My Standard Plain Top arrived

[Not-Too-Late]

Well I finally got the replacement for my wife’s 100, and is she happy. The order I placed came in yesterday afternoon. What a difference in sound. No more mud and thunder boomers. I love everything about this guitar except for one little detail . . . the pots. None of them turn properly without resembling one of those roundabout amusement park rides. The pots aren’t loose, but they don’t turn even like. As you turn the pot, you see the outer edge of the knob going up and down. The worst culprit is the tone pot for the bridge pup. If this guitar was inspected, it doesn’t say a whole lot for their QC. Anyway, I’m not really bummed out about it. It’s an easy fix, but I think that is something that should have been noticed/rectified after inspection and according to the sticker on the back of the head stock, it was done here. I’m calling GC later about it later this afternoon.

 

From the sticker, this model was made at the factory in China. I will check out the serial number later.

 

Here are some pics I took this morning. Not very good quality I’m sorry to say, as I’m noticing some problems with my camera. You will notice from the headstock shot that the black color is way off.

 

 

By the way, have any of you noticed small amounts of white in parts of the fret board of your Epis?

[RaSTuS]

Congrats on your wife's new guitar, hope she enjoys playing it, HNGD.

 

Rosewood has an open grain, maybe some sanding dust got caught up in the grain and wasn't cleaned properly, the only thing I can think of re white marks on fretboard.

[Whitmore Willy]

Here are some pics I took this morning. Not very good quality ...

Better pictures than I take.

 

Congrats on a beautiful guitar. Glad you like the sound!

And yup, the knobs are an easy fix. Just make sure none are rubbing on the guitar.

They're usually pretty easy to level out.

 

Willy

[Heilly]

Not very good quality I'm sorry to say, as I'm noticing some problems with my camera. You will notice from the headstock shot that the black color is way off.

 

 

 

 

By the way, have any of you noticed small amounts of white in parts of the fret board of your Epis?

 

You're using a freaking tripod for your pictures!!!! I would say that your quality is nothing short of pure awesomeness! Happy NGD! She is gorgeous!

[Gary Moore Tribute]

I love everything about this guitar except for one little detail . . . the pots. None of them turn properly without resembling one of those roundabout amusement park rides. The pots aren’t loose, but they don’t turn even like. As you turn the pot, you see the outer edge of the knob going up and down. The worst culprit is the tone pot for the bridge pup. If this guitar was inspected, it doesn’t say a whole lot for their QC. Anyway, I’m not really bummed out about it. It’s an easy fix, but I think that is something that should have been noticed/rectified after inspection and according to the sticker on the back of the head stock, it was done here. I’m calling GC later about it later this afternoon.

HNGD

 

Its a simple fix...

Use a cloth to wrap under the knob and carefully pull from above it.

Once removed, get rid of any crap underneath (sometimes theres film or whatever) then put the knob back on at the angle you desire "10" to be pointing and push the knob back in ensuring that its flat and that should solve it (Works for me anyway)

[Elias Graves]

That's nice. I love a good plain top.

 

EG

[AlanH]

Congrats! It looks awesome.

 

 

It's not often you get a "Happy new guitar day for the wife". Usually it's "Happy new guitar day, my wife's going to kill me!"

[Not-Too-Late]

Congrats! It looks awesome.

 

 

It's not often you get a "Happy new guitar day for the wife". Usually it's "Happy new guitar day, my wife's going to kill me!"

 

Man I almost fell out of my chair laughing at that. Good one!!!

[dalep]

Nice!

[brianh]

[james_edward]

Nice guitar and very good pictures, the "white stuff" in the rosewood is most likely polishing compound reside - just oil the board and keep turning over the rag, it'll also get rid of any stain that might be present.

[Not-Too-Late]

Nice guitar and very good pictures, the "white stuff" in the rosewood is most likely polishing compound reside - just oil the board and keep turning over the rag, it'll also get rid of any stain that might be present.

 

Thanks for that info. I'll do just that. Any particular type of oil that I should use? I know this sounds like a silly question, but would I need to remove the strings?

[animalfarm]

Well I finally got the replacement for my wifes 100, and is she happy. The order I placed came in yesterday afternoon.

What a difference in sound. No more mud and thunder boomers. I love everything about this guitar except for one little detail

. . . the pots. By the way, have any of you noticed small amounts of white in parts of the fret board of your Epis?

 

#1. I'm GLAD she's HAPPY!!!! I take it you've noticed the difference between the Ceramic Magnets

of the pups in the LP-100 and the METAL Alnico V Magnets in your LP? Hmmmmmm.......

 

Your EPI STANDARD Pups will serve you well as you travel down the path to ROCK STARDOM, or

something close. Replacing them is not mandatory. Good Pickups. AMP settings will also affect

Tone. And let's not forget about effects pedals. LOTS of those!!!

