BluefoxIcy Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 So I'm planning on getting another guitar in a couple months, when I can actually play pretty well or something. .... or not. April 1 Epiphone is releasing a Les Paul Plus Top limited edition, co-designed by Slash. It actually looks like a pretty nice guitar, street price looks to be $700 but it'll probably hit $1000 (some new changes went in before release...). This thing's got a pretty finish and a graphite nut (... GRAPHITE? wtf?), it's a nice guitar really, I think I can go for it. I'd wait on it (I want a Studio first, really, and DiMarzio Super Distortions) but it's limited quantity. (Gibson's also releasing one, which has better wood workmanship) Anyone comments on the guitar itself? Anyone springing for one of these? http://www.guitarcenter.com/Epiphone-Slash-Signature-Les-Paul-Standard-Plus-Top-Electric-Guitar-515623-i1383192.gc http://www.zzounds.com/item--EPIENSS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tensei Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 $1000 for a Gibson copy o_O Might as well go and get a Gibson SG/Flying V instead, they end up around the same price where I'm at. Anyway, the only guitars that are viable for me to buy have a high quality double-locking tremolo, so no gibson/epiphone/strat/whatever for me, I'll stick to Ibanez (and possibly go for Jackson and ESP) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluefoxIcy Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 $1000 for a Gibson copy o_O Might as well go and get a Gibson SG/Flying V instead, they end up around the same price where I'm at. Nice, Gibsons go for less than $3000 there? (The Gibson Slash will be like $4000 and there's a Gibson Custom Slash also that's going to be $6800) I hear you on the price though, I'm really interested in getting a Les Paul Studio; those go for $320, but I want the fancy color-changing finish that goes for $400. $1000 for me means I add some expensive pickups, new electronics, tuners, and a $300 stetsbar, and pay a tech to do all the labor and set up the guitar for me. Interestingly, Epiphone was originally going to release the Slash signature LP earlier, but Gibson decided to copy it Gibson's has a bunch of stuff hand-carved though, and is a bit nicer than Epiphones; I'd actually love to get my hands on one (talk about collectable!) but I'm not rich! Anyway, the only guitars that are viable for me to buy have a high quality double-locking tremolo, so no gibson/epiphone/strat/whatever for me, I'll stick to Ibanez (and possibly go for Jackson and ESP) Ah yeah. I thought about adding a trem to mine but they're expensive; high quality Stetsbar is $300 and a cheap trem that throws the guitar out of tune all the time is $120! Ibanez is nice though; Dragonforce plays those, some of their effects are impossible to reproduce without a particular model of Ibanez' trem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Gibson guitars are a waste of money. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Gibson guitars are a waste of money. Sorry. Gotta agree here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fray Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Are the celebrity guitarist models ever really worth it? I don't know anything about guitars in general, it just seems like something I'd be leary of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluefoxIcy Posted February 20, 2008 Author Share Posted February 20, 2008 Are the celebrity guitarist models ever really worth it? I don't know anything about guitars in general, it just seems like something I'd be leary of. As I understand, the celebrity guitarist "signature" models are actually made to imitate some guy's guitar; then Epiphone calls the guy up and says "Hey look at what we did, do you like it, does it sound good?" and he comes by and tells them to change some stuff and plays with a prototype and such. Some of the people on the Epi forums have like 6000 guitars; a few are excited about the Slash model, a few have said it's a "good guitar" but they'd rather have X or Y's signature Epiphone. The Boneyard and Zakk Wylde signatures have come up a couple times in that respect. Overall what I'm hearing is that they're typically nice guitars with nice upgrades, rather than nice guitars that you then dump your own nice upgrades into; though, in the case of the Slash the neck is extended deeper into the body (better sustain), so it's not simply a base model with a pretty finish and Seymour Duncan pickups. Graphite nut and Seymour Duncan Alnico 2's you can do yourself to a Standard or Studio; changing the fundamental design of the guitar, that's a little different. Caveat: I've gotten to all the relevant posts; however, Epiphone is actively deleting posts. I haven't seen them delete anything about the workmanship of any guitars yet (the place is mainly posts about X guitar is Y crap for this but you can upgrade it with Z after-market part), but a few political criticisms have been deleted after long discussions. Private messages have gotten nailed too (the thread about that's gonna be deleted in a couple hours, if that). Point is, my information source is being shaped by the manufacturer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluefoxIcy Posted February 20, 2008 Author Share Posted February 20, 2008 Gibson guitars are a waste of money. Sorry. The Gibsons do have better wood work though (Actual solid piece of wood, a better finishing process, and the signature models have carved or painted designs instead of decals); but I hear the electronics are pretty much crap and burn out under heavy load pretty easily. Also the quality control is said to be bad; different chunks of wood sound different, and apparently Gibson mills out a body from a slab of tone wood with no care to density properties or whatever else (in their defense, how the crap do you check that before making the guitar? How do you make it economic?), puts the stuff together well, and ships it whether the guitar sounds good or not. I've never owned