As a beginner, i bought a LP Special II for 50 bucks second handed. Had it set up and evaluated by a good friend who builds guitars and owns some decent Gibsons ... He said it sounded and played pretty damn good even with the stock hardware :)
Have a Special II for way over 10 years now which I got new from the store back then. Its build in '09 can't really tell when I bought it exactly. I still like to play it today. No mods at all. Maybe i will change the pickups and mechanics some day but it's actually more than enough as it comes out of the factory.
That was my first guitar ever and it's probably one of the best sounding/playing guitars I've owned... The tuners are bad but that's a cheap and easy fix, that guitar is a workhorse and it doesn't sound as bad as strat/tele type begginers guitars (specially if you play rock and it's subgenres)
I have the P90 version of this guitar. Had it a couple of years After setting it up it’s a good playing and good sounding guitar. A great introduction to P90s.
I just bought one off Reverb. I've been playing Squire Teles for 10 years now, and I really like the single coil sound, but the fretboard and neck are just not that comfortable. I'd played a Gibson LP Special, and liked the way it played, so I decided to try the Epiphone. Same red finish as the one he's playing, but the single coils.
only this for everyone . I have two of these and both are awesome guitars and play great . I've been in bands all my life and I play both of these on stage and dam proud of it !
@@landonbailey I can't get some crap that you can buy in both Americas. That makes us even. Nick in the States had Vintage single cut. Maybe you should ask him if he still has it? Or try getting it from someone that doesn't needs it? Or just borrow it.
@@landonbailey As a side note. Is there any particular reason you don't try Ibanez, Jackson or Schecter guitars? Would be quite entertaining to see you with Jem Jr.
Nice choice on the color. Protip for opening the back: Back all screws out but keep 2 screws just slightly threaded so you can grab onto them, slightly push laterally, and then pull out the plastic cover using the screws as grips.
To be fair, the les Paul is closer to the telecaster than the strat in terms of the “LP vs strat”. Debate. The actual competitor to the strat is the SG as both guitars were designed to replace and fix the issues of the previous generations.
I think it's probably safe to say that the entry-level Squier is going to be a better value than the entry-level Epiphone. But having played a wide variety of Epiphones, I'd also say that, on average, the upper-tier Epiphones are a better value than a Gibson. That is unless you can find a very good deal on a used Gibson.
I just cant get over the feel of the Epi LP compared to my Gibson LPs. I don’t know how else to explain it except that they have all felt “hollow”. I want to like them. They just don’t feel right
i tried an old Epi Special ii the other day, and damn! i found the 14 in radius sexy as f--k (coming from my strat's 9.5) My complain with Les Paul's is that they feel too heavy for their size (compared to fenders), and in my case, those lightweight plywood bodies + straight neck + 14 inch radius seem great for modding yet, have to agree that a proper strat would be the $400 Classic Vibe, yet a proper LP would be the $600 Standard series,
I recently acquired a used “Vintage” model of this line and it appears to be very similar to the “Special”. The fret ends were EXTREMELY sharp, but after dressing them up, I must say that I’m very happy to have it in my collection🎵🎶👍
Sure it’s low end but it’s budget priced and good for the money. I love how it’s so light. I sold my squier Tele (affinity) because it weighted 11pounds and was way too heavy for me (I loved playing it). I’m buying one of these, it’s small enough for me , weights a few pounds and won’t make my shoulders ache after an hour of playing.
@@benallmark9671 I decided the hardware wasn’t the quality I wanted so I bought a more expensive guitar, an Ibanez artcore a63. It’s a sweet axe. Plays beautifully and light as a feather.
