Re: Epiphone Les Paul Standard vs. Fender Standard Telecaster
I own a 2001 Epi Les Paul Standard with the 'designed by Gibson' pickups. I wouldn't characterise the pickups as 'muddy'. The finish, tuners, and playabilty are terrific. I did replace the bridge pickup with a SD 'Pearly Gate', but I was looking for a more 'twangy-bright' tone than the normal 'warm' Les Paul tone, which the stock bridge pickup sounded more like.
The Epi thru both a solid-state VOX Pathfinder 15R and tube Traynor YCV20 has a very good, full-defined tone on both clean and gain/od settings. FWIW, I do maximize the 'treble' settings on both the amps and guitar, and generally turn the 'bass' way down, which would be extreme for single-coils, but with humbuckers gives me the sound I like.
So, to answer your request for opinions on the Epi Les Paul Standard, personnally I'm very happy with mine. It plays real well, and I just tweek my amps till I get the tone I'm happy with. Hope this helps.