a Gibson, so I wouldn't know. The advice I've heard on the matter is walk into a guitar store, pick up the thing off the shelf, play it, and take it home with you; if the body's made of wood with a density change in the middle in just the right place to screw up the sustain, you put it back and pick up the next one hanging on the wall. I order mine online, I'm obviously not paying attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 If you're looking for maximum bang-to-buck ratio, you should definitely consider a Carvin. Custom built, reasonably high quality, reasonably low prices. I use a Custom Bolt, which came to around $800 if memory serves, and I absolutely love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 <3 Taucer! Couldn't have said it better myself. Also, bluefox, didn't you just buy a guitar? And aren't you still just starting out as a player? Why the fuck do you need a second one? You fail at life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Majin GeoDooD Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Meh, that Epi is probably just gonna be a waste of wood. If you're looking for an LP look for an old Orville by Gibson or pick up an Agile from www.rondomusic.net. Don't waste money on a signature model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluefoxIcy Posted February 20, 2008 Author Share Posted February 20, 2008 Also, bluefox, didn't you just buy a guitar? And aren't you still just starting out as a player? Why the fuck do you need a second one? You fail at life I'd planned to be buying a second guitar probably around June to October, really; but honestly, I just want to pick up the Slash model, and since it's a limited count run I gotta get it when it's out. The finish is pretty (I love the color on the back!) and the neck does set a bit deeper into the body, this interests me. The graphite nut confuses the shit out of me though; won't that wear like hell? It gets worse, besides. My aunt was just like "OH YOU BOUGHT A GUITAR, I HAVE AN EXTRA GUITAR AND AMP LYING AROUND I DON'T WANT IN MY HOUSE ANYMORE" so I have crap too. But seriously, do you ever NEED more than one guitar? Unless you're going on stage of course; good to have a backup. That's not me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Majin GeoDooD Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 The graphite nut confuses the shit out of me though; won't that wear like hell? Graphite nuts are really popular in guitars with trems. The slickness of the graphite is supposed to keep the string from getting "stuck" in the nut and going out of tune with excess use of the whammy bar. I'd imagine it would help tuning stability a bit in a non-trem guitar, too. I've never heard of any wear issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluefoxIcy Posted February 20, 2008 Author Share Posted February 20, 2008 Graphite nuts are really popular in guitars with trems.I'd imagine it would help tuning stability a bit in a non-trem guitar, too. I've never heard of any wear issue. Yeah, I heard that too; graphite powder is used as a non-liquid lubricant in space applications (oil boils in zero pressure!) and in some high-speed applications that can't deal with the viscosity of oil. I didn't think the compound itself had low friction, but it makes sense; molecularly, it's sheets of carbon, absolutely smooth surface. I don't normally think of graphite as a hard compound though, but I'm dealing with pencil lead here instead of big chunks more than a millimeter thick. High-polymer 1mm pencil graphite is pretty hard though; and that's just #2, there's some really high polymer pencil lead that you can only get a gray streak out of. A graphite nut is probably a really long (large? graphite's 2D polymer, not 1D like PVC) polymer brick so it's probably really hard; still, nickle-wrapped strings grinding on that is like a FILE if they rock back and forth much. I'll have to see this stuff myself @_@ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tensei Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Are the celebrity guitarist models ever really worth it? I don't know anything about guitars in general, it just seems like something I'd be leary of. Well I think that holds true for most celebrity guitars, but the better Ibanez JEM's (Steve Vai signature models) really are godly (In terms of craftmanship, hardware, playability etc. they're like the Ibanez RG series on steroids), and possibly the only signature guitars I wouldn't mind playing, just because they look really badass as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixto Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 Yeah, I definitely wouldn't waste any money on that Epi Slash model. Majin's right. If you're wanting a cheaper Les Paul, look for a nice Orville on Ebay or an Agile from Rondo Music. I can recommend other guitar styles and brands all day, but it looks like you want a Les Paul, which is a pretty great guitar. *thumbs up* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion303 Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 No one's mentioned the fact that a signature Slash model guitar won't make you sound like Slash. -steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixto Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 A signature Slash model won't make you sound like Slash. Who would want to sound like Slash anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicholestien Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Taucher, you don't happen to be some dude who wrote a book do you? >_> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tensei Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Taucher, you don't happen to be some dude who wrote a book do you? >_> That would be Geoffrey CHAUCER, who died like 600 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion303 Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 who died like 600 years ago. Or DID he? -steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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