MI_Canuck Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I've been considering a Dot, but just came a across a mint looking Epi LP Standard Plus (I believe it's a Plus, has the flame top). Darker than Cherry Sunburst but lighter that Vintage Sunburst. Also like dark Iced Tea Burst or maybe Honey Burst. Feels great. Build quality is outstanding. Weighed 9lbs (there happened to be a shipping scale around). Has Klusen-style tuners. One little nick, but not even any buckle rash. Even still has the plastic on the rear round switch cover. Small crack on the jack plastic square trim piece. Neck is dead straight and the frets look good. Also setup with nice low action too. What's throwing me off is the S/N. Does not have the factory letter (EE, DW, U, I, etc...). S/N is simply 11006XX (sticker at the top of the headstock). Has made in Korea screenprinted on the bottom of the headstock. This thing looks completely legit and sounds great. I'm actually thinking of getting it since it feels just right when playing it. However I'm curious on the S/N and to know what year this thing is. My guess would be 2000 (or 2001?), but have not seen S/N like this one before. **EDIT: according to this epi guitar dater website (http://www.guitardaterproject.org/epiphone.aspx)... made in oct '91 in Korea... surely doesn't look like it's from 1991. Must have been stowed away for years... ** Also, what is fair price on excellent condition Epi LP Std Pluses in the used market? Epi Std +'s are 549 new on GC and MF. It looks almost exactly like this one except that as I said, has Klusen-style tunes, not Gover-style kidneys. Even has the same truss rod cover with simply 'Gibson' written on it. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judybat Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I have one that looks exactly like the one in your photo. It's on loan at a friend's house, but looks like this: Obviously I've replaced the picups with DiMarzio Virtual PAFs and removed the pickguard. It's a great guitar. No complaints at all. The serial # on mine is EE0507xxxx. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneman Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Sounds like a Samick made one. I have a '92.Since they were the only ones making them at the time the letter designations had not been put into use yet.Mine's the same way,paper serial sticker,made in korea screen printed on the bottom of the headstock beneath the tuners. I love mine,I did upgrade the pickups to GFS vintage 59s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MI_Canuck Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 daneman - what are the first few digits of your serial? Being a '92 is it 12XXXXX, 2XXXXXX? This one has 11006XX on it, and it's looking like a '91 (although maybe an '01)... ??? In any case, sounds like a well made piece from what you're describing with yours. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstruck507 Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I have one that looks exactly like the one in your photo. It's on loan at a friend's house' date=' but looks like this:[img']http://home.alltel.net/andy_pr1ce/paul%20standard.jpg[/img] Obviously I've replaced the picups with DiMarzio Virtual PAFs and removed the pickguard. It's a great guitar. No complaints at all. The serial # on mine is EE0507xxxx. Hope this helps. That's an awesome finish color! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneman Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 The paper sticker,made in korea is the main clue. Mine is kinda worn there so it could be 2A 0106xx . or It could be 24 0106xx. I just looked.I know back when I first got it somebody on the old forum looked it up for me and made me aware of the guitar dater program. If yours was an '01 I would think it would be new enough to have a different serial# method employed,as well as a factory designator letter. Hmm tried my serial # on the dater,got the "I must have missed a few gremlins screen,please contact webmaster."Screen. But I know I looked it up in the past and it worked. Yeah its a nice guitar,not quite as fancy as some of the newer ones,but the build quality is first rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingfrets Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I had a '91 Epi LP (bright cherryburst though) which had a headstock a lot more similar to the "open-book" style employed by Gibson. There was more taper from the neck end of the headstock to the top than you'd see on a Gibson, but the corners weren't cut off. If Samick was the only Korean manufacturer in '91, I'd think all the LPs they built shared the same specs. If yours has the older style headstock, it might help you narrow down the approximate age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MI_Canuck Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Well i ended up getting it... It played well, felt good in my hands, nary a scratch on it, looked amazing... so now I have a LP of my own :-) Here are some crappy iphone pics of new (to me) Epi Les Paul Standard (Plus?)... Body - weighs in at a nice solid 9lbs (it's a very very dark red actually.... so I'm scratching my head as to what exact colour it really is... not cherry sb, not honey burst, not iced tea, not VSB... ???): Headstock (not the open book pseudo Gibson like I've seen online (here), but the typical Epiphone shape with the chamfered corners. Back has S/N on sticker up top (11006XX), and bottom silk screened "Made in Korea": Now... it needs new strings and maybe a setup. But otherwise it plays pretty well. I'll likely eventually upgrade the pickups with Seymour Duncans (I'm big on SD pickups), and maybe the electronics also. For now, I can just enjoy that oh-so-nice sustain!!! :-) cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneman Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Congratulations!!!Looks to be a similar burst to mine colorwise ,but yours has better flames. I don't know