LES PAUL

Elitist Les Paul '57 Goldtop Review

The Epiphone Elitist Les Paul '57 Goldtop Electric Guitar has a classic metallic antique gold finish that's dazzling under the stage lights. The original hard maple top, bookmatched mahogany back, and set mahogany neck provide the Epi Elitist Les Paul with the classic feel and resonance of the widely sought-after '57 Goldtop.


Sound: I play rhythm and lead with blues style bends and vibrato. I like very heavey picks (> 1mm) and use 0.010-0.046 D'Addario strings. I prefer as staright a neck as possible (minimal relief) and not too low action (4/64ths at 12th fret). I really like the sound of this guitar. Compared to my American Stratocaster Plus with Lace-Sensor Gold single coil pickups, it has a more full (rounder) sound and a hotter output. The two pickups are quite different sounding. The Bridge pickup has bite and enough brightness for clear power chords and the neck pickup is thick enough for browner lead tones. I also like the combination setting for clean playing as it's a good compromise between dark and bright. The sustain is very good as well. The volume and tone controls are very effective and the changes not too drastic. I've had a Peavey Bravo 112 for 13 years (2-channel, 22 watt, all tube amp with EL84's) and this guitar sounds great compared to others I've jammed with. I'm considering purchasing some authentic Gibson Classic Humbuckers (or Buck-Bursters) for this guitar to take it to the top. it was really a top of the line Les Paul.

Features:

• book-matched mahogany body with quarter-sawn mahogany neck.
• The top is solid, rock maple with cream binding all around.
• The neck has a 24-3/4" scale,
• 22 medium jumbo frets, and a rosewood fingerboard with Standard trapezoid inlays.
• The nut is 1-11/16" in width and is made of bone.
• The tuners are grover as is the ABR-1 bridge and tailpiece.
• It has the standard 2-volume, 2-tone control layout and Gibson-made 50SR/60ST humbucking pickups (with chrome covers).