Enjoy your videos, Landon. I have one minor nitpick. There's no such thing as a beginner guitar. There are beginner players. This is a budget guitar. It has adjustable tuners, working pickups, a working 3-way switch, neck with frets, an adjustable bridge, and a body. There is nothing about this guitar that makes it any easier for a beginner to play. Just a pet peeve of mine - still watch and like your videos!
cheers! I definitely agree with what you say too. it's just a word :) Here's my definition: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RZnAVQE2JCs.html
The p90 in Tv yellow is a great guitar.. There's a few things about these that are better than most... The volume pot placement is perfect. Neck pickup can just be rewired in Parallel and it cleans up great... Switching between neck and bridge then works WAYYYY better. If pickups are really that bad.. Fleor HH Alnico V and Series-Parallel switching. Gotta switch the volume pot to an A500k with a push pull. Tuners are better if you take the covers off. Don't replace them replace the nut. Troglys is a bit of a corksniffer.. Forget him The body is usually poplar with a layer over front and back. The rest.. Idk That headstock isn't a Gibson. It's gonna hold. Theres a scarf joint and the wood is oriented right.. Get a brass nut for like $6 It's like a Melody Maker. Locksmith gets a Junior
I think I got the one that was just above that one, the special II. The frets were amazingly good. I sold it because the edges of the body of the guitar were kind of annoying when you played it. That's why the Les pauls are curved, and the strats have the arm cut as well. the telecasters also have this problem it's not as bad because the telecasters are also rolled at the edges. And they are a bit larger so you can sort of rest your arm on the surface.
I'd love to see a comparison between the most expensive Epiphone Les Paul and the cheapest Gibson with the same pickup configuration. Would be very interesting to see how the construction, fit and finish, and electronics compare.
Own the cheapest Les paul available. I think it was an SL. As a toy more than an instrument, and ended up liking it after spending some time on it. Things to note when buying one is buy a pack of strings to go with it for $5. I couldn't even get the guitar in tune with the original strings. I like the neck feel very comfy(even more than their more expensive models $400-600).Neck is actually round instead of having that strange flat spot. It came setup horribly so I spent some time setting it up. I went even further and did a full fret level/crown and it plays spectacularly!
I bought the P90 version of this on a whim a few years ago. I love the light weight. The tuning stability is not great, but it hasn’t been great on any of the Gibson’s I’ve owned either. That said, the tuners are junk, but it’s a guitar I paid about $100 for new. The P90s sound decent. They’re noisy, but the best P90s are.
I have an Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro II that I bought on a closeout - great guitar for the money. I've played a few of these specials - cheap and cheerful, I like them.
The Special II is the Humbucker version, the Special I is the P90. I have the P90 version, it's a workhorse of a guitar and a basic look. I's a slab LP, not going to wow anyone for looks, but it is going to do the typical LP job for sound/tone. I've had a 2017 that I bought in 2019. Sub $ 200 that summer, it was the best guitar of a 1/2 dozen I played that day. I still have it, no reason to sell it really, it just works, stays in tune with anything else that I have. I put a set of pure nickel Gibson LP 10-46's on it with the silk ball ends. I'm pleased with both the guitar & strings. The only gripe I have with it, not a Tune-A-Matic 2 piece bridge/stop bar. Would be nice to be able to add a Bigsby B5/50/500 Vibrato & roller saddles for this guitar. Outside of that play it until it's unplayable, buy another. Definitely a bang for the buck guitar. At one point, GC was selling these for $ 99.99. By the time I was into guitars, the sale price was $ 129.99. 2019, the P90 version was $ 149.,99. You can see that as long as it plays & sounds good, it's definitely getting into an Epiphone LP affordably. Oh, mine being the 2017, pre-Rosewood ban, so I win for the fretboard. I think anything in the budget price segment is going to suffer for fretboard wood material. And that sucks because inflation as it's been, you should get Rosewood for the prices that we're paying. Only the tree huggers could find a way to charge more for inferior materials and sell it as saving the planet, while screwing consumers doing that.
the best deal ever is the gibson 2013 LPJ....they were 500 and had total les paul specs.....including 490 &498 pickups...get one used if you see one...people dont sell them ....
