This contest is sponsored by our good friends at Sweetwater.com
Check out their unique guitar gallery which shows the exact guitars they have in stock:
http://www.sweetwater.com/guitargallery/
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, we received not one but two guitars from Sweetwater.com to kick off our gear review giveaways.
These guitars are both Epiphone Les Paul models that two of our Guitar Tricks members have been thinking about buying.
Mark1237 requested a review of the
Epiphone Les Paul Studio ($329.97)
genkiguitar requested a review of the
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II ($699.97)
I have been playing with them both for a week now and I am ready to give you my report.
Also, we are going to give them both away to two lucky newsletter readers.
In order to win one of these prizes, you must agree to the contest details and "enter" the contest by posting on this thread by August 7th.
August Sweetwater Gear Review Giveaway - Epiphone Les Paul x2
# 1
*** Sweetwater Gear Review Giveaway Contest Details ****
How Winners are Selected and Notified:
On August 8th we will randomly select two winners from people who post a reply to this forum thread. Posting more than once will not increase your chances to win.
Winner will be announce in this forum thread (save your newsletter, it is the only external link to this thread).
Official Contest Rules
- Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
- Contest is only open to U.S. residents who are over 18 years of age.
- No purchase necessary.
- All Guitar Tricks members including both Full Access and Free Membership are eligible to win.
- Guitar Tricks instructors, forum moderators, staff and members of their households are not eligible.
- Winner will have 30 days to claim their prize.
- If you win, we will need to use to your name and image in the newsletter, so have a good photo of yourself to send us!
- Prize winners are responsible for all federal, state and local taxes.
- By accepting a prize, all winners agree that Guitar Tricks, their affiliates, and all of the officers, directors, employees,
representatives and agents of Guitar Tricks, will have no liability whatsoever for, and will be held harmless by winner for any
liability for any injury, loss or damages of any kind, to winner or other persons, including (without limitation) injuries, loss or
damages arising out of or relating to death, and, injuries, damages or losses to property, due in whole or in part, directly or
indirectly, from the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of the prize or participation in this giveaway.
- Guitar Tricks reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the giveaway, reject any entry, or make any revisions to the
official rules as we deem necessary.
How Winners are Selected and Notified:
On August 8th we will randomly select two winners from people who post a reply to this forum thread. Posting more than once will not increase your chances to win.
Winner will be announce in this forum thread (save your newsletter, it is the only external link to this thread).
Official Contest Rules
- Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
- Contest is only open to U.S. residents who are over 18 years of age.
- No purchase necessary.
- All Guitar Tricks members including both Full Access and Free Membership are eligible to win.
- Guitar Tricks instructors, forum moderators, staff and members of their households are not eligible.
- Winner will have 30 days to claim their prize.
- If you win, we will need to use to your name and image in the newsletter, so have a good photo of yourself to send us!
- Prize winners are responsible for all federal, state and local taxes.
- By accepting a prize, all winners agree that Guitar Tricks, their affiliates, and all of the officers, directors, employees,
representatives and agents of Guitar Tricks, will have no liability whatsoever for, and will be held harmless by winner for any
liability for any injury, loss or damages of any kind, to winner or other persons, including (without limitation) injuries, loss or
damages arising out of or relating to death, and, injuries, damages or losses to property, due in whole or in part, directly or
indirectly, from the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of the prize or participation in this giveaway.
- Guitar Tricks reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the giveaway, reject any entry, or make any revisions to the
official rules as we deem necessary.
# 2
First, I must tell you that I am a big fan of the Les Paul style guitar. My first real electric was an Ibanez Les Paul copy. I have always loved the way Les Paul guitars look and feel, and especially the way they sustain. For much of my life, real Les Paul guitars have been simply too pricey to consider buying. But the Epiphone Les Pauls seek to change that by bringing out Les Paul models in the $300-$700 range.
I was excited to see these two models arrive in the mail. I wondered how well Gibson/Epiphone does at bringing the Les Paul look, feel and sustain to a sub-$1000 and even sub-$500 guitar.
They arrive in a simple angled cardboard box. They don't come with a case. In this instance the two guitars came in two angled cardboard boxes within a single larger square box that I thought could only hold one guitar. I didn't know what I would do when I need to send them to two winners next week. :) Turns out the UPS store keeps "guitar boxes" in stock. Good to know. Anyway, on to the review.
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II
Look:
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II ($699 at Sweetwater) has the Les Paul Cherry Sunburst look, gold hardware, large fretboard inlays, everything you need to say to yourself "I am Peter Frampton." It is a classic look, with all the trimmings. For a person such as myself with a long-time case of Les Paul envy, it is very satisfying to own (even for a little while during this review) a guitar with this look.
