Well if your going to go for an Epiphone you must go for an Elite because the regular Epiphones suck ass. And, if your gonna go for an Elite you might as well go for the real deal. I went this route and I am extremely happy with my Les Paul Classic.

When I had my other LP's my Tele was still my main guitar. Now the LPC is my main stage and recording guitar. The tele is there for stuff with vibrato or thinner-sounding-stuff.