Epiphone EILMSBUNH1 Electric Guitar: Full Review

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern is a solid-body electric guitar that delivers classic Les Paul tones and playability along with modern appointments. As part of Epiphone's Inspired by Gibson collection, the Les Paul Modern aims to provide an accessible and affordable option for players who want the look, feel, and sound of a Gibson Les Paul.

This guitar features a mahogany body and neck which gives it a full, rich tone. The slim taper mahogany neck has a comfortable asymmetrical profile that makes playing fast easier. While visually similar to a traditional Les Paul, the Les Paul Modern has some modern touches like open-coil humbuckers, Grover tuners, and a sleek sparkling burgundy finish. Overall, the Epiphone Les Paul Modern offers classic rock and blues tones in an innovative and contemporary package.

Build Quality

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern has a solid mahogany body, which gives it a warm, full sound with good sustain. Mahogany is known for being a resonant tonewood that helps produce a balanced sound across the frequency range.

The mahogany body on this Les Paul is made from a single solid piece of wood, rather than a laminate. Solid wood construction allows the guitar to resonate and sustain better than laminates. The guitar's mahogany body contributes to its vintage Les Paul tone and feel.

The smooth nitrocellulose lacquer finish on the mahogany allows the wood to breathe and vibrate freely, further enhancing resonance and sustain. Overall, the solid mahogany body results in a guitar with excellent sustain, warmth, and balanced tone.

In addition to its all-mahogany body, the Epiphone Les Paul Modern also features a mahogany neck with a comfortable 1960s SlimTaper profile. The mahogany neck provides stability and enhances the guitar's sustain. It has a rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets for smooth playability.

The hardware on the Epiphone Les Paul Modern is high quality and designed for great functionality. It has LockTone tuners to keep the guitar in tune. The Tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece provide easy adjustability of string height and intonation.

The pickups on this Les Paul are Epiphone's own Alnico Classic humbuckers, which deliver a warm, rich tone. The pickups are wax potted to reduce microphonic feedback at high volumes. There are separate volume and tone controls for each pickup, allowing a variety of tones.

In summary, the Epiphone Les Paul Modern is a well-constructed guitar made from quality tonewoods like mahogany. It has excellent hardware and electronics that enable great playability, reliability and classic Les Paul tones. The solid wood construction allows for impressive sustain and resonance. Overall, this is a very solidly built guitar that feels and sounds fantastic.

If you are looking for an affordable, great sounding electric guitar, check out the Fender FA-125CE 0971113532. This is an excellent beginner level acoustic-electric guitar from Fender's famous Folk series.

The Fender FA-125CE has a laminated spruce top with mahogany back and sides. The spruce top provides brightness and articulation, while the mahogany back and sides add warmth and sweetness. Together, they give the FA-125CE a very balanced and musical tone.

The neck is also made from mahogany for stability and sustained notes. It has a 25.3" scale length and a "C"-shaped profile that is comfortable for most hand sizes. The fingerboard is rosewood and has 20 frets.

This Fender acoustic-electric comes equipped with a Fishman pickup and preamp system. This allows you to plug into an amplifier or PA system for amplified performances. The Fishman Presys preamp has volume control, bass/mid/treble EQ sliders, tuner, and phase switch for shaping your amplified tone.

The hardware includes chrome sealed-gear tuners to keep the FA-125CE in tune, plus a pinned rosewood bridge for solid intonation. The body binding and rosette give it an elegant look.

Overall, the Fender FA-125CE 0971113532 is an excellent choice for beginners looking for a quality acoustic-electric guitar with Fender's trusted build quality and tone. It's comfortable to play, sounds fantastic plugged in or unplugged, and is offered at a very affordable price point.

Hardware

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern is equipped with high-quality hardware designed for great playability, intonation, and stability. It features a LockTone tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece for rock-solid tuning and intonation.

The LockTone bridge has an improved design that increases the downward tension on the strings, allowing for precise tuning stability even during heavy use. The tailpiece also helps keep the strings locked in tune by eliminating string slippage. This is an excellent upgrade over traditional tune-o-matic hardware, enabling the guitar to stay in tune through divebombs, tremolo picking, and other intense playing techniques.

Overall, the hardware on the Epiphone Les Paul Modern enhances the guitar's tuning stability and sustain for reliable performance during any style of play. The upgraded LockTone components are a nice touch that justify the price point of this instrument. Players can depend on this guitar to stay in tune set after set.

When comparing the Epiphone Les Paul Modern to other guitars in its class, it stacks up very well in terms of hardware quality. Models like the Washburn EA20-A may offer similar LockTone bridges and tailpieces, but the overall hardware components on the Les Paul Modern are a cut above. The tuning machines, nut, and other parts complement the bridge and tailpiece perfectly. This optimizes the guitar's resonance and tuning stability. So while the Washburn EA20-A is a decent option, the Epiphone wins out in the hardware department. You get what you pay for.

Some guitarists may prefer the simple hardware on classic Les Pauls, but the modern upgrades on this model offer clear advantages. The LockTone bridge and tailpiece keep the guitar rock-solid during intense playing styles. Combined with the other high-end hardware components, this guitar delivers professional-grade performance. The hardware really reinforces why the Epiphone Les Paul Modern is such a versatile and reliable instrument for gigging musicians who need consistency. If you want hardware that you can depend on night after night, this is an excellent choice.

