Epiphone Les Paul SL £99

Alnico

underdog said:

stimpsonslostson said:

darthed1981 said:

Neil said:

For £99 that baby blue model would make a fantastic starter electric for a young lad.

QFT - there has never been a better time to start playing, you could get everything you want in a half decent home rig for < £200 brand new!

The value in the beginner market is phenomenal. My 5year old begs me for this every time we go into my local guitar store. It's also less than £200. (I must admit I've NEARLY caved a few times). 

https://d1aeri3ty3izns.cloudfront.net/media/19/193564/1200/preview.jpg

That is cool as can be fair play.

I've been trying to stop myself buying that exact guitar for over 6 months now.
That is so cool !

Seriously, I'm close to caving in too.

freakboy1610

redrighthand said:

Slave Labour

Very funny and possibly true. I was going to suggest Shit Looking but slave labour wins!

Bridgehouse

Alnico said:

My personal goal with this is to try to create a unique guitar that is good quality and reliable enough to play live with for less than £200.

The 49' Prototype Esquire I'm building will be less than £200. That's including a Mojo Esquire pickup and some reasonable hardware...

stimpsonslostson

Bridgehouse said:

Alnico said:

My personal goal with this is to try to create a unique guitar that is good quality and reliable enough to play live with for less than £200.

The 49' Prototype Esquire I'm building will be less than £200. That's including a Mojo Esquire pickup and some reasonable hardware...

My partscaster fits that bill.
I started with a £65 Harley Benton te52 telecaster.
I refinished it. 
Replaced any hardware that needed it. 
Fitted an OilCity alligator 90 pickup and Esquire harness. 
Cut & fitted a new scratch plate. 
Set it up myself.

A fair bit of work went into it but that only enhances its value to me. 
The result is great & well under £200 despite the only original bits remaining being the body wood, neck, ashtray, tuners and strap buttons. I use it regularly. 

Alnico

Thanks to @robwright I've bought myself a set of nut files.
Yes, I can hear guitar techs laughing at me as well,.............never mind. I expect it these days.

Anyway, I'm also going to buy a levelling file and some other tools before this arrives and when it does I'm going to attempt whatever set up work it needs myself.

I recrowned the frets on my USA Pro strat earlier this year when Howard Smith gave it back after badly levelling the frets way too low and left them flat topped with no crown on them.
I used a triangular file and it went very well indeed so I have some confidence to build on from that. I won't say who but a well-respected guitar tech praised me on that job when he saw the photos of the work I'd done which gave me a real boost.

I think that making a new nut from scratch is beyond me to start with but recutting the nut that it comes with shouldn't be too far past what I can do with some patience and concentration. I was a competent motorcycle restoration mechanic for many years when I was younger and I can wield a file with some degree of accuracy.

I'm also learning what I can about electronics from a good friend so I'm hoping to keep all my costs down to parts only with this build/mod.

I'm really looking forward to this.

Bridgehouse

Alnico said:

Thanks to @robwright I've bought myself a set of nut files.
Yes, I can hear guitar techs laughing at me as well,.............never mind. I expect it these days.

Anyway, I'm also going to buy a levelling file and some other tools before this arrives and when it does I'm going to attempt whatever set up work it needs myself.

I recrowned the frets on my USA Pro strat earlier this year when Howard Smith gave it back after badly levelling the frets way too low and left them flat topped with no crown on them.
I used a triangular file and it went very well indeed so I have some confidence to build on from that. I won't say who but a well-respected guitar tech praised me on that job when he saw the photos of the work I'd done which gave me a real boost.

I think that making a new nut from scratch is beyond me to start with but recutting the nut that it comes with shouldn't be too far past what I can do with some patience and concentration. I was a competent motorcycle restoration mechanic for many years when I was younger and I can wield a file with some degree of accuracy.

I'm also learning what I can about electronics from a good friend so I'm hoping to keep all my costs down to parts only with this build/mod.

I'm really looking forward to this.

I would say you have plenty enough skill to adjust a nut for height.

Alnico

Bridgehouse said:

Alnico said:

Thanks to @robwright I've bought myself a set of nut files.
Yes, I can hear guitar techs laughing at me as well,.............never mind. I expect it these days.

Anyway, I'm also going to buy a levelling file and some other tools before this arrives and when it does I'm going to attempt whatever set up work it needs myself.

