Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar, Black

Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar, Black

I bought this guitar as a Christmas present to myself, and I'm very pleased with it. I use a Digitech SP50 modeling pedal and this guitar works perfectly with it.
It's solid but not a backbreaker like other Les Paul models, but still delivers a great consistent quality sound.
I have no trouble keeping it in tune, though I did put new Super Slinky strings on it as soon as I got it.
I play in a church worship band every Tuesday and Friday and this guitar has turned a lot of heads both in the band and the audience. Many people have noted it's great sound and sleek looks.
I'm 100% satisfied. Great job Epiphone!

Good guitar for a beginner on a budget, and can be nice to slowly upgrade. If you want to make a guitar with great tone, though, I would recommend going towards a Les Paul Standard or Studio rather than the Special II, for the mahogany body (better sustain) and 4 pots.

The Special II makes a good project. You will spend $200-$300 upgrading these guitars if you want the best sound; but a good $150 of that comes from changing the pickups, which you'll do on most budget guitars you get anyway unless they come with some high quality DiMarzio or Duncan pickups. Aside from pickups, you'll want to change the tuning machines (pegs at the top) and (eventually) the bridge. Also change the strings immediately; I went with DR Tite-Fit MT-10, giving a nice, bright sound.

I replaced the tuning pegs on mine with Sperzel locking tuners, and got locking strap pegs to go on this. I also went with DiMarzio DP161 "Steve's Special" pickups to replace the crappy stock ones; I would recommend DiMarzio Super Distortions instead, to give the high-powered output to overdrive an Epiphone Valve Junior amplifier (wonderful $120 amp, if you buy one check to see it's got a 15 digit serial number!). Seymour Duncan Alnico II humbuckers also hold a preference among many.

I went with some 500k push-pull pots to switch pickup modes too. My favorite configuration: volume switches the top pickup to single coil mode when pulled, and tone inverts the phase of the top pickup; in single coil mode, phase inversion just switches coils. This lets me make the guitar make different sounds-- brighter, cleaner, darker, really freaky (but weak sounding) phase inversion, etc. All interesting to pipe through a true single-ended tube amp.

The tune-o-matic bridge is too narrow and you can't always get the intonation right; a fresh bridge costs $100, which I'd drop into a Standard but not into this guitar without deeper personal attachment (hey, it's your first guitar? Maybe it's special to you, go for it). Also Epiphone puts the screws facing the pickups, and Gibson doesn't; if you want to flip it around, you have to disassemble the bridge and move the saddles to the opposite side, otherwise they'll buzz because the wrapped strings fall into a wider grooved saddle than the higher strings. Be careful if you turn it around; turning the screws can catch the string in the slot and break it if you don't dislodge the string before finishing the adjustment!

Overall, this guitar is great if you want to get something cheap to start out with and take a slow upgrade path; but if you have the money for a Standard or Studio, go for that instead and do the same upgrades (if any). Either way you get a good guitar and you get to hang exactly the right hardware on it, instead of getting an expensive guitar that has better hardware but maybe not exactly what you want.

awesome practice guitar, but i've also played a few shows with this one. the moment i got it, i was first off surprised by the size of the frets. the frets themselves seemed a little smaller than normal, so if you have pretty huge hands, don't bother with this one.

the onboard pickups are pretty baseline, as you can see from the price. they are certainly not stellar, but they aren't as bad as you'd expect. a friend told me about how the guitar itself does not really matter, it's the effects. i didn't really believe him until i got this one and got it hooked up. i guess it's safe to say that so long as you have enough effects, you can make the special ii sound as good as the juggernauts of the guitar scene.

This is a great guitar to learn the basics on. I have owned a LP2 for a year and I have nothing bad to say about it. The guitar stays in tune and has a solid construction. This guitar is well worth the money!

I picked up one of these babies about 6 months ago to use as my "travel" guitar, and it has yet to let me down. Granted, the day I got it, I changed out the pickups with a DiMarzio Double Whammy in the bridge and a Virtual PAF in the neck, so I can't tell you much about the sound from the factory electronics. However, the guitar plays wonderfully. The only irritant was that, in order to get perfect intonation in Eb tuning (one half-step below standard tuning on all six strings), I had to reverse one of the saddles.

Otherwise, no complaints whatsoever -- it came from the factory with the truss perfectly set, and it only took minor tweaks to the action and a slight shim for the neck (I'm obsessive when it comes to fast action on my guitars), and I was shredding away in no time. This is an excellent guitar for a beginner, or, if you're a more advanced player in search of some vintage looks on a budget, this is right up your alley. Get a new set of pickups -- EMGs, Seymour Duncans, or DiMarzios will work great -- and you've got looks AND tone. Just don't expect that solid mahogany-body sustain you'd get from a real LP -- this one's plywood. Agathis. Tonewood. Whatever Epiphone's buzzword of the week happens to be.

Bottom line: for $150, you can't go wrong with this guitar. Out of all the guitars I own, I keep coming back to this one. Of course, unlike your average Jackson or B.C. Rich, the Les Paul body design doesn't have any pointy things to dig into one's crotch... That might have a bit to do with it as well. Are you still reading this? Just buy it already!