Playability:
This guitar has very low action. My immediate reaction was "wow." I was pleasantly surprised to see it set up so low, and easy to play. I have a carpal tunnel sort of problem in my fretting hand, and this guitar is so much easier to play than my strat, that I kept going back to it over and over again. Later on I began to see it as a little touchy compared to the Studio reviewed above. Low action is a two-edged sword. It is easier to sound a note when you want to, and also easier to sound a note when you don't want to. All in all, I would prefer low action, but it does require more precise control in your playing.
Sound:
Here's where things get interesting. The Les Paul Ultra II has a thin pickup embedded in the 22nd fret. This "NanoMAG" pickup is designed to allow the guitar to sound like an acoustic. It has a separate output jack with low-mid-high tone controls for connecting to an acoustic amplifier. I don't have an acoustic amp here in the office, so I couldn't test this feature out completely. I pluggged the NanoMAG-only output into my amp simulator and the results were "acoustic-like" but not really "I can't believe it's electric."
However....
After a few days I figured out (reading the docs helped :) that the knobs on this guitar are not the standard Les Paul two-volume two-tone set of four. The bottom tone knob on the Ultra II is actually a NanoMAG volume control. There is only one tone knob, and it affects all pickups. So, you have effectively 3 pickups running at once, one being a strange little NanoMAG mounted above the 22nd fret that gives a very shimmery high sound.
Conclusion:
The Ultra II is a lot of fun for a guy like me. I love pickup selectors, split-coil humbuckers, active tone controls, anything to let me play with the output. This NanoMAG thing is a very interesting addition. You can fade it in or out of the mix whether working with bridge pickup or neck pickup or both. If you don't like it, you can turn it off, but if you want a little more shimmer in your sound, there it is to help you out. I was impressed with the build quality of this guitar and will be sorry to see it go when we give it away next week.
Good luck!
I was excited to see these two models arrive in the mail. I wondered how well Gibson/Epiphone does at bringing the Les Paul look, feel and sustain to a sub-$1000 and even sub-$500 guitar.
They arrive in a simple angled cardboard box. They don't come with a case. In this instance the two guitars came in two angled cardboard boxes within a single larger square box that I thought could only hold one guitar. I didn't know what I would do when I need to send them to two winners next week. :) Turns out the UPS store keeps "guitar boxes" in stock. Good to know. Anyway, on to the review.
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II
Look:
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II ($699 at Sweetwater) has the Les Paul Cherry Sunburst look, gold hardware, large fretboard inlays, everything you need to say to yourself "I am Peter Frampton." It is a classic look, with all the trimmings. For a person such as myself with a long-time case of Les Paul envy, it is very satisfying to own (even for a little while during this review) a guitar with this look.
Playability:
This guitar has very low action. My immediate reaction was "wow." I was pleasantly surprised to see it set up so low, and easy to play. I have a carpal tunnel sort of problem in my fretting hand, and this guitar is so much easier to play than my strat, that I kept going back to it over and over again. Later on I began to see it as a little touchy compared to the Studio reviewed above. Low action is a two-edged sword. It is easier to sound a note when you want to, and also easier to sound a note when you don't want to. All in all, I would prefer low action, but it does require more precise control in your playing.
Sound:
Here's where things get interesting. The Les Paul Ultra II has a thin pickup embedded in the 22nd fret. This "NanoMAG" pickup is designed to allow the guitar to sound like an acoustic. It has a separate output jack with low-mid-high tone controls for connecting to an acoustic amplifier. I don't have an acoustic amp here in the office, so I couldn't test this feature out completely. I pluggged the NanoMAG-only output into my amp simulator and the results were "acoustic-like" but not really "I can't believe it's electric."
However....
After a few days I figured out (reading the docs helped :) that the knobs on this guitar are not the standard Les Paul two-volume two-tone set of four. The bottom tone knob on the Ultra II is actually a NanoMAG volume control. There is only one tone knob, and it affects all pickups. So, you have effectively 3 pickups running at once, one being a strange little NanoMAG mounted above the 22nd fret that gives a very shimmery high sound.
Conclusion:
The Ultra II is a lot of fun for a guy like me. I love pickup selectors, split-coil humbuckers, active tone controls, anything to let me play with the output. This NanoMAG thing is a very interesting addition. You can fade it in or out of the mix whether working with bridge pickup or neck pickup or both. If you don't like it, you can turn it off, but if you want a little more shimmer in your sound, there it is to help you out. I was impressed with the build quality of this guitar and will be sorry to see it go when we give it away next week.
Good luck!
