Silverburst Les Paul Custom, Custom Shop LTD, Korea?

[philiprst]

I am new here and this is my first post so please be gentle

 

I joined the forum because I have been looking for a Les Paul style guitar and I have been checking out used and new versions at a couple of local stores. I was originally looking at the classic black customs but today I came across a new Silverburst Les Paul custom that seemed quite a bit nicer than the others I had tried. What interested me was that unlike all the others I tried this one was made in Korea and had the "custom shop limited" on the back of the headstock. They did have a couple of other "LTD" models but they were made in China so this one seemed to stick out.

 

I am curious if anyone can tell me about this guitar because I though all epi les pauls were made in China now.

 

Thanks so much!

[Xaj]

Hi and welcome to the nut-house.

 

Well, Epis are made in China and in Korea, and apparently in Indonesia as well.

There were also quite a few that were made in Japan and those are very sought after but I am not entirelly sure that they are still made there.

 

In any case, for many, a Korean made Epi means better quality, although I can't complain about Chinese made ones.

As for the gorgeous Silverburst, that was a limited edition that Epi is doing.

Now, by limited that means that instead of doing 10,000 guitars, maybe they did 2-3,000.

Unless, of course, they specify the number of guitars that they made for a particular model (e.g. Epiphone Les Paul Standard 1959, they did 1959 guitars, or the Epiphone Les Paul Custom Midnight with EMGs which they did 400).

 

As for the Custom Shop, most will tell you that there is no such thing as a Custom Shop in Epi, but I have to say that they are generally well built guitars, and the Silverburst is really beautifull.

 

Here's some more info: Epiphone Les Paul Custom Silverburst

[Sjael]

Regarding the Limited Edition/Custom Shop thing, that just means it was a special run, in this case, it was the Silverburst finish.

 

Regarding the country of origin, I believe a good chunk of Les Paul production has moved on from China to Indonesia. If the guitar is Korean, it's likely New-Old-Stock, that is to say it's been sitting in the shop for a while. For example, I own a 2004 Korean Explorer that I bought retail near the end of 2009.

 

And hell yeah, Silverburst is my favorite finish of all for a 'Paul, I say jump on it.