RoHS is a certificate of compliance with global laws regarding things made with "hazardous" substances...it basically means that any materials used in the construction of those pickups is accepted for import by any of the countries who use that as their standard as to whether or not it's made of safe materials...
I heard your comment but if you are interested in getting into the Epiphone/Gibson world, Trogly is an excellent place to start. He's reviewed much of the new 2020 Epiphone collection. He's very informative and you could learn a lot. The $400+ 2020 Epiphones are vastly superior to the one featured here. Good video as usual, Landon.
For Epiphone's almost cheapest guitar, these get quite a bit of good reviews. Some people put upgrade pickups and an intonating bridge and nut on them. For $200 what more can you expect? It sounds okay. Beginners don't necessarily need a thousand-plus dollar instrument, since some people just give up 6 months later.
I bought one a couple of weeks ago and I was incredibly surprised. It has almost no issues. Tuning was great and intonation was very good. Pickups are super hot so not very good for more clean playing. I bought mine for 140. I guess I got really lucky
Same $139.99 yesterday for my son who's 14 and just starting. Definitely light and comfortable. I don't know a lot about guitars but it does seem finicky when tuning but at my no skill-skill level this thing was a great buy for me... I mean for my son.
It's good that they put that sticker on the back of the headstock, the one that shows a line through a trash bin. Otherwise people might just open this then throw it away. I don't like the non-adjustable intonation or individual string height. It's a pretty basic guitar compared with a Squier Bullet series in that respect.
The LP Special I has the wrap-around bridge. The Special II has the Tune-o-matic Bridge and Stop Tail. I have Special I P90, after scrubbing the frets steel wool, a little lemon oil on the Pau Ferro fingerboard, a GraphTech TUSQ XL nut and a set of tuners and I love the 'Plain Jane" slab body LP. The P90s are good, it stays in tune and bends pretty good. I keep mine in Open G and often play slide with it. It's really quite the little rocker and it doesn't matter if it gets damaged. I got a Special II (with the same Humbuckers) for my, at the time, Tween daughter. She was into Punk/metal. We didn't care too much for the stock pups, they were okay for the high gain rock that she wanted to do, but it ended up with a set of Dragon Fire HBs, that put it over the top for her. She ended up trading it for an low/mid level Ibanez GIO, which she didn't like as much.
Great for making it what you want. Fret job, Add a Volume and tone, Change the pickups and you make it an SG Pro style. I changed mine to P-90's love it. Still prefer the Fender Strat, but nice to have in the collection.
I have almost the exact same guitar only mine is about 45 years old and it is a Hondo Knock off. Mine has a real rosewood finger board and a tunomatic bridge with a separate stop tail piece. Over the years I have modified it so I can tap the coil on the bridge pickup and I can shift the phase on the neck pickup both done with push pull pots. I love this guitar. My friend, who has a 75 Gibson Les Paul Custom, played it and when I told him I paid only $140 for he said "I hate you"... It plays and sounds as well as any Les Paul I have ever picked up and he agrees.
Okay, If you buy one of these, get it with the P90s. That makes it worth it, otherwise I'd go Squire. Even the Pawn 51 strat is a pretty nice for yhe price alternative to this even though it looks like a Frankenstein parts guitar. As for Landon, pay 200 bucks more and get the high level EPIPHONE TV Yellow P90 LP Special for 2020 that is pretty close to the real Gison version. It even comes with CTS. pots. You will fall in love with it, Landon!
The singer in our band bought me one of these for my birthday last year. The exact same model! I kind of played it a bit but went back to the ESP and Strat. It just sat there in the box. In the dark. All alone. The other day I broke a string and reached for the Special 1. I was surprised at the playability. and sound. I've been picking for 45 years and this is just a great little guitar. Inexpensive but not too cheap. Planning to replace the bridge pickup with a Dimarzio SD. Change the machine heads and neck pickup in time maybe. Modders gonna mod. Thanks for your review. It's like I was there. Playing the exact same guitar. Only 2 years in the future.
for those beginner guitars you should use the little Boss amp, it would give a better demo of what someone would start out with on a budget. I use my boss to test play ability of a guitar it really gives you a better sense of how a guitar plays without the amp boosting it.