what the color of it is called, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstruck507 Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 that's insanely pretty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MI_Canuck Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 thank you gentelmen... i'm pretty stoked!! :-) ... i went and checked it out at lunch (there's a great used guitar shop near my place where guys like Jack White have been known to buy stuff in the past... no lie)... then came back to work and posted this thread.... did a bit of research online... figured it's probably a '91 and the condition this thing was in, the really nice finish on it, the build quality, the nice weight (9lbs) and most importantly how it felt to me, all combined to make me pull the trigger... i thought about it all afternoon (could barely get any work done! ;-) and picked it up right after work... i'm really look forward to playing this beauty and continuing to progress in my guitar learning escapades (i've only been playing/learning for about 8 months) cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rented Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Great finish...congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoloTy Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Sounds like a Samick made one. I have a '92.Since they were the only ones making them at the time the letter designations had not been put into use yet.Mine's the same way' date='paper serial sticker,made in korea screen printed on the bottom of the headstock beneath the tuners.I love mine,I did upgrade the pickups to GFS vintage 59s. [img']http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k199/Daneman_photos/DCFC0060.jpg[/img] Daneman, I love the top on that guitar... Its like its trying really hard to be figured, but only got part of the way... How often do you see those, cause I want one! In the words of the late Steve Irwin, "It's gohhgeous!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suho Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Yeah, nice catch there! Were the people at the shop not able to provide you with any more info on it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MI_Canuck Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 Just called Gibson Customer Service... The S/N - despite not having any factory code in front - indicates made in '91, Epiphone Les Paul Standard (no mention of being a Plus or whatnot, despite have the flame top as can be seen in my pics above) in Heritage Cherry Sunburst with chrome nickel hardware. Jives with what I have and what the epi guitar dater website says. Although mine is way darker than what you'd expect from a Cherry Sunburst. Problem is Gibson says no way of knowing which factory it was from. They said Samick and Aria were making them back then. Not sure how valid that is. I've heard about Samick, but never heard about Aria making Epi LP's - but that doesn't mean it isn't the case. But good to see the S/N is actually in Gibson's database, and correlates to what I have. Anyone know if in '91, Epi was doing weight relieving? Mine weighs in at 9lbs, so my guess is that it's solid, not routed or swiss-cheesed, but I can't really say for sure. peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneman Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Thanks Solo ty.This is the only one like I've seen with the partial figuring. Canuk, Mine weighs about 9 lbs or so too.I don't think they had come up w the "Plus" models yet. Also I hadn't heard that Aria made some.Neat. Here's how she looked when I first got her,this is the ebay seller's pic! You can see I've been busy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muskank Sally Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 If it has a sticker on the top of the back of the headstock it sounds to me like a 'used' or '2nd', with a inventory sticker covering what is an actual serial number. If you peel that sticker off more than likely there will be a partially removed number there, starting out with two letters then the digits. I'm eager to see what the results would be. Go on> Take off that sticker!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneman Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Don't peel off the sticker..Its the serial #. They don't have them stamped into the wood on these. I know some dealers do that nowadays.But not in this case I think. Help Jerrymac!!!?? So Aria made some of these Lp's in the early 90's? If my number starts with 2A then maybe its not a Samick,hmm. Oh well still a great axe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MI_Canuck Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 Don't peel off the sticker..Its the serial #. They don't have them stamped into the wood on these.I know some dealers do that nowadays.But not in this case I think. no worries - i won't peel off anything ;-) you're saying some dealers will stamp the serial number into the headstock??? So Aria made some of these Lp's in the early 90's? If my number starts with 2A then maybe its not a Samick' date='hmm. Oh well still a great axe![/quote'] don't know how true this is... just one customer service dude said over the phone... no real way to back it up... but he said he couldn't tell me where exactly mine was build in Korea, he said both Samick and Aria made them... but who knows??? peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneman Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 No. On some second or refurb guitars the (imprinted into the wood) serial is defaced,and covered up with a similar sticker to what you have ,with a number that they made up for their inventory purposes. This is done to void warranty claims.As usually the problem has been fixed as far as the refurbs. Some guitars also have used or second,sometimes stamped into the wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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