Electronics

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern is equipped with ProBucker humbucker pickups that provide the guitar with warm, vintage tone. The ProBuckers feature Alnico II magnets and coil-tapping, allowing for a wide range of tones from glassy cleans to crunchy overdrive.

Coil-tapping gives players the ability to switch between humbucking mode for a thick, full sound and single-coil mode for brighter, snappier tone. This makes the Les Paul Modern extremely versatile for playing various music genres. The pickups are also wax potted to reduce microphonic feedback at high volumes.

Overall, the ProBucker humbuckers allow the Les Paul Modern to capture that classic Les Paul sound, with the added flexibility of coil-tapping for those who want single-coil tones as well. The pickups deliver rich, singing leads and thick rhythm tones, living up to their "vintage tone" promise.

Eye-Catching Finish that Makes a Statement

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern comes in a beautiful metallic burgundy finish that really makes this guitar stand out. The color has depth and dimension, shifting between hues of rich wine, deep purple, and sparkling burgundy depending on the lighting.

Complemented by the matching headstock, the metallic burgundy finish gives this Les Paul an upscale, modern look. The glossy finish is smooth to the touch and allows the flame maple top to shine through with its lovely figuring.

The fine attention to detail on the binding and body trim contributes to the overall high-end appearance. This is a gorgeous guitar that looks as great on stage as it does hanging on the wall.

While the finish may be eye-catching, it doesn't overshadow the excellent build quality. The color simply enhances the natural beauty of the flamed maple while allowing the hardware, electronics and playability to speak for themselves. For players seeking a sleek, modern look, the metallic burgundy finish is a perfect match for the Les Paul Modern.

Playability

The Epiphone Paul Modern features a slim taper neck that provides great comfort and enables fast playing. The narrow neck profile allows easy reach around the fretboard, making it effortless to play complex chords and riffs up and down the neck. The smooth satin finish on the back of the neck further enhances playability by preventing stickiness and allowing the fretting hand to glide effortlessly. Overall, the modern slim taper neck gives this Les Paul a very fast and comfortable feel, perfect for rock, metal, and blues lead playing.

Sound

The Epiphone Les Paul offers an extremely versatile range of tones that can cover anything from clean and warm jazz tones to high-gain rock and metal distortion. The Alnico Classic humbucker pickups provide a rich, warm clean sound when playing through a clean amp setting, with plenty of clarity and note definition. There's enough output from the pickups to drive a tube amp into a smooth overdrive at higher volumes for classic rock crunch. Switching to the bridge pickup and cranking up the gain takes the Epiphone into metal territory, with a tight and aggressive distorted tone perfect for heavy rhythms and searing lead lines. The coil-split function also allows players to tap into glassy, Strat-like single coil tones. From jazz to metal and everything in between, this Epiphone Les Paul can handle it all.

Pros

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern is an excellent electric guitar that punches above its weight in many regards. Here are some of the key benefits and advantages of this model:

• Great build quality for the price - The Epiphone Les Paul Modern features a mahogany body with a maple top, mahogany neck, and rosewood fingerboard. The hardware and electronic components are also high quality. Overall the materials and construction quality are impressive for an electric guitar in this relatively affordable price range.

• Attractive finish - The sparkling burgundy finish with gold hardware looks stunning. The paint job and glossy layers are smoothly and evenly applied. The finish options available stand out in this price tier.

• Flexible sound - With coil splitting on the pickups via the push/pull volume knobs, you can access single coil tones in addition to the Les Paul's characteristic humbucker voices. Between the ProBucker pickups and coil-splitting capability, this guitar can cover a wide range of musical genres and styles.

Cons

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern is not without some downsides that buyers should be aware of.

• Tuning stability issues reported: Some users have reported issues with tuning stability on the Epiphone Les Paul Modern. The vibrato bridge design can sometimes cause strings to go out of tune, especially when using the vibrato arm more aggressively. This may require more frequent tuning adjustments during playing sessions.

• Heavy weight: As with most Les Paul style guitars, the Epiphone Les Paul Modern has a weight relief body but is still on the heavy side at just under 9 lbs. The weight could cause fatigue and discomfort for some players during longer practice or gigging sessions, especially when standing. Those with back issues or smaller builds may find the weight difficult to manage. Consider add-on shoulder straps or lighter weight alternatives if this is a concern.

Conclusion

The Epiphone Les Paul Modern is recommended for intermediate players seeking classic Les Paul tone and playability. This is an affordable US-made guitar that delivers many of the key features and qualities players expect in a Les Paul. The mahogany body and maple top provide a rich, resonant tone while the slim taper neck offers smooth fast playability.

Some compromises were made to hit the lower price point, like the unspecified wood used for the fretboard and cheaper electronics. However, the Epiphone ProBucker humbuckers still deliver a versatile range of tones from clean to high gain distortion. The hardware is also very good for an import model.

Overall, the Modern is an excellent choice for intermediate players who want the iconic look, feel and sound of a Les Paul without spending over $2,000. While not equivalent to a Gibson, this Epiphone punches above its weight class. For recording, practicing or gigging, it's hard to beat the value offered by this well-crafted and great sounding electric guitar.