new guy-last questions, I hope

[karl davidson]

what is the s series?

 

Am I right in thinking the les paul classic custom ant is solid body mahogany as specified on advertising?

 

the Les paul ultra 2 is solid mahogany body (with chambers to complement the nanomag)?

 

The same websites do not claim the standard ebony is solid mahogany, that it is alder/mahogany so I quess it is genuine info.

 

Has any one heard of gear 4 you music? any expierences?

Thomanns, any expierences?

 

 

Does any one know do most epis have the alnico pick ups? do the customs have the same set as the standard? other than the extra nano mag on the ultra 2?

 

Has any one got an ultra 2? what's the verdict? sounded good on a video clip I saw some where?

 

Wife's gonna lend me the money so I can purchase soon (at last) If the customs are better build than the standard the local indie shop is defo a no go.

 

Kind regards

 

karl

[antwhi2001]

By "S" series I meant the ones produced by Samick in Korea, identifiable by a serial number on the back of the headstock prefixed by "S" followed by numerals. Samick were a reputable manufacturer who made a lot of Epiphones in the 1990s.

 

What do you expect from "solid" mahogany? Mahogany is a generic definition applied to dozens of sub-species with widely varying characteristics. The bulk of the body (all of it except the thin veneer "cap" ) is Asian mahogany on standards and customs. But not necessarily one nice solid piece - more likely between 3 and 5 bonded pieces. The "cap" is alder or maple and varies from about 1/8" to paper thin. Being that thin, it makes f^&k all difference to the tone. The caps on real Gibsons are much thicker.

 

The Ultra has hollow chambers to reduce weight, alledgedly without loss of sustain. So do a lot of current Gibson models.

 

Customs generally have same alnico pups as std, slightly thicker necks, gold plate hardware, bigger inlays and more binding. In other words, more bling, same sound.

 

You need to understand that with a mid-budget brand like Epiphone the manufacturing tolerances are broad. Quality of performance varies irrespective of what the specs say.

 

Gear4U and Thomann are both reputable dealers.

 

The pedigree of the wood is not the be-all and end-all of an electric guitar. For f"£ks sake either buy one or save up for a Gibson!

[brianh]

Here's whats gonna happen:

 

You'll buy an Epi or some other nice looking budget guitar hoping to score a champagne instrument on a beer budget. You'll get it set up nice, play it for a few months and be perfectly happy with the action and tone, but become disillusioned because it's not a solid this, custom that, or vintage whatziz.

 

You'll sell it and buy a much more expensive guitar that won't play or sound any better, but you'll be happy 'cause nobody can say it ain't a classic feranistan/wingnut. Eventually you'll get tired of that too and want another yeehaw.

 

The advantage of being an old fart who's been through this process is you don't friggn' care anymore, you just wanna fiddle, tweek stuff and enjoy life and don't give whit about what other people think, know, or think they know.

 

Yay old dudes.

[Ron G]

Spec weenies are a trip, ain't they?

[clarkuss]

At least he's interested to find out! Please keep us updated on your purchase and what you make of whatever guitar you choose to buy. But most importantly, buy one! You can't have any fun with a money shaped guitar dream.

[Gordy01]

If you are going to buy a guitar, try to get it in your hands before you spend your money.

There are so many factors that go into what you personally like in a guitar, it only makes sense to try it first.

First of all you have to like what it looks like.

Secondly it must feel good in your hands. The neck should feel good; nice low action and no sharp fret edges. The controls should be in the right location for your playing style.

Thirdly it should sound good played through your amp, or one you are considering buying.

I know a lot of the guys in this forum buy guitars off Ebay, or Musician Friend, or other web based stores and have had great success.

Others will tell you horror stories.

 

I have an Ultra 2 and I really like it. I bought it from Long & McQuade in Canada.

I like it for the range of sounds made possible by the combination of 2 Humbuckers, and the Nanomag pickup. And I like it because it feels great in my hands.

 

Here's a pic. Notice the Nanomag pickup. It is the black strip at the base of the neck.

A separate set of controls on the back of the guitar.

 

[midiman56]

Hey, Karl …

 

I’ve been following your threads and the responses you’ve been getting from our very knowledgeable members. I wanted to add just a couple of thoughts:

 

Firstly, I agree with Clark that it’s great you are doing your homework and trying to gather as much information as possible prior to making your guitar selection. While it’s inevitable that your first electric guitar will certainly NOT be your last, it would be a shame to end up with something that you become unhappy with after a short time.

