Guide to Epiphone Guitars. Checkout their range of acoustic & electric guitars. Owned by Gibson, these are the more affordable look-alike’s of the more expensive Les Paul and other types of electric guitars made by Gibson.
Introduction
From being a small family repair shop, Epiphone has gone on to become a big name in the world of guitars. If you are a serious guitar player, you always have the options of going in for a Gibson or a Fender, but then these can be expensive. This is where brands like Epiphone play their part with their range of products that are not only high on quality, but also within the reach of many guitarists.
There’s no doubt that beginners & intermediate guitarists love to use this brand — these look much like their more expensive counterparts and are easy on the pockets.
Epiphone Electric Guitars
Epiphone makes value-for-money guitars suitable for beginners as well as the intermediate level player, the guitars provide a nice resonance that will make your notes sing. You can use it to play a wide range of music, the slim-taper neck makes it comfortable to play fast runs.
Epiphone LP-100 and Epiphone LP Special ii are both great beginner electric guitars.
Epiphone LP Special II Les Paul Electric Guitar
The Epiphone Les Paul Special II offers Les Paul looks for a price that is simply irresistible. With dual open-coil humbuckers and a mahogany neck, it’s a great deal for beginners.
Epiphone LP-100 Les Paul Electric Guitar
The Epiphone Les Paul 100 is a great electric guitar for beginners, or if you’re looking for a low-cost LP electric guitar. It comes with dual humbuckers and a bolt-on neck, and provides excellent value for money.
More Epiphone Electric Guitars…
Epiphone Acoustic Guitars
Recommended Acoustic Guitars
- Epiphone DR-100 Acoustic Guitar
- Epiphone PR-4E Acoustic-Electric Guitar Player Pack
- Epiphone DR-500MCE Dreadnought Acoustic Electric Guitar
Epiphone Sheraton II Archtop Electric Guitar
Epiphone Sheraton II Archtop Electric Guitar: Fantastic looks, classic semi-hollow body tone, pair of humbucking pickups, and has excellent looks/finish. Plays like a dream, with more resonance & sustain while still providing the warm tones required for jazz.
- PROS: Beautiful Guitar, good sound, massive sustain, long neck
- CONS: Pickup select switch looks cheap
Whether you’re playing metal runs or smooth bluesy, this guitar will deliver. The finish and workmanship is perfect, the pearl and mahogany inlays makes it look gorgeous. If you’re looking for a great sounding guitar, that you’ll be proud to display as well, this is it.
The pickups could have been better, you may want to replace them with better quality ones, as per your preferences, to get that super clean sound.
Key features/specs:
- Vintage Epiphone Semi-hollowbody design, Laminate Maple body, Maple top
- Alnico Classic Humbucker pickups, Dual humbuckers for classic jazzy tones
- Rosewood fretboard, 24.75 scale
- Comfortable 3-piece maple neck with set construction
- Stylish gold hardware
- Attractive headstock flourish and block inlays
- The multipiece neck is quite stable and pleasantly chunky in size.
- Finish & setup is great, although the strings were a little light gauge for me, plays even better after I changed them.
- Guitar has a long neck so you can reach pretty high, but the fret marks are marked up to 15th fret. So you have to get used to it.
If you have wanted to invest in a full sized semi-hollowbody for some time now, the Epiphones Sheraton II is an excellent choice. With a 3-piece neck and a maple body, this is a classic semi-hollowbody guitar with gorgeous tones to match.
Epiphone Sheraton II Archtop Electric Guitar on zZounds
Epiphone EJ-200SCE Jumbo Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Guitar
Epiphone EJ-200SCE Jumbo Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Guitar comes with all the features, playability, sound and style of the highly revered Gibson original, but at a discounted price. For long, this classic has been a staple of stage and studio. It’s a great guitar for intermediate level guitar players.
- Pros: Great electronics. Built in tuner. Great price tag. Good audio. Rich Sound. Stays in tune. Feels good in the hand
- Cons: Bit heavier. Case need to be bought separately.
- Uses: Practicing, Live Playing, Jamming, Recording, School Bands. For intermediate and advanced guitar players.
The EJ-200SCE features a speedy maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. The cutaway design allows for high-fret access. The tone is balanced, enhanced by a select maple body and solid spruce top. When on stage, the tone is accurately amplified by the onboard eSonic2 electronics.
Musicians call this guitar the “King of the Flat Tops”. The guitar features a jumbo maple body with a select spruce top, stereo outputs and iconic mustache bridge, gold hardware, crown inlays on the fingerboard, and a huge sound easily amplified by the an eSonic2 preamp with built-in tuner. Uses Nanoflex pickup for the strings and body resonance, plus a Nanomag pickup at the end of the fretboard.