 

Bottom Line - Play yur GIT for a while, change Git tone setings, change git Pup selection - go between

bridge, neck and both, Change amp settings... Learn what your guitar is capable of producing. Vary the tone

selection in each position. I've jammed with very skilled guitarists who showed up with a dang Epi LP Special II,

but THEY COULD PLAY! Turns out it's not necessarily what "Goodies" are on your guitar, but can you PLAY?

 

Very HAPPY for you - Gorgeous Guitar!!!! START Playing and make us Proud!!!!!!

 

BTW - the "White Stuff" is normal. There's a thread in the EPI Lounge DIY that addresses

cleaning and treating your Fretboard:

 

"CLEAN/OIL FRETBOARD and POLISH YOUR FRETS!!!"

(May help get rid of that "Rough Feeling" you get when bending notes)

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/54572-wire-wool/

[Bookkeeper's Son]

I take it you've noticed the difference between the Ceramic Magnets of the pups in the LP-100 and the METAL Alnico V Magnets in your LP?

Um, so-called ceramic magnets are Ferrites, which are chemical compounds consisting of ceramic materials with iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3) as their principal component.

[Bookkeeper's Son]

Thanks for that info. I'll do just that. Any particular type of oil that I should use? I know this sounds like a silly question, but would I need to remove the strings?

You can just loosen the strings and push them aside. Mineral oil (baby oil) works just fine. Rub some on with a soft cloth, wait a minute or so, then wipe it all off with a clean cloth. You don't want to saturate the rosewood, as it may make the wood softer, affecting the integrity of the frets. Once or twice a year is sufficient, usually.

[Guest farnsbarns]

Mineral oil is ok for cleaning but it never really soaks in so its no good for conditioning. I refinement fret doctor.

[Whitmore Willy]

Just make sure that whatever you use it does not contain silicon!!!

Big time No-No for guitars.

Get silicon on one spot and by the end of the day you will have it up your butt.

Things like pledge are 100% out.

 

Willy

[bigneil]

HN(wifes)GD! It looks great, I'm glad you like it. I wish my wife was more interested in guitars...It would be easier to justify new purchases.

[Not-Too-Late]

HN(wifes)GD! It looks great, I'm glad you like it. I wish my wife was more interested in guitars...It would be easier to justify new purchases.

 

Ain't that the truth.

[Duffy49]

You have been very nice to your wife, dude. Good move.

 

One of those plain tops could be a great guitar either as is or as a platform to hot rod.

 

Those knobs can be replaced, the whole set, for new ones for about five dollars or less. Clear amber speed knobs might look great. You might have oblong knobs from the mfg process.

 

You know, do what you want as far as hot rodding it goes, but I'll tell you the fifty seven classic and fifty seven classic plus pickups are some really nice pickups. Also Seymour Duncan makes some super great pickups like their nickel covered ones - the JB bridge, the 59 neck, these are super great LP replacement pickups; also the Seymour Duncan (SD) Custom 5 bridge pickup goes well with the 59 neck, and the SD Alnico II Pro pickups are great, not the Slash models, just the plain ones but the Slash ones are probably great too. I personally like to buy high quality pickups like Seymour Duncans or Gibsons. A lot of the cheap ones like from GFS (guitarfetish.com) can't compare to the good premium expensive brands - unless you know exactly which GFS pickups to get because they offer a lot of different pickups. I have some half way decent GFS crunchy PAT humbuckers in a GFS Xavier LP copy I bought, but they knew what they were doing when they selected the pickups for that guitar. I have purchased and installed some GFS pickups that I found to not sound that great and I wished I had spent the extra few dollars and gotten some Seymour Duncans or other great more expensive big name pickups. This is just me and others will definitely disagree. Based upon some good advice I would try some inexpensive pickups and those Rainsongs mentioned sound like good options if they are available.

 

Also you can get some really good mini Grover locking tuners for sixty dollars, US, or so that work really well and are super smooth. I put a set on my new PRS SE Singlecut Tremolo guitar and they are far superior to the stock PRS ones, which probably are not that bad. A lot of those Grovers like on yours are really decent stock tuning machines I might add. I have them on my Epi LP Standard Plus top and my Epi LP Custom.

 

Something else that might look look nice is to remove the pickguard like my LP Tribute came stock without. This reveals more of the beautiful maple plain top. Some people like this look. Some of my LP's have the pickguards left on and some have them removed.

 

Don't forget STRINGS. Most LP's come standard with 10's, which are great. There are a lot of different strings obviously. Pure nickel strings give a warmer more mellow tone that sounds good on LP's and gives a traditional sound, but nickel wound Ernie Ball Slinkys are great strings as well. I guess strings are so called "subjective", meaning that they are a highly personal choice. The pure nickel versions are easier on the fingers and frets and the nickel wounds are brighter sounding nickel plated steel and these are probably the most commonly used today, although more companies are making "rock and roll" pure nickel versions again. Supposedly the

mfg's moved from the pure nickel strings to the steel ones plated with nickel because they were cheaper to make twenty years or so ago, but now it is just as profitable to use pure nickel again, seemingly. I mainly use the nickel plated steel D'darrio's or EB Slinkys, but have been picking up some pure nickel ones to use on certain already very bright guitars to see if they tone them down without ruining their beautiful bright twang. Next I'll put a set on a LP.

