This time an Epiphone! Now, I have an Epiphone double neck that I never hardly play, and I had an Epiphone Les Paul and acoustic back in the mid 90’s, but this is my first Epiphone Les Paul since they started improving the line.

The finish is good and appears they scrape the paint off the binding like Gibson does and you can feel a ridge where the paint ends and binding begins. I have heard some describe that as a finish flaw and while it’s more pronounced than a Gibson I don’t see this as a flaw.

Now there is a spot on the top at the base if the fretboard that was sanded down and there’s a slight divot. This is something I see on Gibson’s as well and I think it’s just more pronounced on a gold finish as both of my Gibson Gold tops have variations of these fitting marks. Other than that it’s very nicely done. The binding all matches up really nicely at the joints too.

I got this from Musicians Friend so no one went over it or anything before it was shipped but out of the box I tuned it, checked intonation, and started playing. The setup as is was perfect for me. The frets were smooth and fret ends dressed well. You can see what looks like scrape marks here and there on some frets but they play smooth. I have not taken a fret rocker to it yet but I haven’t found any high frets while playing.

The tuners are Grovers and are super smooth. Electronics are done decently and the pickup sounds great. It’s a P90 so it has that 60 cycle hum to it but not too bad. Fretboard is ebony and is smooth, no tooling marks or anything like that. The nut seems to be cut properly and inlays are all nicely done.

The neck, and this is where people will either love or hate this guitar, is massively thick. The body and neck are designed after a 1955 Custom and you can tell. I have 50’s style necks on all of my modern Les Pauls and I have an actual 1963 to compare to and it’s chunkier than them all. Personally I like a thicker neck so for me it feels great after playing for a few minutes.

My only complaint about this guitar is that divot in the top and I am weighing out if I should return it for another one or keep it. Probably I will keep it as it doesn’t affect anything adversely. Also, it’s solid mahogany and weighs noticeably less than my maple capped Les Pauls.

The case is a rigid soft case. I have one of these for a Martin acoustic as well and think they are terrific! Very lightweight and durable.

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I forgot to mention the model is a Jared James Nichols Gold Glory.

VERY nice!  I'm not a big fan of gold tops but that does look good.  I've only got one Epi, an LP Custom Koa.  I've always been a Les Paul fan.  My first new guitar I bought was a Lotus LP knockoff long ago in my early 20's.

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I have to admit, those DO look good!  

Thanks for the NGD comments.  The comments about being chunkier than a 50's neck is giving me pause on pulling the trigger.  I have a 50's Epiphone and though I don't dislike the neck, I just don't know about a larger one?  Good excuse to save the $$$ for now and finish my other build projects.

You might want to find one at a shop to play. For me the neck is super comfortable even being big. Just play a couple or three songs with it. It was awkward for me at first but now it’s not even an issue. MF does have an in cart discount for members going on now and it brought the price down to $636

Personally, the older I get, the less I mind thicker necks as it helps me play for longer without having trouble with my hands.  Now, I've been a grappler since I was young so my hands have had a hard life and it may just be me.

Yeah I get it. I have huge hands and at 49 I’m getting arthritis pretty good now, but the fullness of the neck for me tends to let me relax and spread out my hand more. I find myself all bunched up on a thinner neck, especially on a short scale like a Les Paul. Also I play thumb over most of the time.

Oof, that divot is painful. At least it plays and sounds good.

Yeah I’m still on the fence about it. I can still return it for another one and suppose I should. With my luck the next one would be a complete dud though.

Maybe it is the thumb-over, then, because I tend to go back and forth a lot and mostly play thumb-over (especially on an acoustic where I am in open position 99% of the time).

Well I sent it back for another one. Called MF up and got it taken care of right away. They offered that or an extra discount on the price. Hopefully the next one plays as well.

Well the new one showed up today. There is still a hint of the same blemish but faint. I’m not going to be that picky over it as you have to really be looking for it and under good lighting to see it. Overall fit and finish looks good but it isn’t without flaw. It doesn’t affect tone though.

This one had to be set up. The last one was dead on but this one had to have intonation set and I raised the string height to my liking as well. Needing a setup on a factory fresh guitar is to be expected regardless of the brand so no worry there.

The neck on this one is not quite as thick as the last one. It’s just maybe a tad bit larger than the current 50’s neck Gibson offers but with thicker shoulders. Kinda wished it would have been thicker like the last one but I’m not disappointed in it at all. Last one was probably just an anomaly, who knows?

As for the electronics, the pickup isn’t very noisy at all in my opinion. Still have that 60 cycle hum at very high volume and gain but nothing too horrible at all. The pots are CTS 500k’s and not cheap asian pots. Playing through the Marshall JVM it sound great.

All in all I’m happy with it. Time will tell more.

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Well it’s going back. Maybe I’m too picky but that crease in the top really bothers me. Just gonna call it done as I feel the next one will be the same.

I might get one from Sweetwater later on as they are actually inspected and set up by Epiphone USA and these aren’t but I also might just steer clear of Epiphone from now on.

Damn.  Sorry, man.

Ehh, it happens. The sound was wonderful and it the feel was great. I’m just picky is all.

Nice, congrats. I love gold tops!