NEED guitar advice

[doctadre]

Hey everyone here is my situation: I was lookin for a decent 400 dollar guitar to customize with pickups, new hardware and stuff. I just got an epiphone les paul standard plus in honeyburst ( really gorgeous looking too), but i have heard that they are made of plywood. Anyone know more about it? Also mine is brand new from china, which is now of lesser quality. I was lookin into selling this one and gettin a dillion guitar of the same type (dl650), does anyone have comments?
Im really torn here, the epi does look nice and it plays easily, but it sounds kinda hollow unplugged. Once i upgrade to duncans and rewire it , im sure i'll get a great sound, but i just need some advice.
Thanks
andre

 

[theodie]

Re: NEED guitar advice

Your epiphone should be sweet if you do the following mods, Change the pots to CTS pots, get a new switch, Jack, pickups, and a fret leveling and a good setup. I have an epiphone gold top that I have done these mods to and it is a sweet sounding/playing axe now. My epiphone is a goldtop with humbuckers. It has a mahogany body and neck, and it has a thick cap on it. The cap is a light colored wood, It might be maple but, I cant tell because I cant see a large enough section of it. If I remember correctly Lewguitar did a similar job lately and had great results also.

 

[rspst14]

Re: NEED guitar advice

Or, you could get a good used Hamer USA Special FM for around $500 or so. Those come standard with top quuality electronics, hardware, and Duncan pickups.

Ryan

 

[Johtosotku]

Re: NEED guitar advice

I don't think you that you should change ANYTHING if it works. Building pots and caps and etc. isn't exactly rocket science. If your pots are collect value (= sounds good to you) there's no reason to change. Pickups are a different deal, they have more things to attend to. Also, there's nothing wrong in chinese guitars. The pics I saw from Epi factory in China looked pretty nice. I think you should compare the acoustic sound to other guitars before you say it's hollow (assuming you haven't done this). Remember not to mistake brightness to sound quality.

 

[theodie]

Re: NEED guitar advice

I don't think you that you should change ANYTHING if it works. Building pots and caps and etc. isn't exactly rocket science. If your pots are collect value (= sounds good to you) there's no reason to change. Pickups are a different deal, they have more things to attend to. Also, there's nothing wrong in chinese guitars. The pics I saw from Epi factory in China looked pretty nice. I think you should compare the acoustic sound to other guitars before you say it's hollow (assuming you haven't done this). Remember not to mistake brightness to sound quality.

The pots and switch in epiphones usually dont last a long time so it isnt a bad idea to change them before they become a problem (and they will).