Epiphone Les Paul SL - Can an £89 guitar be any good?? - Andertons Music Co. 

My first Guitar I’ve ever bought, I don’t care what people say about them, I love everything about it, especially the sunburst wood on it.

Hey Lee, all of us here in Commentville send our love and best wishes to you, your good lady and the expanding clan. Congratulations ! And please consider naming your new youngling Miku.

The reason they always use a good amp when doing a demo of a guitar is to eliminate a variable. So you KNOW the amp is solid, you KNOW Rob and Cap can play, so if there is any flaw in the tone it’s almost certainly on the guitar.

Yeah, the frets on the one i got were like a roller coaster, the 3rd 5th and 8th all needed to be leveled to be playable, and half the frets higher than the 12th are still buzz city. Its still a fun guitar though and I've been having fun working on it. If you are going to learn to work on frets, might as well start on a $99 guitar.

To answer all the posts about this being a great guitar to modify, I just don’t agree! You could easily spend £100-200 on mods, and you’d still essentially have a guitar that plays like an £89 guitar! If you want a mod project then I’d suggest looking for something that needs some TLC on eBay - like a used Classic Vibe Squier or Yamaha Pacifica. I think this guitar is just fun for what it is - a great looking, ok playing & fun sounding guitar for only £89.

i'm good and whelmed thank you

Received mine yesterday, in Vintage Sunburst. Here is what I think: These guitars, like most well made epiphone entry-level models, need nothing more than fresh strings and a good setup. But it goes beyond just slapping strings on. Lot's of noobs complain about how the tuners suck, and how quick they were to replace them. Some already had the replacements before the guitar! If you string up using the locking method, demonstrated by Gary Brawer (look him up), you can enjoy the most budget guitars without having to replace a thing (as long as they are well built guitars, like Epiphones are). With the locking method of stringing, lubricating the nut with a pencil, and properly stretching the strings, I can keep it perfectly in tune, no slipping at the tuner or buzzing or problems with the nut. Everything works as it should. The wraparound bridge, another common hasty replacement, works perfectly as well. I use 9-42 D'Addario strings and play blues, jazz, classic rock and alternative rock and the pickups will play any of these genres well. The pickups, which you can adjust (modders rarely do this, but they are quick to throw in replacements which they still do not adjust smh) sound great and remind me of a telecaster tone, although sometimes it sounds like p90s. Also, I wish I could share a picture of the frets: they are medium jumbo and perfectly installed, it would seem the neck was pulled from a much more expensive Epiphone, that's how nice they are. I polished them and they look great, no fret spout or sharp frets as reported by other people when they first came out. I put chrome telecaster knobs on it and I am happy with it stock. Bottom line: get one and enjoy it for what it is. If you are a modder, at least spend time with it before throwing unnecessary components that will take time and money away when you can be enjoying this. If you have some decent amps, tube or not, or modeling amps, you will find many great tones with this cheap but killer ax. I got the satin finish and it is a resonant joy to play.

I just bought one and I love it. I am just beginning to learn to play and this is my first guitar. No complaints especially for the price.

Lee, that outro jam was one of the best i have heard you play! So tasteful. Great work man!

God damn Captain, your playing with this backing track was absolutely fantastic!

I own one. Of my 10 guitars, it's my most played. I got a good one. Plays great out of the box. No bad fret ends, action is nice, sounds good acoustically. Changed the bridge pickup, but didnt need to. I like it. It gets more play than any of my other Epiphones, Squires, or LTDs. :::EDIT::: I own a cherry burst, which isn't gloss finish like the solid coloured models.

Actually it's the amps that make everything sound good.

I reckon if you plugged this into a Boss Katana of some description, high gain and heavy on the bass and played some dirty punk through it this guitar would be perfect. It's not a guitar for heavy metal and insane shredded solos, it's a guitar for that gritty early Green Day, Nirvana, Jack White sort of deliberately cheap and harsh tone.

Got one of these bad boys and I’m going to have some fun lol Something about cheap guitars is that I don’t worry so much with damaging it or whatnot and Epiphone makes pretty good guitars even at this price point. The quality of beginner guitars nowadays is crazy

Everybody should have one of these! When I were a lad playable guitars started at about £100. 1970. £2000ish today... Gilmore could record his next album on one of these, and no-one would ever know...

