Gibsons and copies

[ZMAN]

I have owned 3 Epi LPs and two Sheratons. I still have an Epi elitist, and a Sheraton. I love both of those guitars. The only other one I really miss and should not have sold, was a Korean LP Custom Plus in Heritage Cherry. That guitar just sounded and played like a dream. I got fed up of the gold hardware tarnishing, and that was a dumb move. If I could find another one as nice I would be all over it. I am lucky enough to be able to buy just about any guitar I want, but it took me many years to finally realize that it is how the guitar sounds, looks and feels is what counts. Not what is on the headstock.
I would not mess with the Tribute, and the only reason I did the GT changes was that I didn't like the Ceramic pickups, and I wasn't sure how these PUs would sound with the 300k pots.
The agile looks like a real sweet guitar.
Sorry but you might have mentioned the black pickgaurd, where did you get it?
That color combo looks exactly like my Korean Epi Custom plus did.

[FrankenFretter***]

The agile looks like a real sweet guitar.
Sorry but you might have mentioned the black pickgaurd, where did you get it?
That color combo looks exactly like my Korean Epi Custom plus did.

I bought the pickguard through Rondo. I figured it was the best bet for one that fit, although the Epi seems to have the same pickup spacing, etc. Now that I have the black pickguard, I'm wondering why I didn't just leave the Agile pickguard-less to show that fine flamed CSB.

[NWBasser]

Sean, I think that the Tribute sounds damn fine as-is. It has that raw bite that really stands out.

Some of my criteria for guitars are such things as fretwork, which is very important, sound, balance, and neck shape.

In general, I've found that MIA instruments from whatever mfg. have a bit better quality fretwork than off-shore ones. At least that's been my impression so far.

Since I come from bassland, I'm more familiar with the multitude of jazz bass clones from the likes of Sadowsky, Lakland, Avella Coppollo, Lull, etc. that are generally considered as various grades above a Fender. And they usually come at a higher price too. Sometimes, much higher...

Then there are the cheaper copies like SX, etc. that are good values, but not quite up to the real deal.

As far as I know, jazz bass copies are either more expensive or much cheaper and the quality is usually reflected in that. I'm not aware of any that would be directly comparable to the big "F" in quality for less $$. Supposedly, some of the new Squiers come close to doing that.

Going back to guitars though, I'm far less familiar with the various makers which makes it far more difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. I do know that MIJ Fender basses are very good and was wondering if a similar quality LP copy was available for less than a full-zoot Gibson.

For now, I'm rather happy with my Epi although it seems it may take some fretwork, electronic upgrades, etc. to really set it off. I'm more of a buy something good and play the snot out of it, rather than upgrade, sort of person though.