Had to try one....

[duhvoodooman***]

Read a lot of positive things (examples HERE and HERE) about these new Epi Les Paul SL's, and for $99 delivered, how can you go wrong? I got some cash for my birthday and figured, "What the heck?!?" I like the looks, and the guitar plays well and sounds remarkably good. The single coil pickups aren't the greatest, but they're not bad at all. I particularly like the neck pickup with some overdrive on it. The neck is a comfortable C profile, and on the thinner side. The pots and switch have a good solid feel and function smoothly. The finish on mine is flawless and the intonation is quite good, too. The neck pocket is nice and tight, and it's probably the lightest electric guitar I own.

Photo (not mine, but same color):



It wasn't all good news, though. The strings that came on it were trash, but I expected that on an inexpensive Chinese-made guitar and immediately installed a set of D'Addario 10's. The fingerboard was very dry, so I oiled it up well with Dunlop 02 conditioner. But the biggest negative by far was the tuners, which are cheap crapola. Lots of slop in them, and the one on my high E was binding badly through part of its rotation. But multiple reviews of the SL that I'd read mentioned how inferior the tuners were, so at least this wasn't a surprise. My solution was to order a set of Grover Deluxe 133N tuners, which I received and installed two days ago--see photo below. HUGE difference!! The guitar now tunes smoothly & precisely. These are the split-shaft variety, which I prefer over solid shaft tuners. I find string changes to be faster, and there's no sharp string end poking out to catch a dust cloth or a finger! They're also the smaller "vintage" shaft diameter, which matches the headstock tuner holes on the Epi LP SL, so no need for any additional drilling/reaming for the larger "modern" style of tuners. So the guitar ended up costing me $135, which is still a real bargain any way you look at it!

[shupe13]

Congrats!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[piebaldpython***]

Nice score there DVM.

[tjcurtin1]

Thanks for nothing! I ordered one back in September but three months later they hadn't shipped, by which time I recovered my sanity and cancelled the order. Did you HAVE to go setting fires again!! This video was what really got me interested (beware - may cause intense GAS provocation):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seICRkGNyUM

Actually, the light weight was also an incentive...

[marnold***]

Enjoy! Surprised you didn't go for the nuclear yellow option

[tjcurtin1]

Enjoy! Surprised you didn't go for the nuclear yellow option

Oh, yeah! That's the color I'd get!

[duhvoodooman***]

Enjoy! Surprised you didn't go for the nuclear yellow option

That would be my second choice, but I liked the turquoise the best.

[Jipes***]

Congrats Voodooman it looks great I like those fresh colors and the overall shape looks good how is the acess to the high notes ?

[duhvoodooman***]

Congrats Voodooman it looks great I like those fresh colors and the overall shape looks good how is the acess to the high notes ?

Very good. It's not a blended neck heel, but the body is only 1 7/16" (37mm) in thickness, so it's still quite easy to reach the highest frets.

[tjcurtin1]

So Vood - have you got anything sounding remotely like what Bohlinger gets out of it - granted that he is like Robert in his ability to make any piece of wood with strings on it sound good!

[duhvoodooman***]

I've been playing it quite a bit through my BYOC Tweed Royal head into a 1x12 cab with a Celestion Blue speaker. This is a good combination for single coil guitars, because it fills out their sound nicely. The SL sounds great clean and even better with some overdrive. I'm not in the Renman/Bohlinger league as far as playing skills go, but I think that combo of guitar/amp/overdrive sounds pretty damn good!

[tjcurtin1]

Thanks, Vood - I may have to go ahead and get this out of my system... I just have to remember to buy the accessory hole-in-the-head to go with it, as I clearly need one of those, too