So the guitars aren't great but I will say there was a looseness and childish kind of fun to the playing. There is something to be said for that I think

Do a mod challenge with these for £200 then put them up against the price equivalent guitar.

The black pickguard on the burst makes the pickups look like P90's at distance.

The Captain plays some really nice riffs on this video, getting better all the time Cap'n 😊

Lee's playing on this episode is just fantastic. I don't listen to a lot of guitar music with big long solos or instrumentals, and I normally skip through the jams a little, but I actually stuck it out for a while listening to the playing on this one.

Is it me or Lee's playing is drastically improving? Keep on rockin'!

These things are so cheap maybe you guys could grab two off the shelf and have another Mod Challenge

Epiphone’s $99 version of the 1960’s Gibson Melody Maker. I love them.

I'd be interested to see one of these that has been modified with all new hardware and electronics vs a LP shape guitar of similar cost. Epiphone Les Paul standard is £399... You can get a lot of upgrades for £310.

When I taught mobile music stuff at Apple, I bought one of these and an iRig to show how folks could spend around $250 and use free GarageBand tools to lay tracks, learn, etc right on their phone. Great little guitar for the price, especially with how light it is. It gets a lot more play at home than I figured it would.

i recently bought the same sunset yellow sl and it is absolutely amazing. its a great base for a guitar that can be customized to a number of variations. yes the frets are a little unlevel but get yourself a damn file and you cant go wrong. i personally love it for blues and funk.

Upgrade path for one of thes: Roller bridge, Bigsby trem, locking tuners and stacked/hum cancelling pickups. If you add these up going from the cheapest Amazon prices you would pay £63.95 for the lot. I challenge Chappers and Captain to do this mod with one of those Epiphones and post the results in a review video.

I remember when they first came out, I immediately said it was a remake of the Melody Maker, and the Epiphone host on FB said it wasn't. Now here it is 2022 and what are they calling them? The Epiphone Melody Maker E1.......I just bought one, and am replacing the electronics with a Lindy Fralin set of P90's, new harness wired for "50's style", and am working on the fret ends and going to put a little rolloff on each side of the fretboard. It's a 43mm nut width, slim 60's style neck, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, poplar body. Not as heavy as mahogany body, but heavier than basswood. I like it. It's going to be my Poor boy's 50's Les Paul Special.

I JUST GOT ONE, FOR THE MONEY, YOU CAN'T GO WRONG, I LOVE MINE, A GREAT DEMO, THANKS, COUSIN FIGEL

Mine arrives tomorrow. I can't wait to hate it! I also can't wait to be incredibly impressed. A mixed bag of surprises!

For the money, it seems like a really fine guitar.

Just wanted to say they play fine after you take some time to set them up. And new strings are a must buy if you do buy this guitar. Intonation is adjustable by a screw at both ends of the bridge. I'm honestly impressed for the price of the guitar and the fact the neck was gloss I actually really love this guitar and play it regularly alongside my other few guitars. Has strangely good acoustic resonance.

I really enjoy these videos and I love the Anderton's channel but what is the point of plugging a £89 guitar into a £2000 Friedman rig? People looking to purchase this guitar are not going to have a two thousand pound boutique amp standing around. Next time, could you maybe use a more realistic setup like a 50W Boss Katana or something that is below £500?

So rob has found a guitar that doesn't 'play great'

SL Shaffordable Light

I would have been happy to have a beginner guitar like that one when I started. Beginner guitars back in the 90s were horrible. This is really decent for beginners. Cheap hardware and wood but good build quality.

Next year's holiday special... buy a Strymon Timeline, get a free Epiphone guitar...

I got one, I love the thing. I have 7 electric guitars, and it's my most played for an electric other than my vintage 60s Epiphone Olympic. I do plan on some mods eventually when I have time to put some work in, but mine had great action and playability out of the box. It's lightweight and I love the sound and look. I play it DI through a Marshall Class 5 normally. Just gotta play what you like and makes you happy, and mine makes me very happy!

