Hiwatts and Gibsons
New member
First things first...these new Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom LPC's need no upgrades...and I seriously mean NO UPGRADES! Holy crap...they are astonishingly good!
The weight of mine is just 8 lbs 6 oz
The neck feels killer and measures .895" at the first fret and 1.039" at the 12th fret...doesn't have too much shoulder...just really really nice feeling neck.
The guitar does not feel "dipped in poly" at all to me.
These guitars are really REALLY nice.
I bought an ebony one (IBGC hardshell case included) in brand new condition from a seller on Reverb for $1000, so I decided to put that money saved into personal touches.
Highly recommended guitar...FAR beyond any of the brand's LPC offerings of the past.
Toggle assembly and output jack are the same Switchcraft units that go in the Gibsons. Gibson 498T and 490R pickups, Grover tuners, and Graph-Tech nut. The bridge and tailpiece are standard Epiphone LockTone units, but they work really well and don't truly need to be upgraded, though if one were to desire to upgrade, that's the only thing that would qualify on the entire guitar as a place that could possibly benefit from doing so.
Now...what all did I do to mine exactly?
In a nutshell, I essentially turned it into a 1968 reissue with Nickel Hardware (which Gibson has offered in the past).
So...screws, bolts, Toggle, Output Jack plate, pickup covers, tuning machines, bridge and tailpiece, L bracket, and strap buttons were switched out for their nickel counterparts (preferring locking tuners, I went with a set of locking Grovers, and I also sprung for the Keystone buttons as well...oh and Dunlop Straploks of course!). After putting the nickel LockTone unit on, I decided to take the guitar to the next level and ordered a pre-notched TonePros Aluminum metric bridge and tailpiece assembly. Finally, I got a set of metric witch hat knobs and 30 degree knob pointers (as info...the CTS pots on these guitars have metric shafts, but they have the standard imperial size everything else, so they require US sized knob pointers).
Once everything came in, I swapped out the parts, and then took the guitar to my tech for a full set up. All frets were level and needed no polishing, and there was no fret sprout, but he did smooth out the edges of the frets just a touch ("I knocked down the weight on the ends a bit"). This being a TonePros bridge, the notched saddles need to be notched properly for my string gauge of choice (11-49 D'Addario), and he also widened the nut slots a touch to ensure the strings wouldn't bind at the nut. I took the guitar home, dialed in my bridge pickup (height and pole pieces), plugged it in and I was off to the races.
The better bridge did make a difference...I compare it back to back with my Gibson Les Paul Standard and it's every bit as good. Yeah yeah yeah...it's poly finish instead of nitro, but let's be honest...nitro and poly aren't that far from each other these days due to all the platicizers in the nitro recipe that Gibson uses now.
I'm waiting for two more things...a plain black Gibson backplate (I don't really dig the Epiphone INSPIRED BY Gibson Custom logo on the stock one. I did check first...these take proper Gibson backplates), and an Epiphone Les Paul Custom truss rod cover that isn't as beveled as the stock one.
I simply ADORE this guitar...check it out:
That is.a sweet axe. I was quite enamored with one of the black back Epiphobe LP's at GC. I still cannot stop seeing that guitar with a pair of Gold TV Jones' pickups in it. A PowerTron or Classic+ in the bridge and a SuperTron or T-Armond in the neck slots.
