Mr T Datson from Woking | Purchase date: 29 January 2010 id: 1518

My first proper guitar was an Epiphone, and my Scroll 450 still hangs proudly on the wall some 30 years later. Cracking instrument, actually, and it's great to see that Epiphone is still not a joke brand cranking out in-house copies of "proper" Gibbos. For the Epiphone Les Paul Custom is a very proper guitar, well made from quality materials and marketed at a competitive price. It's not as heavy as my Gibson Les Paul Studio but that's no bad thing for the shoulders and back. The neck is slim and plays well, and the frets are finished to a high standard. It's a Custom, so you'd expect binding on the body and neck and the floating scratchplate, and all are executed flawlessly. But it's not all good news on the finish. My guitar (my son's, actually) is black with gold hardware. Except it's not. The "gold" plating on the tailpiece and bridge was so thin that it's cmoprehensively worn off after less than two weeks. Not only that, the gold plating on the pickups was so crap that it was rubbish even before the protective plastic film was peeled back - a process which only served to reveal how poor and blotchy it was. The machines are, it should be said, rather better, and are in any case of good quality. There's a simple answer, of course. Buy a guitar with chrome hardware. Unplugged, the tone is bright and open and this is reflected in the basic amplified tone. Plug it in and - it's a Les Paul. Quite a good one. Not a brilliant one, until you look at the price tag, and compare it with the price of a Gibbo Custom which is, er, five times as much. Now, given that 99 percent of the people who buy these guitars will not be plugging them into anything by Matchless or Soldano, the slight tonal shortcomings from a Gibson are really, really not a problem. To summarise, then: it's not a copy, it's a Les Paul. It's great value for money and a guitar that could last many guitarists for years. It would be a fantastic backup instrument for a Gibbo, but is a very good guitar in its own right. If I could only knock off half a star for the shonky gold plating I would, but there you go.

Tom Barnard from Aldershot | Purchase date: 01 March 2008 id: 720

This is, without a doubt, one of the most enjoyable guitars to play around today. From the sturdy, smooth neck to the incredible tonal qualities of the humbucker pickups, this guitar never ceases to impress in terms of looks, sounds, AND playability. I own two electric guitars (and have played virtually all the mainstream models at some point or another) and the advantages of this guitar can be seen especially when compared with my Ibanez JS-100, which costs almost twice as much as this Epiphone. The Les Paul's sensible bridge delivers a pragmatic, attractive feel; and boasts more character and far fewer headaches than the JS's Floyd Rose (provided you can bend strings without a whammy bar). In terms of looks, though occasionally ostentatious, this beauty never fails to impress and maintains a classic feel. Adjusting the tonality of this guitar is incredibly simple, especially when contrasted with the complex saddle system of my Ibanez. The value of humbuckers is often underestimated, but when it comes down to it, in my opinion, if you want a sound that you can manipulate most effectively through effects or subtler changes, the clean input of the humbuckers on this guitar wins over the single coil systems hands down, every time. Also, you get the impression of an actual change in the voice of the guitar when switching between pickups, as is not the case with less versatile pickup systems. When you keep the tone knobs at zero, the sound is pure, raw pitch - no messing around, and as you twist them up to ten, it's as if the guitar suddenly becomes a 12-string, and the vibrant tones are clearly identifiable as those of a Les Paul. Disadvantages are few... one being that the jack input it at the bottom of the guitar, meaning you can't sit with it over a surface at that point, without bending the jack. That's it. Don't be discouraged by the "Epiphone" label, you won't hear any real difference between pure "Gibson"s and "Epiphone"s til you're playing through Mesa's anyway. A GLORIOUS GUITAR!