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Les paul custom


jambop

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Hi I posted last week about buying over the internet and although opinion was sum what divided the over all take was that it is very often possible that you will get a good guitar buy online.

Anyway I have spotted a Epiphone Les Paul custom 93 made in Korea at the Samick factory. The guitar is described as being totally original and looks nice in the photographs. What are the opinions of this year and factory guitar over a newer one ? I am thinking about buying if the price is right and there are good opinions about this year and place of manufacture. Any advice most welcome.

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well a lot depends on the actual price IMO,

 

There seems to be this mystique around the Korean Epi's from this error, that their more desirable and fetch more in the used market

 

In reality pickups/hardware and the finer details in the assembly in the newer models are much better than found in the mid 90s models.

 

so again, it depends on the price, but what seems to be happening is the asking price for these are close enough to newer ones where it's probably a wiser purchase to go new for a few $$$ more.

 

just my 2 cents.

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Any Epiphone from back then will require a pickup change for most players, so factor that into your budget. Also, it's fairly easy to get a used Epiphone LPC from 1990 through 2011 for $250-$350 through Craigslist, Ebay, Reverb, Music Go Round and Guitar Center Used.

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I concur with everybody else saying that the '90 MIK Epiphones generally require upgraded pickups and hardware compared to more recent Chinese Epis. I used to own a MIK G400, and frankly you can easily pull a current Chinese-made G400 off the shelf of any GC and chances are it will crush my old G400 in terms of tone (especially clean) and tuning stability. The old Epi humbuckers were very muddy, and the tuners did not like bends at all.

 

I'd also like to add that while there are questions today about the wood Epiphone uses, nowadays they're at least trying to provide something mahogany-ish. (The wood in my 2010 Indonesian Epiphone Wilshire looks like neem, or Indonesian Mahogany, but I'm no expert). In the '90s, the Korean-made Epiphones were generally alder with a maple veneer on the top and a mahogany veneer on the back, so they weren't even trying to give you something mahogany-ish.

 

To be honest, I don't even really care about wood per se. I just figure, if you promise mahogany, at least make a plausible effort! :-P

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