For the price I’m happy with it and always have my Martin acoustic. Wasn’t sure if I wanted an electric but overall it’s decent. Once I get better, I will purchase something higher quality down the road.
I have one of these from about 5-6 years ago and it was the Special with P90 pickups. Pretty much the same guitar ewith the exceptions being the pickups and the fretboard. Mine is actual Rosewood before the ban. I bought mine because like you point out, it is essentially a Telecaster. Now what is a Telecaster electronically but two pickuo, a master volume, a master tone, a three way selected switch and a output jack. I also picked up a Charvel Desolation DC2 and a Ltd Viper 400 because again, essentially a Telecaster but with different appointments. Needless to say I am a Tele guy first and foremost. My buddy actually was heavy into the model, his girlfriend and I split the bill on his and I liked his enough that I bought one for myself. The tuners are cheap but they work. My luthier put a bone nut on mine and that made all the difference. He also cleaned up the frets and fret ends. I live in Arizona and like Phil McKnight said, fret sprout is a big issue here. I also removed the poker chip and put Dunlop strap locks on mine. Funny thing is on the back of the headstock, mine has the Custom Shop logo in it. Landon the reason you had an issue with the body is that usually these guitars have veneers on the top and back. If you look at the side you will see that these are made out of multiple slim blocks of wood. I think mine was either 5 or 7 pieces. My guitar has a bit of a hump issue where the pieces are losing water weight unevenly. It does not adversly affect the tone but it feels odd running your hand across it. You are correct that these are cool mod platforms but keep in mind if you get $100 at resale at best if you mod the crap out of it. Mod it because it is what you want. Honestly if you want to swap pickups go the GFS route and redo the wiring with their quick connect system and for the price of one Seymour Duncan pickup you can try a pair of GFS pickups. Unless you were given a set of Seymour or Gibson's for free, price wise anything over $45 per pickup is overkill here. I kept my pickups stock because the P90s sound really good. I have also played out with this guitar and it plays fine. It is honestly one of the best $100 guitars (roughly what I paid for mine) out there. If you have the frets leveled and the nut replaced this can FEEL and SOUND more like a $350-$500 guitar of the wall. Keep in mind that Gretsch has pretty much the same guitar out there and it is getting tons of positive press and costs way more than these diamonds in the rough. PS- I have owned at least 7 Epiphone guitars. They tend to be pretty good but some are better than others.😎👍✨
I found one in beat up shape and missing the bridge for $20 at Salvation Army. It's a 2002 model. I bought it and ordered a roller bridge for like $13 on Amazon and it played great. A couple years later, I took it apart, stripped the paint off the body with a heat gun, repainted it red with a white dragon decal on it, installed humbucker size P90s and installed locking tuners on it. I didn't need to repaint the neck, it was in pretty good condition, so it's still that red wine color. Mine has the two piece bridge, not the one piece like this one.
I have the P90 version of this guitar that I purchased in 2017. Pretty good and fun to play but I started to get shinny blotches on the body due to it being a mat finish so I gave it a distressed look with some sandpaper. It's the only guitar I own that I have done that to. 😃
Not bad at all for a beginner's guitar. I would have been chuffed to get a guitar this good as a Xmas gift as a kid ,for sure. The wiring does look messy as does the soldering , but hey , don't peek and you won't have nightmares. In my mind , a good beginner instrument should be delivered ready to play , set up , intonated, have tuners that work and generally be a useful tool for someone to take their first steps on . "Fret sprout" incidentally wasn't an issue in my experience in the olden days of the 80's ,even on barely playable crap boxes. I believe this is down to the actual availability of properly dried wood that's available now to build guitars at a cheaper price more than anything else.