I recrowned the frets on my USA Pro strat earlier this year when Howard Smith gave it back after badly levelling the frets way too low and left them flat topped with no crown on them.
I used a triangular file and it went very well indeed so I have some confidence to build on from that. I won't say who but a well-respected guitar tech praised me on that job when he saw the photos of the work I'd done which gave me a real boost.

I think that making a new nut from scratch is beyond me to start with but recutting the nut that it comes with shouldn't be too far past what I can do with some patience and concentration. I was a competent motorcycle restoration mechanic for many years when I was younger and I can wield a file with some degree of accuracy.

I'm also learning what I can about electronics from a good friend so I'm hoping to keep all my costs down to parts only with this build/mod.

I'm really looking forward to this.

I would say you have plenty enough skill to adjust a nut for height.

Thanks,

It's a skill I'd like to develop along with being able to sort out a cheap guitar to be more playable so this Epiphone seems like a good place to start.
Ultimately if I did screw it all up it's not like it will be unrepairable by a Proper guitar tech but I'd like to think I could do this.
I guess we'll find out in August, won't we?

olafgarten

WezV said:

Mahogany neck? That's an odd choice for the rest of the features.

I think they are trying to make a better guitar, most of the tone is from the neck. 

dindude

Sounds pretty beedin' good in these hands

menamestom

dindude said:

Sounds pretty beedin' good in these hands

Sounds good.  Bit of a Tele vibe.  Going to get one when they come out.  I'd be thinking I'd change the pickups out, but they sound pretty good in this clip.

menamestom

TTBZ said:

Looks vile. For the money I'd rather have that Bullet Mustang. 

They look quite nice in Vintage Sunburst.   I'd never heard if the Bullet Mustangs, just had a look but I think that 24 inch scale would put me off.

underdog

That looks very cool in the retro colours

Flink_Poyd

Has anyone picked one of these or the LP Express up yet?

I really don't need one but for £99 it seems like a great modding platform.  

57Deluxe

is actually more preferable to be toting this at a pub gig than one of their awful sounding studio models...Has a bit of Dano swagger...

SL= Sad Loser

Alnico

Flink_Poyd said:

Has anyone picked one of these or the LP Express up yet?

I really don't need one but for £99 it seems like a great modding platform.  

I was going to but then shit got real at home and I haven't even thought to pick a guitar up in .......maybe 6 weeks or more.

I guess I'm starting to think "Oh yeah, I'm supposed to actually do this aren't I" a bit more now but this has slipped so far down the list it'll be next year or never now I think.

I'd still like to pick one up now though and see what they're like but I bet they'd be amazing after a full set up and a nut dressing.

paulnb57

Alnico said:

Thanks to @robwright I've bought myself a set of nut files.
Yes, I can hear guitar techs laughing at me as well,.............never mind. I expect it these days.

Anyway, I'm also going to buy a levelling file and some other tools before this arrives and when it does I'm going to attempt whatever set up work it needs myself.

I recrowned the frets on my USA Pro strat earlier this year when Howard Smith gave it back after badly levelling the frets way too low and left them flat topped with no crown on them.
I used a triangular file and it went very well indeed so I have some confidence to build on from that. I won't say who but a well-respected guitar tech praised me on that job when he saw the photos of the work I'd done which gave me a real boost.

I think that making a new nut from scratch is beyond me to start with but recutting the nut that it comes with shouldn't be too far past what I can do with some patience and concentration. I was a competent motorcycle restoration mechanic for many years when I was younger and I can wield a file with some degree of accuracy.

I'm also learning what I can about electronics from a good friend so I'm hoping to keep all my costs down to parts only with this build/mod.

I'm really looking forward to this.

I have no doubt whatsoever that you can use the nut files with success....
A couple of tips,
1.Go really slowly,  sometimes just a couple of strokes of the file is enough, you can always take more off....
2.Keep the nose of the file lower than the handle so the bottom of the nutslot is just a bit lower on the tuner side and higher on the fretboard side, failure will result in intonation becoming impossible and massive frustration trying to work out why!

paulnb57

I'd like to try one of these new Epi's especially after modding the tits off my Squier Bullet Mustang, I enjoy making cheap guitars playable.
I'm assuming the Epi single coils are the same size as Fender and pattern offerings?......

57Deluxe

Ryan unboxes his SL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR6oNxHcQHA

SL = Sounds Lame

fob

£89! (+£7 delivery)

peglegpete

fob said:

£89! (+£7 delivery)

Wouldn’t take any notice of what “choppers” and “moobs” say about this... it’s cack!... tried it and put it down faster than I picked it up!.