Honestly this is an amazing looking guitar!

Not for sure but SL could possibly mean "Student Line".Congrat's to you and the Mrs on you're addition to the family Lee.Have a great holiday season to all of the Andertons crew and families.

4:21 Thanks for the jumpscare

Congratulations Lee! Happy for you. I have a daughter and it's awesome being a daddy. I'm already teaching her guitar among other life skills. She has a squier Stratocaster. I'm researching a cheap Epiphone for myself. Think il go with something a little more higher end than this one lol. Good luck buddy

The Captain really nailed the playing on this one... 👌

I love it😍😍 I'm a newbie just learning. I got the same guitar in the cherry sunburst vintage. God u guys play it so beautifully.

Mod them. As different from each other as you possibly can. That would be cool!

I own the yellow one . I bought it from someone that had it worked on for performance wise in a music shop. Not a bad guitar for the price . Its very fun to play with . Well mine is as the tension has been lowered .

"Your jelly-filled light buckets...." Chappers you awesome! :D

Awesome to see Lee implement what he learned from his lessons from Pete and Ariel. Your solos are so much more fitted to the backtracks now! Also congrats on your new child!

I went to my local guitar shop. Lifted one, played it, bought two of them, yellow and torquise. I've always been a les paul fan but there's something about the sl line.

I just pulled the trigger on a Pacific Blue SL. Excited to have a telecaster sounding LP with a wrap around bridge, rosewood fretboard, 3x3 tuners and 22 frets. Everything the Squier Telecasters are NOT. No finicky saddles to deal with or string through bridge, no maple neck. Sounds great when overdrive, kind of like P90s, clean sounds like a Tele. I love it.

It’s kinda like the Gibson melody maker but in Epiphone

Thanks for doing the SL and Lee best wishes on the new little Anderton :)

Chapper's playing in this was off the charts

man, you guys are really trying to sell those guitars with that intro. LOVE IT!

Epiphone presents the 2017 Les Paul SL™, the most affordable 2-pickup Les Paul ever made with a slim lightweight Poplar body with powerful Epiphone Ceramic pickups...... So Slim Lightweight?

I own one of these in the Heritage Cherry finish... contrary to what Lee said about the bridge, it can be adjusted enough to get the intonation better than an acoustic guitar, and usually you can adjust the action to be very fast... that being said, I have mine adjusted to 5/64th on the top E and 4/64th on the treble E... plays like butter... also, those pickups sound far better than you might expect at first inspection... very full sound, not quite a P90, but fuller than a Fender single coil, and they sound great (albeit there is some hum), but when you select the middle position, they become a huge, fat, juicy, full, rich, wide range humbucker... by tweeking the pickup heights of the front and back, you can dial in an incredible custom humbucker sound of your very own... much more guitar (for yer money) than at first glance... and then there is the finish... mine has the very thin open pore satin finish, and it has already begun to relic in a most pleasing manner along the edges of the guitar... the poplar is quite soft, and will dent in a heartbeat... all in all, a guitar (set up as I have it now) I would hand to any player without cringing...

Lee: What do you think it stands f... Rob: SLASH!

Congrats and luck with the coming baby !!!

SL - Slightly Lacklustre?

Just picked one of these up in yellow like Rob had, sanded down the neck so it’s satin instead of the gloss. Playing through my Bugera V22 it sounds great. Only issue was it had one bad feet that I fixed. For $119 it’s a steal, I have 10 guitars and just bought it for fun and I would 100% recommend!

Well now that you said it. We need to see you guys buy and mod them how you would see fit. Then sign the guitars and give Les Pauls SL's away at the end of the show.

These are two of the best sounding guitars you've ever reviewed!

I actually love the look of them

Great playing in this video Capt. Lee!!

I would love to hear this through a BOSS Katana mini, that would be an insanely cheap rig.

In regards to the bridge, one could always change it for a wrap around tune-o-matic (yes, those exist). I think it's a good guitar if you wanna try to get into customizing your guitar. It's a good modding platform.

Guitar looks great and sounds decent too,great buy for the money

Loved the Captain's playing in this one!

Lee's wife is playing Command & Conquer 2?

