Les Paul Custom Pro
Reviewed by:
CkY freak, on june 01, 2012 3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 500
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: This is a 2012 model Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro. This is in a limited edition Silverburst finish. Here's a quick run down of the features:
- Body Material: Mahogany
- Top Material: Maple Veneer
- Neck Material: Mahogany
- Neck Shape: 1960's SlimTaper; D profile
- Neck Joint: Glued In
- Truss Rod: Adjustable
- Scale Length: 24.75"
- Fingerboard Material: Rosewood with mother-of-pearl BLOCK inlays
- Neck Pickup: Epiphone ProBucker-2; 4-wire
- Bridge Pickup: Epiphone ProBucker-3; 4-wire
- Controls: Epiphone All-metal 3-way Pickup Selector, Neck Pickup Volome with push/pull coil-tapping, Bridge Pickup Volume with push/pull coil-tapping, Neck Pickup Tone, Bridge Pickup Tone
- Binding: Body Top - 5 ply (White/Black), Body Back - 5 ply (White/Black), Fingerboard - 1 ply (White), Headstock - 5 ply (White/Black), Body - 1ply (cream)
- Fingerboard Radius: 12"
- Frets: 22; medium-jumbo
- Bridge: LockTone Tune-o-matic/Stopbar
- Nut Width: 1-11/16"
- Hardware: Nickel
- Machine Heads: Grover Tuners; 14:1 ratio // 10
Sound: When I played in a band, I played mostly metal. Not death metal. Not metalcore. Just metal. Think the heavier side of Dream Theater, with Cky mixed in. I only ever played RG's during those years, primarily an Ibanez RG1570, which is kind of a "metal" guitar. Anyway, this guitar could definitely handle what I played. When I'm at home, I'll play anything. Journey, Children Of Bodom, Paul Gilbert, John Mayer. Whatever. I like a lot of different music. I could probably use it to play any of it - because of the coil tap feature. I can get the humbucker sounds for the metal, and get a single coil sound for any Eric Clapton songs I may play. I'm using a pretty simple set up. Its a Maxon OD9 and an MXR Carbon copy into a Mesa Boogie F100 w/ B-52 4x12 cabinet. I just crank up the gain a little bit on the OD9 to make up for the lower output pickups this guitar has, and its ready to go! It is slightly noisy when you use the coil tap, but that's to be expected. Its got a great warm, thick sound. I'm really digging it. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: The silverburst finish is what drew me to this guitar initially. Its awesome. They make this guitar in black and alpine white, but I definitely liked this finish the best. Everything was great right of the shelf. I did adjust the action, but only slightly. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Being that I've never played an LP style guitar before, there was a few things I noticed. I saw there were some minor dings in the pickup covers. I've never used pickups with the covers on them before, so I don't know if they're all susceptible to dents and stuff, or if I just got a bad one. Pretty disappointing though considering the amount of play it probably gets at guitar center. I did replace the strap buttons with a DiMarzio cliplock, so I can't comment on those. As far as withstanding playing live, I think it could. I play pretty aggressively - and I never even knock it out of tune. But in my experience, you should never gig without a backup, regardless of how great you think your guitar is. // 8
Impression: I walked into Guitar Center just to kill time. I had no intentions, nor did I even want a guitar. So for me to walk out with this, it had to be a great guitar. I love it. I'm so glad I bought it. I haven't put it down since I brought it home. I played it for about 30 minutes in the store when I was demoing it. It just felt natural. This is way different than any other guitar I've ever owned. I've owned several Ibanez RG's and Fender Strats. So this is much different in sound and feel than the others. I love the coil tap, and the pickups! They sound great and I'm glad I have the option of the 2 sounds. I've been playing for 9 years and I've played so many different styles during that time. I could see myself playing all them with this guitar. This is the cheapest guitar I've ever bought, and I would put it up with my other ones that I paid $1000+ for. No joke. I think its that great. Maybe I just got a really good one, but you should definitely play one if you get the chance! // 9
Les Paul Custom Pro
Reviewed by:
saxman007, on january 11, 2013 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 399
Purchased from: Russo Music
Features: Mine is made in Korea with a Mahogany body and Maple veneer top. The neck is a slim-taper d-profile and is satin finished. It's a glued-in neck joint with usual truss rod and with pearloid block markers. The pickups are Pro-Bucker 4 wires and both volume knobs are push-pull style for coil tapping. The scale length is 24 3/4" and the fretboard radius is 12". It has Grover 14:1 tuning machines and it stays in tune as well as any other guitar I own. I got it on sale because it has a mark in the surface lacquer in between the bridge and the tailpiece.
