Epiphone $99 Les Paul SL reviewed on 60 Cycle Hum
I was mightily impressed by last week’s NAMM Show announcement of the Epiphone Les Paul SL range, which is priced at $99 and comes in a range of cool colours. YouTube channel 60 Cycle Hum has confirmed some of my suspicions about the new models, and have done a quick review at the show.
Under a hundred?
If you haven’t read my previous article on this seriously cheap Les Paul, then I suggest you take a minute and give it a once over first. With a price tag that nobody could argue with and a set of cool colours that give us consumers a lot of choices, I personally think Epiphone has hit a home run with these budget guitars.
I had the odd concern about a few things, but it looks as though these guitars could offer a lot of ‘bang for your buck’, as they say in marketing-land.
The Epiphone Les Paul SL is available in Ebony, Heritage Cherry Sunburst, Pacific Blue, Sunset Yellow, Turquoise and Vintage Sunburst. That’s a much broader range of finishes that Squier’s new Bullet Strats. This is one reason why I think Squire may have missed the boat with their new Bullet HT range and priced themselves too high. Check out the video below and please feel free to comment – tell us your opinions and views on this new range. Who’s going to win the budget guitar battle?
In a very fetching and bright Sunset Yellow. How many cool colours for a budget guitar?
60 Cycle Hum
YouTube channel 60 Cycle Hum has done a quick overview of the new Les Paul SL and has some honest opinions on the guitar. It’s worth a watch!
Epiphone Les Paul SL Grovers? Well apparently not, just a typo.
Grover Rotomatics?
The review confirms that the tuners are a cheaper style, and not Grovers as mentioned on the Epiphone product page. Grover Rotomatics tuners would have cost a lot more and pushed the price up considerably, so I can live with cheaper tuners at this low price point. The reviewer thinks the neck and fretwork are good, and he also thinks they would be a decent platform for ‘modders’. Looks like Epiphone may have a winner with these in 2017.
RRP – USD 99
Epiphone 2017 Les Paul SL product page
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- In a very fetching and bright Sunset Yellow. How many cool colours for a budget guitar?: Epiphone
- Epiphone Les Paul SL Grovers? Well apparently not, just a typo.: Epiphone
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11 responses to “Epiphone $99 Les Paul SL reviewed on 60 Cycle Hum”
I will buy one and the mods are the fun part, right? The price allows the imaginative mods.
You can drop in USA manufactured premium pro quality wiring, pots, orange caps, switches, , ( as a pro pre soldered kt,), pickups, Single coil or Humbuckers, and 18:1 tuners for less than $ 200.00.
cheap quality tuners are no bargain, but it’s a $99 guitar from Sweetwater on 8/2. Just get a $30 replacement set in a year or 2 if you even keep the guitar.
You are totally right, I think for the money though, it could be a lot of fun and it certainly would be something that I would modify.
all pro reviews rave about this guitar; waiting for a turquoise and a yellow that is pretty close to TV Yellow.
bought 2 of these for gifts. definitely a 99 dollar guitar lol. The first one i played and it looks nice. decent action but it sounds out of tune even after i tune each string. I guess intonation and setup may help. 60 to 70 bucks for that. and the tuners are a little mushy. 30 to 50 to replace them. Great guitar for a new player or a modder. Going to return these 2 though. Will pickup a Epiphone Limited Edition Les Paul PlusTop PRO used or new. When i save up the difference.
you must have the only two bad ones I’ve heard of; these are being hailed by the pros as something of a bloody miracle, this much quality for so little money. I suspect Epiphone is headed to do the possible. It’s like automobiles where 10 cent toys add thousands to the sticker price. By comparison the care I purchased new in 1993 for $ 18,000.00 was a bare bones dud compared to the $ 19,000.00 car I bought last year. A top rate pickup that cost $ 5.00 to make in 1960, costs manufacturers 5 cents now. The big company’s have priced themselves out of business; they’re headed for bankruptcy. The myth explaining the custom shop prices may live on in our Never Never Land minds but the only way they will save themselves is by coming clean, making profits with volume sales and put out quality instruments at bargain basement prices. Already kits are for sale that for several hundred dollars you can match the best sounding Strat ever produced. Computer guided gear can carve arch tops to precise thicknesses, and cut any part with zero error. It’s already the norm and has boomed profits. The SL body, solid poplar, light but like pig iron strong, solid mahogany neck in the 60’s slim D profile; rosewood fingerboard. Those elephant Pauls ; the Bassman, and their hefty ilk resulted in so much shoulder surgery; SL tuners are unmarked Grover designed14:1 tuners; strings always need to be replaced; buy yourself a SNARK tuner; all reputable shops offer a set up, and the company covers the expense including strings if needed.
In closing, is musical instrument manufacture the ONLY ONE that has not improved in materials and build techniques over the decades ? And is it common sense to believe that unlike any other manufactured unit that they should not cost but a fraction of their 1970 price ?
Grover Rotomatics would have only added about $ 30.00 to the cost. These tuners are fine; it stays in tune.
The Epiphone page states the tuners on the Les Paul SL are Epiphone Deluxe 14:1 ; in the same advert paper it states they use Grover 18:1 tuners on most of their guitars. I read elsewhere that the Epi tuners are manufactured at the same facilities that makes Grovers and adhere to Grover specs. I’vebeen playing for 60 years, have a few guitars including i vintage and 3 modern Epi’s. I like them just fine.
It’s like eyeglass frames when the best of designer frames are declared by the designer/manufacturer to cost their clients/wholesalers $ 10. – $ 20.– everyone goes mad not wanting to believe that of their $ 600.00 Harpo Van Cool frames, that they’re paying for EGO LOGO…
Seems like a decent beginner guitar.
Just bought a sl online anxious to ply it. Woundering if it will play better tha an ibanez gio ai have one and am waiting on my secound one . any coments on how they compair?
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