The late 50's Les Pauls

[Ascension]

50's Les Pauls did NOT come with open coils. That didn't happen until the 80's, if I remember correctly.

Correct all had covers.

[Mincer]

I think the exposed coils were 'unsightly'.

[Rex_Rocker]

An experienced and good guitar luthier can fix things like that. I know mine could. He was fabulous.

Agreed. But honestly, a guitar that cost 800 dollars (my Custom did) shouldn't have those issues. Plenty of other guitars in that price range don't.

I don't mean to badmouth Epiphone. I like my 1959. I just strung it up yesterday, and it's better than I remember it being. But my Squier Classic Vibe cost like half as much and didn't have that attrocious of fretjob from the factory. Both of my Epis did, and all I keep reading about them seems to agree with my experience.

I understand a good luthier should be able to fix that. But a good luthier is also not going to to charge you less than 100 bucks for a fretjob and re-seating the frets when that's pretty standard quality control thing that shouldn't have left the factory at any price point.

JMO, of course. My advise is not that you shouldn't buy an Epi, but to play it before you buy it to make sure it doesn't have an issue as big that it's going to cost you more money to have someone fix it, because plenty of them do.