I got the wood wrong on the last video, the mass of the body wood is Okumu, aka African Mahogany. I accidentally slipped with a screw driver and it went right through pickup cavity. Over tightening the volume pot also crushed the veneer on the top. I was really disappointed. The 700T and 650R pickups are an Epiphone budget staple, I always found them to be decent.
I'm definitely too high rn! Just picked up the blue one yesterday for my son for $139.99! Great buy for what it is. Super comfortable. Thanks for video.
I had the P90 model of this guitar. I stripped the poly finish off and applied a stain and lacquer finish. The top and back have a wood laminate applied. The reason for the sloppy wiring is that the control cavity is so small they had to make the wires longer to make soldering easier. These are great little guitars....
I bought the Les Paul. It was my first electric guitar purchase and it has been doing me very well without any mods or anything, but in the future I'd definitely get a better one
I love mine as a mod platform. Learned plenty of skills on mine. Replacing tuning machines, soldering technique. New nut. And will refinish it soon as I did my first Ibanez Gax. One thing I do hate on it and would love to do is get rid of that bridge. I can’t stand the wraparound bridge.
I have an Epiphone SG Junior, bought online from Amazon. Single humbucker. I have not seen them on Amazon for about 2 years. It would campare to the Epiphone SG Special which just has 2 Humbuckers. Keep On Rockin'
The slim D, 43mm nut, 12" radius & 24. 75 scale neck is pretty user friendly for beginners(at least for me at least), not as much "reaching" as the Fender/Squier 25.5 scale lenght(I have in-between medium/large hands). The thing I learn about the Epi specials is that a bridge, tuner & nut upgrades make a significant difference in sustain & tuning stability. This is just the opinion of a bass player/guitar newbie, so take it with a grain of salt.
I got one for $90 a couple years back and part a while it started to get out of tune frequently and the tuners weren’t really much help. (Especially with the G string) I would only recommend this guitar for a first guitar
At the end of the day, Epiphone is a copy of the real deal Gibson Les paul try and play a standard or traditional or a junior, I'm not saying Epiphone is no good they are great guitars at an affordable price I have a few Epiphone including an Epiphone Casino Gary Clark Jr model it has USA P90 Dog ears pickups enjoying all your Videos, and thank you.
take a shot every time he says "packaging" lmao. Great video, love the honesty. I'm looking to get back into playing the guitar and the Les Paul body is my favorite style so far.
I dont know why they dont just call it a les Paul junior that's what it is.. and full disclosure my les Paul standard is a epiphone and I bought it and sold my modern Gibson les Paul becuz the epiphone just felt like a better guitar with cheap pickups... but like 90% of people I already had the pickups I prefer to put in it....
Headstock on Epi isn't the same angle as Gibson, so there is less chances of breaking the neck. Rocksmith gets you a junior. They're a great modding plateform. I modded the Epi Lp100. It sounds as good as a standard now :)
I bought Special II. The pick-up selector broke almost immediately (in 6:26 the soft metal U-shape bridge to the round part got loose and could not stay on position). The jack connector in 6:50 was loose for the plug. Overall quality is pretty low. Pups are still quite good and maybe the only thing for pros. Bought Yamaha.
I have the special two in gloss black changed tuners put in graph tech nut leveled frets lightly polished frets with 3000 grit paper and baby oil checked set intonation height and back tension at tail piece new strings plays Great keeps in tune
It was my first guitar back in 2005, back then it was a great starter and there wasnt any other option in that price range, save for a squier. Now a days kids are spoiled, you can get much better guitars for less money. On the second hand market they can be had for stupid cheap, $25-50 in my neck of the woods. I keep mine for that reason, no use in selling. I ended up modifying it a bit.