Besides having a beautiful tone and superb quality, the guitar looks flawless, the finish is gorgeous. In terms of its tonal quality, the guitar has clear booming lows, clear highs, and the action is perfect for strumming or picking (you can alter the action anyways).
There is a saddle pick up and one at the body end of the neck (each has its own eq pot). There’s a slider as well for balancing between the two (for serious fine tuning of your sound).
The built-in tuner is also great — blue LED indicates AABCDEFG, the usual green light indicates it’s in tune, a smaller red LED indicates it’s too high or too low.
Technical Specs / Features:
- Number of Strings 6, Number of Frets: 20
- 25.50″ scale C-shaped neck with 12″ fingerboard radius and cutaway
- Maple super jumbo body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, and spruce top
- Vintage stylings like crown shaped inlays in the fretboard, mustache shaped rosewood bridge with inlays, and tortoise pickguard with flower motif
- Gold Grover tuners
- Epiphone eSonic2 preamp
- NanoFlex bridge pickup and NanoMag neck pickup by Shadow Electronics
- Built-in tuner, master volume control, independent EQ for each pickup, pickup blend slide, phase switch, and mute included
- Onboard electronics powered with included 20-year lithium ion batteries
- Output: 1/4 mono or blended stereo
- Lifetime Limited Warranty featuring Gibson 24/7/360 Customer Service included
- Item Weight: 2.2 pounds. Dimensions: 43.5 x 20.8 x 6.3 inches
Overall, the Epiphone’s EJ-200SCE is a fabulous acoustic-electric guitar with top quality onboard electronics, and gorgeous appointments.
Buying Links
Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro Electric Guitar
Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro Electric Guitar’s sound is very similar to that of a Les Paul Deluxe, but available at almost half the price. It features gold hardware and ProBucker pickups that can be coil-tapped when you want that single-coil bite.
- PROS: Affordable, Looks Cool, Holds tune, Sounds similar to Les Paul Deluxe
- CONS: Heavier & thicker
This Epiphone has defining custom-line good looks, almost looks like a piece of art. Underneath that cool outfit, is a guitar that has good features, plays well and really sings.
Features
Here are the main features of Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro:
- Mahogany body & Mahogany slim taper D profile neck
- Rosewood fretboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets
- Epiphone ProBucker pickups in bridge and neck positions
- All-metal 3-way toggle switch
- Neck volume, neck tone, bridge volume, and bridge tone controls
- Locktone Tune-O-Matic bridge/stopbar for improved sustain
- Gold hardware for durability
- 7-layer body, 5-layer headstock, and 1-layer fretboard binding
- Grover 16:1 ratio tuning machine heads
Here’s what users have to say about this product:
- This is among Epiphone’s best guitars, I suggest you get an Epiphone Les Paul case as well.
- Looks and plays like a fine Gibson Les Paul Custom
- The sound, action and intonation are incredible.
This guitar is based on some of the finest Les Paul’s ever made, and this one sings. Highly recommended for both serious beginners and Professional Musicians alike.
Buying Links
Epiphone Guitars: Buying Guide
In recent years the quality of Epiphone guitars has only gone up, and they do make professional quality guitars as well.
Their cost advantage at the moment is because they get most of their work done in cheaper locations, but that could however change in the future.
You now have many more top guitar players, who are endorsing Epiphone guitars, and that obviously means they are top professional quality guitars, and not some cheap stuff.
Here’s a brief history of this brand:
- Epiphone came into existence in 1873
- Post the hardships of World War II, Gibson bought over Epiphone in 1957.
- In the nineteen seventies, Gibson moved all Epiphone production from the US to Japan
- Because Gibson makes expensive guitars, Epiphone are offered as budget guitars (affordable versions of Gibson models), which makes better business sense.
Range of Offerings
The Epiphone Guitars include the various series such as:
- Les Paul
- Designer
- SG
- Bass
- Acoustic
- Acoustic/Electric
- Nylon
- Bluegrass
Epiphone vs Gibson
Most Epiphones do look similar to the popular Gibson models. So what are the differences, say between an Epiphone Les Paul and a Gibson Les Paul?
Here’s what Dr. Epiphone had to say to this question.
“Epiphone Les Paul guitars are built 100 percent to Gibson Les Paul specifications but are about 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost. For that, we have to make some adjustments to the specifications in order to be able to offer our customers this kind of value. Some of these adjustments include fewer inlays, a thinner maple-veneer top, and the use of chrome hardware instead of gold“.
Final Thoughts
Almost every major guitar manufacturer (and makers of other musical instruments as well) have production capacity in Asia. With good guitars (considerably) available for $300 to $400, guitar manufacturers are looking at every possible business move to remain competitive. Some of the Epiphone guitars are becoming more and more similar to the popular Gibson models, and at times it does become difficult to differentiate the two. When in doubt, its best to play the guitar and decide for yourself, rather than guided by the logo on the headstock.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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