 

That having been said, I’m sure you can appreciate that selecting a guitar is not like buying a computer, camera, TV or other electronic appliance. Specs and materials only tell part of the story … the argument could be made that they tell the LEAST important part. You must get several instruments into your hands! Don’t worry that you haven’t played in a while … your hands and ears will still know a good player from a poor one. I was away from electric guitar for almost 30 years when I went back to it. I played upwards of twenty guitars in my price range until I came to one that just talked to me! Before you ask, it was the Epiphone Les Paul Ultra … not the II, mine doesn’t have the nanomag pickup, but it’s essentially the same guitar.

 

Now the guitar the Gord posted, the Ultra II, leads me to my second point: electric guitars are a different beast as far as the materials that go into them are concerned. There are some exceptionally fine electric guitars that aren’t made from wood at all! Aluminum, Lucite, graphite have all been used to make some amazing looking and sounding guitars. Gord’s Ultra II is a solid body guitar (well, mostly) that can reproduce, quite convincingly, the sound of an acoustic through the use of a special pickup. One of the forum moderators here, Duane, made the statement that (I’m paraphrasing here) you could take a certain pickup (I thing it was an EMG) and nail it to a broomstick, string it up and it would still sound like an EMG equipped guitar! I think Duane was right-on with that thought. There are a LOT of factors that go into the sound produced by an electric guitar.

 

Keep digging and asking questions, Karl … just don’t get put off by any of the answers you might get. Most importantly … PLAY SOME GUITARS! Keep us posted on your selection process … happy hunting!

 

Jim

[karl davidson]

Thanks guy's

 

for your construstive critasim, Hey I'm not that easily offended.

Yes, I might be in expierenced - some of you guy's who know a lot, will find me irritating- (perhaps your a bit narrow minded) Every ones gotta learn. Im pretty sure if you had questions about other subjects I would help you, with out judgement. Infact I help a lot of people on other forums related to my other ongoing interests.

 

With my wife about to kill me because of other expensive interests, I do not want to make an ill choice. There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet, I have been to a local gibson distributor who didnt know a les paul from a strat. So it's quite difficult to get my hands on loads of epi's. You guys are the experts so!

 

The statement about what I do, was to illustrate my perspective. 9.8 times out of ten when I walk into a shop to purchase something I seem to pick the most expensive, even with no price tag displayed. Being an engineer with an artistic flair is a real pain in the ***.

 

I was really impressed with a video demo of the epi ultra 2 nano mag (like you guys say, they all sound different individually+amps and all that) I just expect anything gibson associated to be a cut above - but the standard ebony plain top didnt seem to cut it against an indie at the my more local guitar shop. I didnt get a chance to see custom epi's or ultras at the gibson shop. I know I need to get out and try them all but I'd spend more on traveling than buying one.

[mrjones200x]

Hi dude, your not far away from where i live. Im from Dunstable near Luton you prob know it. In the uk i have delt with a few online retailers and this is my experience, GAK (Guitar Amp and Keyboard) Very good and great on the phone too, very helpfull. They have a big shop based in Brighton. I have bought quite a bit from them and always am happy with the service. Well recommended. This is there link http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/ Also ive used HW music, this is there link http://www.hwmusic.co.uk/information/ContactDetails.aspx Now i found there website pretty crap cos had the wrong prices ect so i phoned them up, either one will do Bolton or Preston and asked for what i wanted and they had it in stock, i got a discount on the price as it was wrong on the net and there service was great too. I ordered everything over the phone by Credit card and my guitar came 3 days later in perfect condition. Well recommended.

 

For loca shops to you i know of a 2, Sort of local, Coda Music in Luton and there other one is in Stevenage This is there link http://www.coda-music.com/ there a good shop with loads of epi's. they do 2nd hand too. Have used before and they can do orders over the phone too as someone else here used them to buy a Valve junior.

 

Hope this helps. Took me ages to find good dealers.

[karl davidson]

Oh and Ron G,

 

with out trying to give you the satisfaction of thinking that comment hurt. Spec winnies are the guys who invent, build and repair and modify your s**t! . We choose to learn and care, not bummble on in ignorance. I expect every detail from how much glue, how much pressure was used to fix the neck in, the torque on the screws that hold the pick up in etc. What ambient temperature is when tuning the guitar, and the wood all play a part.

 

When your used to dealing in decimals of millimeters and a whole other bunch of boring figures and processes.

 

Any way who cares, it's nearly christmas.

[antwhi2001]

I suppose what we're trying to get across is that engineering guitars is not an exact science. There is so much variation in the characteristics of different batches of low-grade mahogany, there is so much variation in dimensional assembly tolerances and materials used for hardware, that you end up with noticeable differences in performance even between guitars made in the same plant on the same day. Even with the more expensive stuff (sometimes more so, because there's more manual rather than automated assembly). Your engineering-led approach, trying to choose based on written specifications of materials etc, won't work in this context.