Have to say I love the look of the yellow one. It's just something a little different with the two single coils on an LP body.

Green Day used to do the 'give a cheap guitar away' thing with squiers

All wood and very light. I'm considering converting one to a glue-in neck to reduce weight even further. Pickups are nice sounding. Just going to upgrade the pots and tuners after that.

Or if you spend another £11, you can get the hard tail bullet strat. You get adjustable intonation, and an extra pickup. The nut is pretty nasty though.

I put gibson humbuckers in mine and upgraded the pots, switch, input jack, tuners and bridge. I know how stupid that sounds but honestly it was worth it. They're super lightweight guitars and you can do so much under that pickguard

I always have a good laugh when that coffee cup explodes. LoL!!!

Really appreciate your honest advice, Lee. I fall into the 'intermediate" category you described. Was tempted to buy one to do up just because of the colour... Think I'm going to spend a bit more to get a better quality starting point

10 seconds into this video I knew I was gonna get one!

For anyone who sees this, know that I thought it was absolutely total crap out of the box and was not even interested in putting on the new bridge, nut, tuners, and strings I'd bought for it ahead of time. A few weeks later, I finally decided I should at least try it out because it wasn't worth it to ship it back to the seller during a pandemic. Holy cow! Changing the nut, bridge, and strings (roughly an extra $50 with shipping) gave me a guitar that I will keep and play, regularly. (I tightened the stock tuners and felt they were holding tune quite well so no new tuners install yet.) So, for $150, it is so worth the parts upgrades and would make a great guitar for anyone, honestly. Yay!

8:18 "POOF, child." I died. But a child is born.

Congratulations Captain on the new addition to the Anderton family when he/ she arrives.

Not everyone has a music store at the disposal. Damn Captain

Cheers Andertons Crew...! From Newport Beach, Ca. My friends SL = Slimline🎉

They look like some vintage creation from the early 50's. They have that era's style... hmmmm... I want to make one rusty, banged up and burned. make it look like a guitar in the Fallout video game universe.

I can't believe that I watched this video 5 years ago and I now own one just like the one Lee is playing. I got a lucky one because I find it plays like a champ.

Unless you're particularly drawn to the design (which I can't see why you would be) the Squier Bullet Strat would probably be a better buy for not much more

The finish on the red one is awesome

This is the guitar you smash at the end of the show.

I bought a 2021 Sunset Yellow LS , and it plays just fine right out of the box. Now I’m doing a few modifications to it , because that’s why I bought it in the first place. It’s just a all around cool looking guitar 🎸

Bought this as a slide guitar for doing up. Perfect for that : )

Well done for demoing the clean tones as well as all the grunge.

You should do a Anderson's instrumental CD with all the guitarist on it that outdo jam could be called the £ 89 guitar jam for example .thoughts ??????

for all those who make a serious decision to learn to play this instrument, one thing is certain, every guitar produces a sound in accordance with its performance, and this is called the color of the sound, SO THERE IS NO GOOD COLOR OR BAD COLOR..THERE IS ONE THAT YOU LIKE....OR NOT, SO THERE IS NO GOOD OR BAD GUITAR?! ALL GUITARS ARE LIKE WOMEN, they suit some and some don't... with a good amplifier and a good processor, I use the AX3000G KORG on my recordings, you can get a good sound, let's say this Epiphone SL guitar has a great sound and with good parameters it can be used as a professional instrument , best regards Edy ..

For 90 pounds, it's probably still cheaper and miles better than the guitar I started with 40 years ago.

The Pacific Blue one was down to 77€ on Black Friday and this video just saved me 77 euroquids. Thank you!

DANG CAPTAIN! DAT SOLO IN THE INTRO WAS LIT, AS THE KIDS SAY

The captains tone is actually amazing

So basically it's one of those guitars that's a wonderfull template to mod the ever living shit out of? AWESOME!

9:43 whenever Rob plays that lick, lee makes that face.

I actually liked the guitar, bought one around the end of 2017 but returned it because of intonation problems or else I would have kept it

My Friday night regular gig usually ends in a punch up so I'm havin one of these. They sound fine. That end jam was mighty tasty chaps. Carry on !