I'm a guy who only cares how a guitar plays/sounds, not how it looks and I'm sure I'll scratch it soon anyhow. Mine is the silverburst color which, like I said, I got more reasonably due to the mark between bridge and tailpiece. // 10
Sound: I work in a blues-rock band and use a Fender Tele Custom Plus, a Fender Strat, kind of "custom" style considering that almost everything in has now been replaced at least once; I've owned it since 1969, first guitar I bought after being released from the military, another Fender custom made guitar and now this Epi LP Custom PRO. The coil tapping gives some slight tonal variations that I've been looking for. I use a Mesa Boogie Mark V with two matching speaker cablinets along with an Artec Compression pedal, an Artec Blues Box and a Big Muff. It is a little noisy when the coil tapping is engaged but I think that is to be expected. I've done quite a lot of experimenting with the volume knobs and there is a lot of variation of tone available when using one pickup tapped with differing tone settings. I don't usually consider an LP as a blues guitar but this gives me a nice alternative on certain blues songs that are "more rock than blues". // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: Factory set-up means nothing to me as the factories are generally only given about 60 seconds to do set-up and besides, we all have our own preferences anyway. If you expect a guitar to be set up just right for you right out of the box, well, it's just sideways thinking. I changed pickup height just slightly on the neck pickup, not because it was badly done, it was personal preference. Everything was properly done and I made no corrections and fixed nothing other that the pickup height already mentioned. I'm very pleased. // 9
Reliability & Durability: It has done well under live playing so far and has endured a couple of incidents where I couldn't get it on the plane and had to give it to a guy at the gate. I use a Stone double guitar bag and it works in getting it on a plane most of the time. Hardware is fine so far but I will change the strap buttons to strap locks in the near future, only because I prefer them. As stated before, I take 3-4 guitars on a gig so there's always a backup, although not a duplicate. As far as the finish wearing off, I really could care less. That's not my requirement. // 9
Impression: I've been playing a long time, first professional gig was in 1956 at age 14. I've played surf rock, rock n roll, jazz, pop, country, country rock, folk, some bluegrass and blues, which is my favorite. I own other guitars that don't fit with the blues or which I don't want to take on traveling gigs including a G&L Will Ray Z3, a couple of custom made guitars that I purchased from the original buyers when they needed money, a customized Squire and a couple of Takamine acoustic/electric guitars, both EG523's. I have the Mesa Boogie Mark V mentioned as well as a GBX Canadian made amp, a Crate US made GX112 and a Fender DeVille plus a Vox AC130 an Orange 10watt practice amp and a Peavey Bass amp. I own a dozen foot pedals but primarily use the Artec compression and blues pedals, a ModTone Chorus and a Big Muff.
I adjusted the action and reintonated, which I do with every guitar I every pick up. I love the way it plays; there's nothing I "hate" about it at all. Really like that both pickups are tappable. I didn't compare it to anything. I just happened to be in the store, say the knob tabs saying coil tapped and decided to give it a try. I wasn't looking for a guitar but decided that would offer something all my current guitars didn't have. // 10
Les Paul Custom Pro
Reviewed by:
Billy Wilkins, on june 05, 2012 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 350
Purchased from: PMT
Features: Has the switch between treble and rhythm etc. Has 4 nozzles for you to change how each pickup sounds which is pretty good. I don't really need to explain much here you can easily Google it. // 10
Sound: I mainly play rock and metal and this guitar is perfect for it. I play it through my Line 6 Spider IV 15 watt amp and it the sounds it amazing. For example I was playing "Waking The Demon" and the sound doesn't sound any different to the original version. I also play other stuff like Blink-182 and Trivium and it also sounds great for playing their stuff. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar looks lovely. It's a nice black with gold pickups, tuners etc. The headstock looks great and so does the features on the body. Overall a really good looking guitar for any type of band. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Already knocked it a few times but there's no signs of marks on it or dents so the durability is good. // 10
Impression: Before I used played a Ibanez RG350M but that's nothing compared to this Les Paul, I haven't put it down since I got it. Great guitar I would recommend it to anyone. Would definitely buy again if I broke it/ got stolen. // 10
Les Paul Custom Pro
Reviewed by:
xXkriegyXx, on october 23, 2012 0 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: A$ 800
Purchased from: Barrosa music
Features: This is a 2012 model guitar. Mine was made in Korea. It has a 24 fret mahogany neck with medium frets and a rosewood finger board. It has a thick mahogany body. It has a tune-o-matic bridge. With 2 passive alnico classic humbuckers. It was 1 volume and 1 tone knob for each of the pickups and a 3 way toggle switch. It has grover pickups. Mine came with case and tools. // 10
Sound: I play a lot of hard rock and classic rock and it suits my need perfectly. I play it through a Line 6 Spider on the crunch setting and it sounds amazing. It has the amazing Les Paul sound of a Gibson with out costing thousands of dollars. It has no buzzing or any other noise. This guitar is perfect if your looking of a Gibson Les Paul without the pricetag. It is amazing when playing guns and roses and most hard rock and rock music. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: The action was a bit high but that was easy. It is easy to adjust the innunition and the bridge hight. The pickups were set up perfectly and I didn't have to change them. It had no flaws with it at all. It was in perfect quality. It didn't even have any scratches on the back. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I have given this guitar a workout and it still looks and sounds brand new. The hardware is solid and it doesnt't look like it will br breaking in my lifetime. I wouldn't play without a back up with this guitar but I do anyway just in case it gets tolen or anything. This guitar will be one to pass on to you kids. // 10
Impression: This guitar is perfect for any kind of rock. No matter what kind you play this guitar will suit your needs. This sounds amazing through a Line 6 spider but it sounded amazing in store through an Orange Dual Terror and a Marshall amp. If it was lost or stolen I'd definitely buy another one without a doubt. I love the features it comes with and the amazing sound and tone you get from it. I compared it to a Gibson Tribute but this was better, it sounded better and felt better.