# 3
I use to be against the Les Paul becuase of playabilty in my eyes (single cutaway on a thick guitar, spaced out strings, wide neck,) but after trying them recently on a few trips to Guitar Center I see what all the hype is about. Though the really high frets need some time to get use to, the LP's play really nice. I have kinda chunky fingers, yet still manage to play good on a 25.5 scale, but on the LP, the spacing is almost perfect as I didn't hit any unwanted notes (besides playing high on the neck due to the single cut away.)
Antoher thing that makes me happy is that its the first guitar I actually used the volume and tone controls other than maxing them out or getting a semi clean sound. When I frist played one, I switched to the neck pickup, yet need to roll back the volume a little and the tone halfway and got a really good mellow blues tone, yet had the punch I desiree when you strum over a few muted strings then hit a high note with some vibrato.
All in all, really decent guitars.
Antoher thing that makes me happy is that its the first guitar I actually used the volume and tone controls other than maxing them out or getting a semi clean sound. When I frist played one, I switched to the neck pickup, yet need to roll back the volume a little and the tone halfway and got a really good mellow blues tone, yet had the punch I desiree when you strum over a few muted strings then hit a high note with some vibrato.
All in all, really decent guitars.
"During this line, the kid acted like he was pushing buttons on a calculator in the air. The kid played ******* air-calculator!"
Myspace
Myspace
# 4
I haven't played either of these guitars but definitely would be interested in entering the contest, because they both look awesome!
# 5
My friend has an epiphone les paul studio, its actually a really nice guitar, especially for the price. Good choice (Y) :)
# 6
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# 10
interested in entering the contest I have one Epiphone great playable guitars
Originally Posted by: Jon BroderickThis contest is sponsored by our good friends at Sweetwater.com
Check out their unique guitar gallery which shows the exact guitars they have in stock:
http://www.sweetwater.com/guitargallery/
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, we received not one but two guitars from Sweetwater.com to kick off our gear review giveaways.
These guitars are both Epiphone Les Paul models that two of our Guitar Tricks members have been thinking about buying.
Mark1237 requested a review of the
Epiphone Les Paul Studio ($329.97)
genkiguitar requested a review of the
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II ($699.97)
I have been playing with them both for a week now and I am ready to give you my report.
Also, we are going to give them both away to two lucky newsletter readers.
In order to win one of these prizes, you must agree to the contest details and "enter" the contest by posting on this thread by August 7th.
# 11
Jon,
I have been an acoustic guy most of my life. I bought a Strat about a year and a half ago.
Changed out to the vintage noiseless pickups a couple months ago. I like, but am very curious as to how the strat noiseless sound compares to the LP's.
I play mostly in a church environment. The range is contemporary to traditional. Sometimes with a bare bones group, sometimes with choir, brass and organ.
I mostly use a D-tech 250 for creative sounds.
The compact look of some of the LP's is somewhat appealing to me also.
I have been an acoustic guy most of my life. I bought a Strat about a year and a half ago.
Changed out to the vintage noiseless pickups a couple months ago. I like, but am very curious as to how the strat noiseless sound compares to the LP's.
I play mostly in a church environment. The range is contemporary to traditional. Sometimes with a bare bones group, sometimes with choir, brass and organ.
I mostly use a D-tech 250 for creative sounds.
The compact look of some of the LP's is somewhat appealing to me also.
# 12
It would be fantastic to win one of the guitars. I have been too busy to keep up my playing skills but having one those would really inspire me to take it up again.
:)
:)
# 13
these two guitars seem like the replica guitars on our web ,i don't believe they are authentic !!!
# 14
I really like the looks of the ULTRA ll. When I retired a few years ago I went back to playing acoustic/electric. Unfortunately, I have fairly crappy guitars, but because I'm on a fixed income now, I can't afford $699 for a good one. And my wife would kill me if I go into hock to get one! So, winning this would be very cool.
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# 17
I have several acoustics - Hagstrom, Ibanez, Guild, Ovation - and would like to finally (at age 55) break into electric. This would be a very cool way to start!
# 18
I really like the color of the studio, but the looks of the ultra more. And i like contests! :D
# 19
My 8yr old daughter and I have just started learning to play the guitar together this year. She has a fender electric (starter kit) and I have a fender accoustic. Still getting use to the site to learn more, since I am having a hard time finding someone to work with us.
It would be cool to win one of the Les Pauls to be able to play electric along with her. Thanks for the time you put in for the reviews. Begin new to the guitar world, it helps to see others opinions on other models.
It would be cool to win one of the Les Pauls to be able to play electric along with her. Thanks for the time you put in for the reviews. Begin new to the guitar world, it helps to see others opinions on other models.
# 20
