gearhead

I CONCUR, FINISH! ALL GOOD!

LOOKS RIGHT! EPI COLORS ARE THE SAME AS GIBSON.

I really like the new Inspired by Gibson line. Been looking hard at them! LOL. Yea, like I NEED another guitar! Have 9 gits and a bass now! But NEED has nothing to do with it. GAS!

What does the end of the truss rod look like under the truss rod cover? Could you post a pic?

I like that Epiphone is making changes to their lineup like this. The guitars look great, and the prices do too. Gonna try to snag me a couple different models this year for sure! ROCK ON!

Here's a link to the Guitar Electronics website wiring diagram page (Gibson & some Epi). Has ALL KINDS of diagrams! Pickup Wiring Diagrams-Guitar Electronics

Not sure if this will help or not. I don't have any Epi pickups here with 4-conductor wiring and my pc with most of my electronics/diagrams is down right now. But I believe Gibson and Epi use the same color coded wiring. The green and white wires are for coil splitting; just solder them together, put a piece of electrical tape over them, and forget about them, if you aren't going to hook up coil splitting. The red wire is the hot lead. Tin it and solder it to the terminal. Twist the black wire and the bare wire together, tin them, and solder them to the pot casing.

I have a Goth SG, and I don't think the stock pickups are bad at all. Of course that's totally subjective, and may also depend on what amp you use.

How much thread do you have exposed (where a nut can go on) on the truss rod? Do you have a pic of it?

Looks like a SWEET guitar! And a decent deal to boot. Make sure to post pics when you black it out! And the pots, it would be nice if Epi used a better quality pot, but I guess if it came with all top notch hardware/electronics, the price would be top notch too!

Yep! Great guitar! Gibson 490R/498T pickups. Plus i love how the neck is set a bit further from the center of the guitar. A LOT better access to upper frets!

They are high output/ceramic magnet pickups.

Kind of what I thought. I've looked around and have only found pics of one other guitar with a finish like that. And I'm about 99% sure it's exactly like you said, a '98 from Korea. Thanks for the input!

Most likely the gold top finish.

Looks like a 2000 model made at the Fuji-Gen plant. http://www.epiphonewiki.org/index/Epiphone_Serial_Number_Decoding.php