Gibson Epiphone Special model Electric Guitar

With its double pickups and master volume and tone settings, this Epiphone Les Paul Special deviates from Gibson’s classic 4-knob setup, but the Epi’s P-90 pickups, wraparound tailpiece,
and television yellow finish pay homage toward original design.

I’m one particular guys whom believe modern-day polyurethane finishes suck the noise right from guitars. Earlier I was intrigued by this Epiphone Les Paul Special on eBay with what was known as a “faded television yellow” finish. It just seemed cool for its price range. The guitar sported a bolt-on throat, two P-90 pickups, and a wraparound tailpiece. I won the auction just for $106 ($86 + $20 shipping). Today that is Bottom Feeder territory!

However, when I got it seven days later, it absolutely was heavily damaged in delivery because of an awful packing task because of the seller. Bummer! The neck ended up being simply flopping around once I unpacked it. Obviously, the bolt-on neck had separated through the human body, stripping from screw holes from the straight back associated with the neck along the way. I immediately emailed owner, but he had been out-of-town for weekly and incapable of respond.

I’ll place this guitar facing any Les Paul under $600. The faded yellow satin finish actually permits your guitar to breathe and ring completely.

After thinking about it for one hour, I made the decision to simply take a whack at fixing practicing the guitar myself. Exactly what the hell, we figured, it had been an inexpensive electric guitar and I also had nil to lose. Besides, nothing was damaged or cracked, just a couple stripped screw holes. Therefore I grabbed some wooden toothpicks and timber glue and went to work.

Here’s a classic trick we learned from Hipshot owner Dave Borisoff for correcting stripped-out screw holes: very first, place a small dab of timber glue from the whole length of a wood toothpick, then poke it in to the screw gap and break or snip off the toothpick just below the top the opening. Because the neck screw holes had been instead big, I'd to make use of three or four toothpicks per opening to ensure that each screw had an abundance of new lumber to seize onto. whenever I had completed all holes, along with the glue nonetheless wet, I place the throat right back on and very carefully tightened the four neck screws until each had a tight fit.

This Epi Les Paul Special features a bolt-on neck—a considerable deviation from Gibson’s design.

Then I strung it up with a collection of .010s and modified the truss pole and bridge. When of truth had appeared. It played and sounded definitely great! We felt very happy about this one.

Bottom Feeder Idea #2278: continue to keep a good amount of wood toothpicks and wood glue helpful the stripped-out screw holes you may possibly experience for pickguards, tuners, bridges, necks, etc.

Seven days later the seller got in in touch, apologized, then refunded me $25 via PayPal for my trouble. The sum total cost of a guitar was today $81.

So ended up being it well worth the time and effort? Positively! And I inform you this: I’ll put this guitar facing any Les Paul under $600. The faded yellow satin finish truly enables a guitar to breathe and ring away. The P-90 pickups might be cheap, however they seem quite darn good to my ears. The throat is perfect for bluesy sequence bending, the intonation is good, and it weighs just 5.5 pounds. It’s an incredible guitar for $81. This Epiphone is unquestionably a keeper for the present time, given that it’s just excessively enjoyable to relax and play.