EpiphoneLes Paul-100 E1, Vintage Sunburst

Buying guitars online is always risky. However, this has to be hands down the best budget friendly electric guitar out of over 30 that I have purchased. When I say budget, I'm talking $400 or less. If you are looking for a great guitar, beginner or intermediate player, I can honestly say straight out of the box, all I did was tune it. Plays beautifully. You will not be disappointed as a beginner, but as an intermediate player you will notice the tuners are average, but they do stay in tune. The fret board is dry, so the frets have very slight sharpness to them on the edges. Nothing some 600-grit sandpaper can't take care of. Surprised that the finish was perfect. And I do mean flawless. Now for the advanced player, down to the nitty gritty picky stuff. Guitar could use locking tuners, a bone nut, and I would definitely change the bridge pickup. The neck pickup was sweet. Although, the bridge pickup was okay, a little upgrade is needed. My opinion. I like something a little hotter. The setup was little high. Easy to adjust. Still no fret buzz. No high or low frets for a bolt-on neck. The neck does feel a little chunky; but it is Les Paul style. And I didn't like the gloss finish on the back of the neck. The volume pots were very easy to move, while the tone pots were a little tighter. Could find no spurring on the bridge piece, and it didn't rattle at all. Like I said, this guitar is a steal for the money.

I am a longtime acoustic guitar player, and I've wanted to play electric for a while now, but I knew I needed to make an decent investment to help motivate me to play. Plus I've never been a big fan of buying a cheap item to start, so i can buy a more expensive one in a year when I out grow it. So when I saw that I could get a Les Paul- albeit it a Epiphone and not a Gibson-for this price I was thrilled.Its worth noting that there is another Epiphone Les Paul that is cheaper. Epiphone LP Special II Les Paul Electric Guitar, Vintage Sunburst However you will not that there are fewer controls on the guitar. Meaning you loose out on the ability to individually control the tone of the pickups. In my opinion the extra hundred dollars for this guitar is more than worth it. It is worth noting that I purchased this guitar through amazon from American Musical Supply, it did not come with a cable or anything extra, just a guitar in a box.One of the things I didn't know when I bought it, is that even though its made in China-some of them come from Indonesia as I understand it, but mine was made in china so I can't speak to that-it was inspected before packing, to make sure that there was no physical damage to the guitar, that all the hardware worked, and that it maintained its intonations. So in the box you will receive a checklist that someone had to check off to make sure you receive a quality guitar.Its a great starter guitar, in part because of its slimmer body, making it both lighter and a littler easier to play. This is important when you've got a guitar strapped to your shoulder for an hour or more during practice, and gig times. It also is easy to play with the strings that come on it. Which I think are lighter weight then i am used to, but allow you to bend strings easier, which is great because that's an important technique to master-but please, don't over use it.Also don't ever let anyone give you any grief for buying a bolt neck guitar. Yes they are cheaper, but the Tune-o-matic bridge makes up for any difference in the quality of sound you would get. thanks to that handy little bridge the intonation can be adjusted to be perfect all the way up the neck.The guitar sounds even prettier than it looks-which is very pretty-holds a tune, and has given me nothing to complain about. All in all, I would buy this guitar again, and it will take something pretty amazing for me to replace it as my primary electric. Or enough money to afford a Gibson model.

Only had this a couple of days, so still getting acquainted with her. So far I think this will be long love affair, until I can afford a Gibson. I have the ebony, and the finish is beautiful. The sound is wonderful as well. The neck plays like a dream, who cares if it's bolted on? The strings are easy to bar, no fret buzz when open strings are played. The price is right. Time will tell of the longevity factor.Just got the perfect amp, a Fender Mustang I. This amp would make a mere novice into a rock star. Especially when paired with this axe. I can't imagine all the things that the amp does, for 99 bucks. Buy it, you'll love it.Update, had the guitar a few months now, and the input jack just fell into the guitar body. Went to the repair shop to get it fixed, now it doesn't play at all, bummer. Looks like another trip to the repair shop, not really happy with this, plays like a dream when it plays. I hope it's covered by warranty.Again, took it to the repair shop, they put loctite on it. Got home and jammed for 2 hours, went to unplug and the input jack came loose again. I've owned many guitars in my time, from good to cheap, but never had I had any trouble with an input jack, like this. I'm at my wits end, I wonder if all LP 100's have this problem, or did I just get a lemon.Update 10/2012:The problem with the input jack has been fixed for some time now. I would still highly rate this guitar! It cost 5 bucks to fix. The play is still amazing for the price! ROCK ON!