Any of the LP 'Pro's can switch the humbucker to single coils.
These are pretty guitars, and great deals. I had one for a few years. The only knock i have is the stock pickups. I got burstbuckers and it made an incredible difference. Not sure if you can split those to single coils or not, though. Great looking LP.
Thanks guys for the kind words! I tried to be as informative as I could. I highly recommend just trying one. I dont know what the consistency is on these though. I played a les paul custom (not a pro) in this same finish, and this guitar was MILES better than the other one. It played, and sounded a lot better. I either got a really good one, or the other one may have been a fluke. Either way, its a great guitar for the money. Also a quick note - I got this guitar ON SALE. I think its regularly $599 in this finish.
I just picked this and an ej-200ce/n acoustic, loving epiphone for stepping up with better product. The LP is really nice but the tone coming from the pickups is really nice but am on the fence if I want to replace it with emg 81/85r (so i cant still coil tap)
I hear you man. Like I said, i played a guitar IDENTICAL to the one I bought, and it didnt play well at all. Thats why I question the consistency of epiphone guitars. Maybe I just got a really exceptional one.
Epiphone quality went down when the costs of everything went up. Instead of raising their prices in order to keep the same quality of higher end Epiphones, they decided to lower the quality and keep the price the same.
thats the one i recently got... decided i hate the pickups now after tinkering with it more I ordered the gold emg 81/85... and am taking it to my tech to have the neck stripped and tung oiled for a smoother feel
all im saying is to learn the instruments components.
any guitar out of a box or at a store will not be to your needs or feel unless you get lucky. you need to put some effort into taking potential to its fullest.
please learn to do all-point setups and any guitar you have an ear for will play just as well as they sound.
too many guitars get downed and sold off because the owner doesnt polish the gem.
I promise, Ive had a lemon before. the only reason i ever returned it was a torqued truss rod that wouldnt evenly pitch the neck. other than that, high frets, action, playability can all be adjusted.
no flaming please
just trying to save some of those older guitars out on the streets.
Same story here, I went into GC with no intentions of buying a guitar, I was just looking at LPs. I never counted on this guy though. It just feels SO good in your hands (Jukebox Hero, anyone?). Sooooo it wound up coming home with me haha
No les paul custom pro is made in Korea their made in epiphone china plant gibson Qingdao Factory nothing wrong with them their fine guitars!!
so what’s with the obsession with Korean made epiphones
epiphone moved their production from Korea to their owned facility in china, they sighted better quality control were reasons. The reason however was largely cost . Korean guitars at the time had reached the quality that rival any usa made guitar and rightly so wanted more money for their craftsmanship, just go and look at Korean made guitars today they cost as much as some Gibson guitars.
Korean epiphones are made more traditional correct than china made epiphones. Korean epiphones are made with 2 piece solid maple tops with a 2 piece African mahogany back like any les paul should be made.
Their china counterparts differ, they first use solid multiple pieces for their bodies 3 to 5 and hide this with a African mahogany veneer. The top of their guitars differ by model most don’t contain a maple cap and instead use a mahogany cap like a original gibson les paul custom construction a added maple veneer on top. Presumingly because the bodies blanks are the same for standards and customs and hence why they have a included veneer as its cheaper to make one than a posed to two blanks.
China guitars are not bad at all, their VERYGOOD guitars just not as good epiphone Korean years I like them both personally and would not hesitate to buy a china made epiphone, and perhaps this might help you to understand what the differences are.
