Help with identifying this Epiphone model

[OffSound]

Hi everyone,

A few days ago, I've been to a guitar store and played a used Epi. They wanted about 400$ for it.

At first I thought it was an lp100 (and an obviously over-priced one) but when I went to check it again today and compared it to online photos, it had some differences. I don't have any photos with me, but I'll describe the guitar:

 

1. It was an ebony les paul-style guitar.

2. The headstock had an "Epiphone" lable, and that "bell" thing, which I think said "Gibson". No other lables on the headstock.

The Lp100 on this Epiphone site doesn't have a headstock "les paul" lable either, but the ones on guitar-sale websites do. Maybe the older models had no lables. I dunno, that's why I'm asking :)

3. On the back, where the neck meets the body, there was a metal plate with some long detailed lable saying something like "Made in Korea, blah blah blah, Nashville, etc." "Blah x3 represents many words which I can't remember.

The plates I saw on guitar sale websites had only the "Epiphone" lable on them. Nothing more.

4. The serial number is 099070475. I couldn't find it on that serial number website mentioned a few times in this forum.

I guessed that the guitar was made in September 1990, but I've read that the year in the serial usually comes before the month. Again, I dunno...

 

If anyone has any clue about this, please let me know. Any clue at all :)

Thanks a lot for your time, and I'm sorry if the answer is so stupid an obvious!

[Ricochet]

I'm the wrong person to ask to date a guitar but a couple of things to help you on your way.

The bell thing is called the trussrodcover or TRC. Older Epiphones TRCs said Gibson.

The metal plate on the back is called the neckplate and is indicative of what is known as a "bolt-on"guitar. Meaning the neck is bolted on the guitarbody as per 4 screws/bolts.

Korean factories are indicated by the letter(s) before the serial.

I = Saein

U = Unsung

S = Samick

R = Peerless

F = Korea

I find the serial unusually long. Are you sure the first 0 is correct?

[RotcanX]

It's probably one of those bolt neck Standards. Did the body have 'binding' around the edge? LP-100s have no binding (creme-coloured plastic strips inlaid around the top edge of the guitar and the fingerboard edges).

 

If it's indeed one of the bolt-neck Standards, it's definitely superior to the LP-100 (well, except for a Special II, anything is superior to an LP-100), but $400 is a tad steep. I'd offer $300. Remember that you can get a brand new, warranteed Plus top LP Standard with a set neck for not much more than $450.

[OffSound]

Thanks for the quick replies!

To Ricochet: You were right about the zero - I replaced it with an "O" and the guitardaterproject

said that it was made in Korea in July 1999. Thanks for the tip, and for the part names :)

To RotcanX: I don't remember about the binding, but I recall two things I hadn't mentioned: I'm kinda sure that the fretboard had rectangles/trapezoids and not dots (I think that all lp100's have dots on their fretboards), and I'm totally sure that the pickups were black open coil humbuckers (which I've seen on both lp100's and classics, and not on Standards). I'm just wondering why there was no "type of Les Paul" lable on the headstock.

Is this any help with identifying it?

[RotcanX]

They didn't start labeling the Les Paul models until around 2004 when they dropped the 'Gibson' truss rod covers.

 

As to identifying it, it's up to you to check for the binding as I already described. With trapezoid fret markers and a bolt neck, though, it is sounding more and more like a bolt-neck Standard. The pickups may have been replaced or have had their covers removed; or else it's a bolt-neck Classic but I don't think there was such a model.

 

three.

hundred.

bucks.

tops.