Good Guitar for a Good Price

Got this in a bundle with a little Epiphone speaker back in 2013. It is my first guitar and I just can't let this thing go. It is great for entry level players and up. Mod it, sticker bomb it, scratch it up. Everyone starts somewhere and you should start with this guitar. Find it cheap through Facebook marketplace, find it in your uncles storage closet. Pass it around to your friends, siblings, whoever wants to learn. The little amp that comes with it sucks though haha.

Found in a Dumpster and Still better than a Gibson IMHO

So I was moving my now wife in with me back when we were dating and during a purge of junk we did not need to the trash bin, I open the bin and find a guitar case, and in that guitar case, was this black 2008 Epiphone Les Paul Special II........with all six strings still on it, and some kind of rock glued to a hole on the top. It gave me a conflict of conscience for most of the morning.....

Well, I left and went to drop some stuff off at my place and came back to find said guitar now sitting in it's case, outside the bin, with the case open - a-ha! An Omen. I talked to my girlfriend (now my wife) and she said "Go get it! Are you nuts! Free Guitar!" - so I got the Epiphone and brought it in the house. That evening proceeded with a teardown and cleanup of the Les Paul.

Now here we are, 7 years later and I've been using that same guitar off/on when I feel like something omre "Gibson-ish". To understand my tastes, I'm more of a fan of bolt-on necks - that's one thing I have an issue with on most Les Pauls or pretty much anything Gibson - being a techie and being the kind of guy who sets his guitars up to a certain level of perfection, I prefer bolt-on necks - who needs that much Sustain anyway? I get just as much out of my Paul Dean, and this guitar is almost the same in that category as well.

The Epiphone Special II Les Paul, as it was in 2008, was a maple necked, basswood bodied Les Paul Special style guitar with 2 humbuckers, a 700R in the neck at around 8.4K Ohms, and a 700T in the bridge at around 14.6K Ohms resistance, very very hot pickups. Despite these crazy values and a bolt-on neck, it really does deliver a rather official sounding Les-Paul-Like tone. Everything is stock.

About my only complaint about this guitar is the machine heads. They don't hold tune very well live and tend to slip, which is probably why it was thrown out. I have plans in the future to put on a brand new set of Kluson Revolution machine heads to fix this issue, other than that, it plays extremely well, with action on par with a Les Paul Custom worth about $3400 more than what I paid for it, which is hilarious considering I got this thing drenched in beer and probably vomit from a dumpster for the best price in the world - FREE.

The only upgrades this guitar really got was a pair of chrome pickup rings, some stickers, and a new set of strings.

I use this to record quite often.

I use this to record quite often. it sounds pretty good. granted, its a some what "beginner" guitar but yeah, i put in a old Semour Duncan 59' i had around for the bridge. so that gave a little more rocket sauce. definitely good amp is something id recommend with it, i mean i recommend a good amp period but you know... lol. more times than not i'll use GuitarRig and re-amp the layered guitar tracks.. NOTE: i've been playing guitar for 16+ years.. as long as a guitar can stay in tune and the intonation isnt to WONKYY i can get something out of it. ...well.....depending...... you guitar players know what i mean. some guitar are just paper weights.. now recording.. well... i have a bit more requirements.

Guitars Are Like Lovers..

You don't just go head over heels for the first one you see. I've had the opportunity through the years to purchase several different guitars at amazing prices however, If it doesn't resonate (See what I did there?) with me, I know myself well enough that I would have a 6 string collecting dust. Now that Is not to say that I am being a gear snob and I'm sure most pickers will agree that if it doesn't look tasty, You're not gonna eat it no matter how expensive or delicious it may be under that gommy exterior. The vintage sunburst is as beautiful as this guitar sounds.

Okay cheap guitar

As a beginner I do not regret that I bought this. Although I got some mechanical noise from the low E string. And the tuning jumps up and down while trying to tune it properly. The second problem might be solved it I restring it but for the first I thing the strings would need to be further away from the neck. Maybe possible to fix, but these are things which bother me and having played more expensive guitars I did not had these issues.

My first ever electric guitar purchase.

I've been learning to play on an accoustic for the last 2 years, but decided to purchase this to get used to playing on electric. Bought it as part of a starter pac from Epiphone with an amp, etc. It sounds ok, but I am still a novice, so not really in a position to provide any meaninful review. Except to say if your new to playing this is a good starter guitar.

It's an okay guitar for a beginner

It's a very cheap guitar at around $200, and with that price you get roughly equal quality. It will give a fair playing experience to any novice guitarist. For the record, I am an intermediate level guitarist. (check acc for genres)

very good with other pickups

I use this guitar for 2,5 years but I found the original pickups a bit too thin, and I decided to put a set of Johnny Elca pickups but it was not all my sound yet. I received a package from my father's friend with Semour Duncan SH-4 pickups a week ago and that $ 100 guitar sounds really cool. The SH-4's have a pretty dull sound, but it certainly sounds really good. The neck pickup has a nice, non les paul sound but very cool.

Cheap and gets the job done

This guitar is really cheap, but if you’re just going for a Les Paul look, it gets the job done alright. Pickups are garbage and there aren’t many tones you can get with it, but for home usage this is a fine cheap decision.

A piece of shit that I turned into something probably shittier.

I call this guitar DJ. He is absolute crap; within a month of getting him, the bridge pickup went microphonic. Instead of wasting money fixing a shitty guitar, I did something worse.

I took a 42 gauge string that I had lying around, snipped all the strings off of DJ, and put the spare 42 gauge where the D string should be. I tune it down way low and use it to sort of djent when I'm super bored.

Obviously, it doesn't work well. It's just a shitty guitar that I can't sell and don't want to throw away for sentiment.