 

I totally agree that the AMP is the key component and a rule of thumb I've heard is to plan to spend as much on the amp as you do on the guitar. There are a lot of amps out there for four hundred dollars that are great amps. One amp that only costs 299US is the Fender Super Champ XD - this is a tube amp (or a semi hybrid tube amp) with two 6L6 power tubes and a preamp tube plus about sixteen great amp models broken down into about eight Fender amp models, who knows how to model Fender amps better than Fender?, and eight other amp models going from Vox types up thru ultra high gain models. Plus it has two channels, one for the models called "voices" and another is the clean channel which is not modelled and has clean headroom to the ceiling. It also has about eight really decent effects including reverb, delay, vibrato, tremolo, and chorus plus combinations of some of them as well as an effects level knob to control how much you want to saturate the sound with the injected effect. It is a cool inexpensive tube amp with a ten inch speaker. Tube amps, according to many, are warmer and more responsive to the player and instrument than solid state or true hybrid Vox Valvestate type amps. I usually use tube amps and a digital modelling multipedal if I want to get other sounds than the pure tube amp sound. The pure tube amp sound from an all tube amp can be very satisfying, such as from my new Peavey 6505+ 112 high gain combo sixty tube watt amp that can knock the walls down or purr quietly at bedroom levels. The Peavey sounds super great and very responsive without any pedals between it and the guitar. Amps are really personal too, but tube amps produce, according to many, a very satisfying tone.

 

Good luck with the upgrading. When I bought my Fender Super Champ XD I immediately ordered an Eminence Ragin' Cajun ten inch speaker and did the upgrade to the very sensitive new speaker that is VERY loud because it is a lot more sensitive than the stock one, and it produces great tone. The job was easy to do and I did it myself. The stock speaker had a magnet that looked about the size of a fifty cent piece and the new speaker has a gigantic magnet about an inch thick and six inches in diameter - that told me something immediately.

 

The bottom line is "to each their own", but I wouldn't tell you to hesitate to upgrade the guitar. Just think it thru and make sure you are upgrading it rather than downgrading it with some pickups, for instance, that don't sound as good as the stock ones which are not that bad at all.

 

Money spent on a real good tube amp is, according to many, money wisely spent.

[Not-Too-Late]

You have been very nice to your wife, dude. Good move.

 

Those knobs can be replaced, the whole set, for new ones for about five dollars or less. Clear amber speed knobs might look great. You might have oblong knobs from the mfg process.

 

You know, do what you want as far as hot rodding it goes, but I'll tell you the fifty seven classic and fifty seven classic plus pickups are some really nice pickups. Also Seymour Duncan makes some super great pickups like their nickel covered ones

 

Also you can get some really good mini Grover locking tuners for sixty dollars

 

Something else that might look look nice is to remove the pickguard like my LP Tribute came stock without. This reveals more of the beautiful maple plain top. Some people like this look. Some of my LP's have the pickguards left on and some have them removed.

 

Don't forget STRINGS.

 

I totally agree that the AMP is the key component and a rule of thumb I've heard is to plan to spend as much on the amp as you do on the guitar.

 

The bottom line is "to each their own", but I wouldn't tell you to hesitate to upgrade the guitar. Just think it thru and make sure you are upgrading it rather than downgrading it with some pickups, for instance, that don't sound as good as the stock ones which are not that bad at all.

 

Money spent on a real good tube amp is, according to many, money wisely spent.

 

 

I would like to start off by saying that the advice given by all of you is really appreciated. So much I am learning here.

 

The one thing I do intend on changing soon is the pots and knobs. I don't have much knowledge about electronics, but it would seem that these devices are what controls the signal carried to the amp, therefore decent quality control pots are a definite advantage.

 

At present, I'm happy with the sound generated from the Alnicos, but a change will probably happen later on.

 

The stock Grover tuners are doing a good job in maintaining the guitar in tune, not like the ones that were on my wife’s previous 100.

 

I like the pickguard, so I have no desire to change out or remove it.

 

I definitely won't forget the strings. This is one area that I plan to experiment with. I used various types years ago on my Tele's, including flat wounds during the "Surfing Sound" era. A nice clean mellow sound is what I'm after. The combination of stock strings and pups are not bad for now.

 

A tube amp . . . by far the best. The Princeton Chorus I have now delivers nice tone . . . not up to par with a good tube amp that puts out a nicer mellow output, but sufficient for now with limited funds being the ultimate deciding factor.

 

Thanks so much for all the great advice all.