Opening the case revealed a beautiful 2020 Epiphone Les Paul Studio Wine Red Limited-Edition Gold.
https://www.wwbw.com/Epiphone-Les-Paul- ... C%20%24549
It's a handsome looking instrument, and the photos speak for themselves in that regard, so I'm just going to move along here and hit the high points of my geeky guitar observations.
This is one of the newer “Inspired by Gibson” series that Epiphone began marketing as of January 2021. In addition to the cosmetic upgrade of the open book headstock, they also have upgraded electronics, pickups, hardware, and nuts. As the serial number of this guitar indicted that it was made in December 2020 in Quindao, China, I’m assuming it’s one of the first batch. This can be a good thing, as companies are known to make an extra effort to impress with the initial roll out when introducing a new product line.
RE: "INSPIRED BY GIBSON"
A quick aside here, because these are the kind of thoughts that keep me up at night:
Aren’t all Epiphones (with rare exemptions like the Coronet) “Inspired by Gibson.”
I mean, isn’t Ephiphone making a big deal about saying “Inspired by Gibson” kinda like Margarine making a big tadoo about being “Inspired by Butter? Duh! Of course margarine is a copy of butter!
BODY
It feels like an 8 lb and change Les Paul. From what I've read this model is weight relieved, which is the only way I can see an import with a full 2" thick mahogany body, and a maple cap, weighing that little. I confirmed that there is an actual cap when inspecting the pickup routs. It's certainly got the dimensions and feel of the genuine article.
I've got to mention the color, because the "redness" of this Les Paul is really about the top. Many Les Pauls have a red back and neck, but an example with a red top is more rare. I find the red top to be particularly striking paired with the gold hardware.
PICKUPS
I've seen conflicting specs posted online about what the pickups in this model are supposed to be, with claims that they are Alnico Classic, Alnico Classic Pros, or Alnico Classic Plus. They have stickers on the bottom identifying them as "ACP," and they are clearly of the newer construction with nickel baseplates.
However, I measured the bridge at 7.83 K ohms resistance and the neck at 7.66 K ohms resistance, which seems very low. It’s almost like two neck pickups got installed in the guitar by accident, as they’ve got the output of a set of T-Tops or pair of Burstbucker 1s.
They sound as one would expect of low resistance Alnico V humbuckers, which is to say dynamic, snappy, bright, musical, and articulate. There's a bit of a mystery here as to what exactly they are, though they sound good enough that I'm not even considering replacing them.
WIRING
The CTS pots can be pulled to split the coils. When split the humbuckers don’t sound like true single coils, nor like a P-90, though they do sound interesting. I find the middle position with the bridge in full humbucker mode and the neck pup split to be a very nice tone. The sweep of the CTS volume and tone controls is nuanced and perfect. All of the nasal and honky tones one gets by rolling back the tone knob on a real Gibson are here. In fact, with a combination of the coil splitting and the highly responsive tone knobs I can even get some of the unique flavors of the Gibson Varitone switch. Everything is wired in via quick connect.
NECK
The neck is beefier than a so called 60s neck, which is what it’s advertised as. I own a 2019 Gibson LP Standard 60s, and a 2020 Gibson LP Standard 50s, and the neck of this Epi Studio is much closer to the feel of the 50s Les Paul neck.
An inspection of the neck pickup rout revealed that the guitar does not appear to have a long neck tenon, which was disappointing. Even my $130 Harley Benton L-150 Plus has a long neck tenon.
The frets are level and the ends are perfectly dressed.
The parched Indian laurel fretboard was in desperate need of a drink. A slathering of mineral oil both moisturized the wood and darkened it up considerably.
The gold tuners are Grovers.
SET UP
Often on a Les Paul I find myself needing to nearly bottom out the bridge adjustment to get the action where I like it. On this guitar the bridge was still set relatively high when I got the action properly set. To compensate for the steep angle of the strings coming of the backside of the bridge I top wrapped them. The only other modification I made while setting the guitar up was filing the GraphTech nut slots, which were a little high, especially on the bass side.
CONCLUSION
For $200 I consider the guitar a steal, with the quality molded hard case thrown in as a free bonus. It's a good sounding and playing Les Paul, bereft of any cosmetic frills, which is exactly what a Studio is supposed to be. After putting on a new set of strings, setting it up in E flat tuning, taking some time to really dial in the pickups, and doing my usual tweaks, I'd go so far as to say I'm kinda in love with this thing.