From Leo: The shielding on the control cover would be more impressive if it connected to anything grounded. With no shielding paint or ground tab to connect to, It does nothing. Like you said, bolt on neck is no problem, they are superior to glue on necks in my book. I have paid to have several glue on necks reset, never a problem with screw on necks. Check out LTD guitars they seem better in every category
Right, a laminated fretboard that is painted on. Not sure if this is correct. Usually they will use a cheap wood..but I've never seen plywood on a neck.
I say give one of their SGs a chance. I love my 2005 model. Plays wonderfully. Also, I felt you on trying to remove the back with no nails. I needed to deoxit a scratchy pot yesterday and the covering on my SG is the same way. I just flipped it over and gently tapped the front of the guitar a couple of times and it fell off in to my lap. Anyways, love your videos, keep it up!
It's a good sounding guitar, it needs tuner upgrade, that's its major weak point. No big deal,easy fix. I have a lefty one for ten years, it wasgigged for 2 years with no issue apart from tuning stability. Sounds great but tone control is pretty much on off, it's clear or muddy, that's the choice!
I have this in tv yellow. I replaced the pickup switch and I thought the pickups sounded muddy. Seymore Duncan phat cats fixed that with a clear perfect p-90 type sounds. Cobalt strings. Replaced the bridge too with individual saddles. Perfect intonation now. This little guitar blows squire away, I have had three squire strats and gave them away and got an MIM Strat and modified it too. It’s hard to get exactly what you want.
That wiring looked good to me I wire all my guitars and that looked great lol. Maybe not the best soldering job it. The fretboard in my special (P90 version) is really dark but feels and plays nice. Fretwork is amazing. Pretty sure those ceramic pickups are very hot 🔥. The tuners definitely have to go.
@Guitarist 2711 That's unfortunate. You would think if these guitars are geared towards beginners they'd at least wire it up right? That 3 way toggle wiring changes so much depending on the amount of volumes and tone knobs.
Excellent review - very helpful advice, especially for potential buyers on a budget. And it was nice that you apologized to Jane! "No offense to Jane, if you're watching…" LOL
I fully agree with your take on the guitar . .I have the cheaper version with P-90's .. Not good Had many issues with it .. I have the Studio model as well .. It has the same pups which - to me - is a washout ..It has the tune-o-matic bridge & set neck , as well as Grover tuners which are much better. You need to spend almost a grand , to get a decent Epi guitar.. Needed to change out the tuners on the P-90 version .. Good Job ..
Found a Special II (the difference is the stop bar and bridge) second hand for super cheap... tuners were admittedly poor but cheap and easy to replace. Makes a great slide guitar.
My first cheapee Les needed a half day of fret work , It tore my hands out of the box! I think the fret board is pao foo foo wood, something like that. I switched to Epi because I like a chunky fat necks. the top end Epi's might make you switch to Epi . thnx Landon
I bought this same guitar same finish at a pawnshop for $90 as a beater throw around trashy guitar so I don’t mess up my nicer ones and it honestly is pretty good. For the money, it sounds and feels very good. And for that price point you really won’t find many guitars that are better.
I would buy an epi , not this one though, I'm not a Les Paul fan at all, an SG though yeah, I would and more so a Sheraton pro ll . Great swan dive though Landon 😁
As a Fender fan too, I much prefer your Fender vids. But I guess just like Trogly has to review the squiers/fenders to increase his market, you have to do epi/Gibson.
Have a Special II for way over 10 years now which I got new from the store back then. Its build in '09 can't really tell when I bought it exactly. I still like to play it today. No mods at all. Maybe i will change the pickups and mechanics some day but it's actually more than enough as it comes out of the factory.
I'd be using it as something to build on. Locking tuners and active pickups. I keep buying $400+ guitars that I have to resell at very low prices because they are junk. If I could find one guitar that just played well, low action, smooth great playability across the fretboard. I could care less about the paint job or shape at this point. Some things you forgot to mention is it has a 14" radius and a 1960's slim D taper neck profile.
