Epi Les Paul Makeover...

[Medic162]

Hey all!
I picked up a great playing Epi Les Paul in "Honeyburst" and although I would rather have a '59 Gibson LP Burst, reality has dictated otherwise... hell, even a Gibby reissue at $5K is out of the question right now. Anyway:

If any of you "tech types" have a better mousetrap, feel free to chime in!
My plan, unless a bad plan in your eyes, - is to throw on some Gotoh "tulip tuners", to give it a more vintage look. Then replace the factory noisemakers with '57's from Gibson and finally pick up an aftermarket wiring kit complete with decent pots, switch, jack and capacitors. I've read here that lots of you guys have done this with tonal success to your Epi's and others. Please take a second to post your thoughts... barriers, or other things that perhaps I haven't thought of. I've only had Strats as of late and had to get some humbuckers back in the groove. I picked this LP up because the particular flametop was simply amazing, it played better than EVERY used(read:affordable) Gibson I played and this one truly "spoke" to me. At well under a $700 investment even after the upgrades, I couldn't pass on it! Thanks for adding

[Mike9]

Get the frets dressed while you're at it and maybe a bone nut to complete the transformation. I drill, tap and install set screws in my TOM &
STP's as well ala Tone Pros.

[wavey63]

Mojomusical has some real nice assemblies if you want to save time or you could just buy the items and wire it up yourself.ALso, you could get some Gibson pickups and pop those in if you wanted. I had some a while ago and thought the were pretty good. Congrats on the deal and let us know how it goes!!!

[outtahear]

Not a fan of the '57s...for Gibson/new, these are a good combo, and for $100 BIN, cheap,,http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MESE:IT&ih=006

For L.Ps, I prefer alnico II Duncans, or Seth Lovers.
Hey...speaking of,(Seth Lovers) I can let you have these for $135 shipped....


But you gotta move.....

[Tone_Terrific]

I belive the Epi pups were improved in 2002.
I have one with these newer pups and it is close enough to LP tone for me.
If you develop a special taste for tone and KNOW what you want, change then.
Just saving you cash, not trying to spoil your shopping trip:BEER

[jbert]

i recently purchased an epi '57 ri lp jr and would like to replace the p90 with something reminiscent of my 50's gibby p90's. i'm thinkin' lollar only because i've heard of them first. someone please help us epi owners in search of 'budget tone'.

[frank62]

Don't let all the pup swaping talk sway you. These Les Pauls sound good stock.

[HipKitty]

Originally Posted by Tone_Terrific

I belive the Epi pups were improved in 2002.
I have one with these newer pups and it is close enough to LP tone for me.
If you develop a special taste for tone and KNOW what you want, change then.
Just saving you cash, not trying to spoil your shopping trip:BEER

What most folk aren't aware of is that the Epi pups (excluding the Lennon, John Lee Hooker and Elitist series) are made oversees, are potted to reduce microphonics and are direct copies of Gibson pups except they are wound with metric sized wire versus the gauge (system) used here in the states. Also, their polepieces are slightly smaller in diameter in comparison to Gibby's.

These differences can be heard significantly to some, while others just can't tell...let your own ears be the deciding factor. The (common)pups found in the Epi's are the Epi equivalent to the Gibby Classic 57 pup and they are wound position specific...in other words, the Neck pup is wound to better suit the neck position (and the baseplates are fitting for the same), while the bridge position pup is better suited for the bridge location due to it's windings and baseplate.

Regarding their guitars, I have seen some absolutely top quality stuff from Epi. Some of their lower cost products leave something to be desired, but you get what you pay for in the $100.00 dollar guitar range...

I will recommend changing the control potentiometers, the tone caps, the toggle switch and the wiring...you will hear a marked improvement and save the headaches of a failed toggle switch in the future.

[frank62]

^Excellent!!! The best run down on the Epi Lesters I have ever read.

[Jazz Rock]

Go ahead Medic.

I did this with my 1995 Epi LP Classic 3 years ago which was hibernating in its case since I had the Gibson, and now it is my number one guitar.

I had a luthier to change all the wiring and install a set of SD '59 with splitable coils. Just brilliant for classic rock.

Since I changed the stock nut and saddles for tusq ones to decrease my strings breakage rate and it gave a wee bit more sustain and looser feel to the strings.
I also swapped the A5 magnet in the neck pup for an A4 and this is now a great player, with both pup seemingly offering different flavour of the same pup.

I do believe that Epis were made to be modded :AOK

[operanonverba]

I've got two Epi's that I just had to have when I saw them. One is the Ultra- that chambered lightweight one and the other is the recent Silverburst Limited Edition. Both are killer like they are but the Ultra sounded a little too mid-ranged. I swapped out the pups for some Dimarzio PAF's in raw nickle and changed out all of the gold plate hardware (just my pref.). The pups in the new Silverburst are outstanding and I would rate them like a hot 57 classic. Good luck on your quest! Keith.

[Chris Scott]

Watch the frets- I've seen quite a number of those guitars (I'm assuming they're not the more up-market models) with frets popping up, and some of them I've seen with ALL of 'em popping up, right down the center of the board. The fretwire is only about .040 when new, and by the time you get them all leveled (after gluing them down, of course) you end up with pretty marginal fret height.

Just an observation:AOK