design seems to be geared more toward ultra fancy lead work ala Vai/Satch which they are indeed amazing for but there is just something that does not quite seem to fit for my rhythm style. Not gritty enough or sumthin'. Still sounds good just not quite where I'm at.
 
Still not sure if Jackson's would do what I like either but probably closer and since I like a bit less ultra clean in leads (I like some grit in my leads too) they seem to accomplish that as well.
 
Really though all that stuff is far too expensive and I've given up any "brand" fanaticism and instead would rather sit in a used shop trying out pretty much anything until something feels/sounds right no matter who made it.
 
This served me quite well when I was a broke arsed gigging musician who KNEW that whatever I bought was likely to get completely mangled by the lunatics in the crowd (and the lunatic the guit was hanging off of... lol).
 
I owned a couple knock off V's (one called a "Barracuda" which was a Gibby V style axe and I forget the name on the other... Browstone or something weird like that and was more a Jackson style V). These were both about $300 and although not as good as the real deal did an excellent job and I did not feel like I needed to baby the buggers. Essentially the idea was to just play them into the ground and replace them when they got too mangled.
 
Both are long gone now but they served me well.
 
I also had one of those horrendous Epiphone "Goth" SG's with the big X shaped hole hacked out of it and headstock "peircings". Worst guitar I ever owned and I only bought it because my buddy was hard up for cash and insisted I buy it off him for $50. I figured I could use it as a backup guit. It was the WORST and I eventually sold it to another buddy of mine who was hard up for a guit and loved the stupid thing.
 
Now that I don't have to worry about psychotic kids running headfirst into my gear anymore though I would certainly like to get some nicer stuff to record with. Still not blindly shelling out thousands just for a name and my souped up Pacifica has been a real trooper for my little studio shenanigans... which again only cost me about $300.
 
My biggest desires at the moment for specific brands/models are an Ernie Ball Musicman (as noted up thread but a total pipe dream) and one of the newish Epiphone ES models (preferably the BB King "Lucille" model which would be much more doable financially that the EB MM which is at least 4 times as expensive as the "Lucille").
 
/ramble

Pointy guitars are just plain dangerous. You'll put your eye out!

DrLumen
What is going to be the issue with these guitars? From what I know this seems to meet the base specs like solid body, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. Is it the electronics or likely a more structural problem like an easily warped maple neck? Or just super cheap hardware in general?

I guess there is one basic issue. It's called a Les Paul but is nothing much like the guitar Les paul designed and won't sound like one either.

The woods may be commonly used ones, but are wrong for a Les Paul - Les Paul's design was and is a mahogany body, glued in mahogany neck and a thick carved and shaped maple top to the body. The difference in the timber and construction will make a difference to the sound, response and sustain of the guitar. The Les Paul Specials and Juniors usually lacked the maple cap on the body, but still had the mahogany/glued neck construction and the same quality hardware and pickups as the rest of Gibson's guitars.

Those small single-coil pickups resemble nothing ever fitted to a Les Paul by Gibson. The "correct" pickups are P90s or more commonly humbuckers, all of which have a very different tone to that kind of single-coil and much higher output as well.

Poor hardware is pretty normal at that price no matter who made the guitar, the profit margins are very tight and the factory gate price is probably only around 1/3-1/2 what the end customer pays, So corners get cut with the materials and the finishing work on nuts, frets and setup.

For me the biggest issue is the name. Not through any snobbish idea that Epi/Gibson are "devaluing the Les Paul brand" but because guitars in that price bracket generally sell to beginners, often as birthday/Christmas presents or after a lot of saving up for one. Any kid getting one of those in the hope of learning to play rock or metal and sound like their Les Paul toting heros is going to be disappointed. Not much more money would get them something far more like what that "Les Paul" claims to be.

Epiphone make some very acceptable guitars and some very good ones, generally at fair prices for what you get and obviously they want to compete at the beginner end of the market. Gibson own the Les Paul trademark on guitars, but to put the Les Paul name on a thing that only has the basic outline in common with a Les Paul I find a bit, well, wrong. Had they called it something else rather than riding on the fame of a guitar it barely resembles, then fine.

But they didn't.

ampfixer
Pointy guitars are just plain dangerous. You'll put your eye out!

Indeed... but in the hands of a skilled professional it makes little mosh hounds think twice before rushing the stage.
 
;-)