I have two epiphone les pauls with seymour duncan pick ups, costing me around 500 pounds each. On buying the 2nd les paul I had the option of many Gibsons at the 500 - 600 pounds mark, but i still choose the epiphone. and i would again. An epi with seymour duncans sounds better than a gibson. Ive begged my guitar dealer to order me a gibson and he calls me crazy!! I might buy a second hand gibson and do it up, you can get them on ebay for 400pounds.
All in all, your really paying for the name, and people who say you arent are lying to kid themselves there money was well spent on something 4 times the price.