hawksicken Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 I own a jackson and dean guitar and i was looking at the signatures of zakk wylde and slash because i love there tone. While i was looking i noticed that the cheap signatures (about $700) were epiphones while the gibsons both were over 1K. Is there a big difference between gibson and epiphone? Are they two completely different companies? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
:oilpit: Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 First: wecome to the forum! Second: this would probably be more appropriate in the Les Paul section Third: If you have to ask, you probably don't need a Gibson, no offence. Hell, I don't need a Gibson and I have one. ...Anyway... Way back in the day Gibson was Gibson and Epiphone was Epiphone, they were different companies and made different guitars. Then Gibson bought Epiphone, and had them pump out cheaper versions of Gibson instruments, made by machines overseas and such. I haven't played Epiphones that much, but from what I hear they are pretty good guitars, espescially if you are getting a higher end model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spook Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 Your not gonna buy a Zakk or Slash LP and get their tone. Lots of things come into play with a players tone like the amp,effects,strings,even the size pick. But even if you bought all the same gear they use the magic out of their hands make their kick *** tone. you could give Zakk Slash's gear and he would still sound just like Zakk and vice versa. Line 6 pod would be your best bet cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 :oilpit: is mostly correct. With the usual caveat that the historical information I have comes from a book which has been wrong in the past... Epiphone were a New York company which was making guitars for some time before WWII and, therefore, in competition with the Gibson company, amongst others. They (Epi) experienced difficulties in the early '50s and the company was wound up in 1957. Whilst a lot of the tooling was bought up by Guild, the Epiphone trade name, patents and design copyrights were acquired by Gibson. From 1959 until 1969 all Epiphones were made in the Gibson plant in Kalamazoo. Most of the 'new' models were similar to their Gibson counterparts but a few were carried over from the pre-merger days. I have had an Epiphone LP Standard in the (fairly recent) past and it was a very nicely made instrument. From what I can remember the bodies etc were manufactured in plants in East Asia but were shipped to the USA for fit and final finish. The pups were also a Gibson design. Although it had a flame maple top I seem to remember reading that it was only a veneer of curly maple laminated onto a plain maple cap. Also the body was not, I believe, one piece of mahogany. It sounded fine! It was a tenth the price of even a plain-top VOS, never mind a figured model, so you cannot really expect it to be as good but it certainly wasn't ten times as bad! If you can afford the Gibson it will reward you in time but if not then for sure buy the Epi and start saving again..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flight959 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Epi's are great guitars for the price. If your new to the world of guitars then by an Epi... Time will tell if you want to move onto a Gibson. At the end of the day they both do the same thing... Flight959 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Yep. Murph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Epi's generally are good. Like others have said, their high end stuff is better. For example, I have an Epiphone Elitist Dot and I would put it up against any recently built Gibson ES 335 for playability and sound. On the other hand, Epiphone makes a lower end Dot and one would be really stretching to match it up against a Gibson ES 335. It's still a nice guitar though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundergod Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Hell' date=' I don't need a Gibson and I have one.[/quote'] send her to me ASAP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daerious Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I started with an Epi Les Paul Custom among other cheaper guitars, and now play a Gibson LP Studio. I would have to offer the advice that if you are buying a "signature" guitar for any other reason that being a crazed fan (which is fine), you are likely wasting your money. I would suggest you compare the cost of an Epi LP Custom to a Gibson LP Studio. In my opinion, the studio pulls ahead in the details, but the Epi Custom was in no way a bad choice. I would also say, in my opinion, you will come just as close to getting the tones you seek with a LP Studio as you will with a custom signature series. If you are questioning getting an Epi, you can't afford the equipment needed to really start trying to get their tone, even ignoring the "hand magic" which is just as important. I can also recommend the digitech rp500, very versatile and works well for me straight into a PA. Great for apartment life since volume doesn't affect tone the way it would with a tube amp, and great for low budget guys like myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callen3615 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 . If you are questioning getting an Epi' date=' you can't afford the equipment needed to really start trying to get their tone, even ignoring the "hand magic" which is just as important.[/quote'] +10000 Tone is in the hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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