 

If you stick to the misguided philosophy that it's all about the quality of the components and materials, and insist on the best, you won't get any change out of £1,000. And you could spend £2,000 and still find you haven't got what you hoped. Erratic quality control means that you occasionally get some poor Gibsons in the marketplace (I've seen a few hanging in Stores), and sometimes you get surprisingly good Epiphones which happen to have been made from much cheaper woods, but all the variables come together to give you an instrument which feels, sounds and looks fine.

 

If you can spare the time and money, go to GAK in Brighton for a couple of hours. They are one of the best dealers, competitive on price (including interest free credit deals) and you'll be able to examine and try a vast range of Gibson, Epiphone and others. Judge them on performance and price rather than the written specs, which are marketing-driven, and pretty meaningless as indicators of quality.

[brianh]

Oh and Ron G' date=' with out trying to give you the satisfaction of thinking that comment hurt. [/quote']

Hey - anybody posting on this site is a spec weenie, Ron was just teasing you about getting worked into a lather about minutiae like we all have. I'm a designer/engineer by trade and am paid to worry about the craziest minor technical differences by folks far more obsessive/compulsive than anyone on this forum.

 

Alls I'm trying to say is, find a guitar that looks, sounds and plays nice that you can afford and go and have fun. When you tire of or outgrow it, get another, and then another. Epis are nice, relatively inexpensive and generally well made guitars, and they have this cool forum full of spec weeneies to support (and affectionately mock) you.

 

Jump in and go for a swim, the water's fine!

[sexygibson]

Hi ya Karl, and welcome to the forum. I too respect the fact that you are doing your homework before purchasing your guitar, but, it is true that how a guitar feels and sounds is more important than the materials that were used to build it.

I have owned Gibson L.P. Standards that I was not as happy with as my Epi Elitists. I have owned Fender USA Strats that didn't play as well as my Squier Strat. I have also owned high end acoustics that didn't have the tone of some Asian built guitars that I have played.

As already stated, the most important thing is to get out there and play as many guitars as you can and you will know when you find the right one.

Oh, and don't take Rons' comment to heart. Rons a good guy and is a very knowlegable member here. You have to learn how to take these guys around here and you'll have your chance to dish it out soon enough !

[MichaelE]

I live out in the middle of no where, so I had to take a chance on mail-ordering my LP Custom. It's 60 miles to the nearest music store and another 40 on top of that for an Epiphone dealer.

 

I received a well-made, great sounding guitar for the amount of money I spent. I've played many Gibson LP's and the Epiphone I have plays every bit as good as a Gibson costing five times as much.

 

I was told if you're buying an Epiphone to get the Custom as this was nearly on-par with the lower cost Gibson models. I guess they were right.

 

I don't know what kind of wood other than mahogany might have been used (that's what the advert stated anyway), or what the cap is made of. Makes no difference to me though, as it's coated in white polyuerethane about a mile thick.

 

But I can tell you the binding is flawless as is the finish. The hardware is solid and the tuners are great too. I only changed out the pickups for a better sound, and the pots & switch for more reliability down the road. There wasn't a thing wrong with them when I changed them, but I had no idea what Epiphone used for electronics, and being a tech, I wanted good electronics installed, or at least to know what was installed. I'm also replacing the stop bar with a TP-6 but that is just for convenience's sake.

 

I've been extremely pleased for more than four years with this guitar and I'm not looking to replace it.

[Ron G]

FYI, guys, I was a business applications systems engineer for 20+ years. I know all about exacting

technical specifications, etc., etc.. And I was just poking some fun at Karl, and he knows it. There is

a serious part to my comment though - something I call "analysis paralysis", which I believe Karl

may be suffering to some extent. Buying a guitar as an intellectual pursuit is rather limiting.

 

Spec weenies are everywhere. It's OK if the weenie can apply that minutae in

some sort of practical manner. But I worked with tech weenies who read every

manual, could spout minute fact after fact, ad nauseum and couldn't write a

solid piece of code to save their lives.

[karl davidson]

Well Ron we have some friends for dinner tomorrow, that should kill some brain cells, maybe that will help! lol

 

no not drinking, canabalism! maybe have a jackdaniels sauce.

[Ron G]

I see from your other post that you got past the paralysis and ordered the Ultra.

And ultimately you'll love it or hate it or be indifferent to it. And if it's one of the

latter two, you'll replace it. And very little of any of it will have to do with specs.

[MichaelE]

I think that's called 'bonding'.

 

It could be a perfect guitar technically, but if it doesn't 'feel' right, it's hard to get attached to it.

 

I've had guitars like those in the past, but they didn't stay around long.