I'd been Jonesin' for a Gibson Swamp Ash model, but the 2 college tuitions keep me out of the grand-plus range thesedays. When I saw the Walnut carved-top Les Paul, I thought I could tweak it a little and perhaps changeout the pickups. But, the stock pickups are fabulous. I've been playing Teles for 40 years, since I was 15 and they're great for just about anything you can throw at them. But, they really can't do that quiet but jangly middle-stop tone a Les Paul can, nor give you that bridge pickup overdriven slide tone that slide-players are after. Granted, Sonny Landreth and Bonnie Raitt do just fine with Strats, but a good slide-tone isn't something I've ever been able to coax out of my Teles or Strats. So, I appreciate Epiphone offering this model - I did have one of their '56 GoldTops years ago, but the P-90s were all too similar to the single-coils in my other guitars. A couple of hummers in this Walnut plank do the trick quite nicely. I think Epiphone might be missing a boat with their Les Paul product planning. I'd rather see them do more of this type of Les Paul than tricked-up USB-jacks and pretty veneers. It's all about the tone, for me anyway. And, this one sounds just terrific.