EpiEric

Seems like a very good value for the money. For only $30 more than a regular Special II you're getting a flame veneer, bound body, and the Shadow tuner. Looks really nice, too.

They probably just ended up with unsold Alabama models and repainted them. Wouldn't surprise me at all. I've never seen anything specifically like this on an Epiphone, though. Custom colors over sunbursts sometimes turn up on 50s Fenders, likely because sometimes when they got an order for a custom color they just resprayed an existing guitar for expediency, but that's turning "common" into "unique" not the other way around :)

Not sure if the Dot Studio neck is the same as the other Dots, but even though it's listed as "60s Slim Taper" in a lot of the literature I've seen, my Dot Studio has the thickest neck of any guitar I own. Very comfortable for chording.

That's a really nice looking group and a good variety. But I think you should treat yourself to a solidbody with full-size humbuckers. You've got hollowbody mini hums, solidbody mini hums, solidbody P90, hollowbody P90and hollowbody full-size hums. So that would cover all the bases :) I've heard that those 50s Tributes are amazing players.

It seems like over the last few months Epiphone have been phasing in the "Vintage" logo as the "Official" logo rather than the one they've been using for a long time with the Epiphone "E" but the rest essentially in the Gibson font. It used to be they used the "Vintage" logo on more Epiphone guitars that were "originally" Epiphones (Casino, Wilshire) and used the Gibson like one on Epiphone versions of Gibson designs (Les Paul, SG) but it looks like they have switched to "Vintage" for almost everything now. If you look at the Guitar Gallery at Sweetwater, where you can see actual instruments they have in stock, all the Les Pauls and G400s have the "Vintage" logo.

I'm not sure on whether this is considered a 2013 or a 2014 guitar, but both Musician's Friend and Zzounds show the Heafy 6 string as "in-stock." http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/epiphone-limited-edition-matt-heafy-les-paul-custom-electric-guitar http://www.zzounds.com/item--EPIENMT I've seen cases before where a new item shows as "discontinued" when it hasn't even arrived yet. Not sure about Canadian availability, though.

I think that's definitely a Standard Plus Top in Wine Red judging by your pictures. You can see it on the unofficial wiki here. The "Pro" revision came along in 2012, but the previous Plus Tops are still nice guitars. If you're selling it with the HSC you have in the pics, I think you could get more than $250 with the right buyer.

Looks like a lovely guitar. In this case, I bet "Casino Vintage" indicates "Vintage Sunburst." If it were natural, I bet it would say "Casino Natural."

Summer NAMM is less than a month away. That would be a logical place to announce the new models.

Great job. A very cool project. I hope you will continue to enjoy both Brendas for many, many years to come :)

Here's 1985 with a Lotus Les Paul copy: Here's December 8, 2012 (filled in on bass for this gig)

Here's my humble Epi family. Les Paul Special, Dot Studio, Les Paul Custom: Wilshire Phant-O-Matic: AJ-15 with special guest (he's 8 now)

Looks legit to me. You could always message the seller and ask for the serial number. He mentions having the serial, but doesn't include it. It's in the F-hole, so they can be hard to take pics of.

I haven't seen any details yet, but they did have the Genesis at NAMM again. They officially announced the Matt Heafy Les Paul that's in this photo with the Genesis today, so maybe there will be word soon? http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2013/Feb/GALLERY_NAMM_2013_Day_2.aspx?Page=29&

I like Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (.10) on 24.75 scale guitars and Super Slinkys (.09) on 25.5 inch scale guitars. I've had good luck with Dunlop and Fender strings also (Fender Super Bullets work well with traditional Strat trems). I don't get along well with D'Addarios. I don't have especially sweaty hands or anything, but they go dead on me crazy fast. Not sure why. They're fine when they're fresh, but they lose snap and sparkle on me within a week - even with minimal play. Now that I just play around the house, I probably change strings on my most played guitars once every 3 months or so and the rest maybe once a year. Like Whitmore Willy said, back when I was gigging I had to change strings on my stage guitars every couple of weeks. I don't typically break strings, so I almost always change 'em 6 at a time.