Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus Guitar Review

Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus :: Electric Guitar Reviews

rich, smooth tone, sustain and versatility.

The Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus features grover tuners, rosewood fingerboard, 1-pc Mahogany neck set at the 16th fret, 22 fret, Book-Matched Maple top, Book-Matched African Mahogany back, 50SR (USA Humbucker), 60ST (USA Humbucker) pickups, 2 Volume, 2 Tone, and 3-Way Pickup Selector controls, and 24k Gold hardware.

The Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus Electric Guitar has it all: rich, smooth tone, sustain and versatility. The Elite series musical instruments are made with premium woods, fitted with American pickups and circuitry — even American-made toggle switches and Grover tuners. All they lack are the nitrocellulose finishes of their Gibson counterparts. This Epiphone electric guitar represents the Paul legacy with distinction. It features a bookmatched flamed maple top on a bookmatched mahogany back, and is fully American equipped.

Sound of Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus Electric Guitar

• the tone is great;
• the bridge P/U sounds a little harsh;
• crisp, clean, and brilliant, rich, smooth tone;
• the pickups aren’t that great for heavy distortion, but sound really good for clean/blues/rock;
• the pick-ups are more than adequate, from sweet and clean to growling distortion (but not heavy);
• you can play classical or thrash metal, classic rock, blues;
• great sounds from Duane Allman slide, to greasy honky-tonk to ZZ Top-like pick harmonics to the tone Mark Knopfler used on “Brothers in Arms” and “on every street”.

Pros of Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus Electric Guitar

• Epiphone uses a rounder fret wire that is easier on your fingers, especially when sliding up and down, than the Gibson’s, which use jumbo fret wire;
• it’s every bit as good as a Gibson, but on a much lower price;
• good playability and sound;
• it makes a bad guitar player sound great;
• beautifully crafted instument;
• the attention to detail is obvious;
• reccomend to anyone looking for a high quality, very playable instrument that is a fantastic value;
• the width of the nut is exactly the same as the Gibson thinline neck on the LP Plus, but the fret profile on the Elitist is flatter than the Gibson, and there is less tendency for string roll-off with the elitist;
• the appearance and quality is top-notch;
• sustain, versatility, easy to play;
• the 4 knobs gives it great sound control;
• metal tuners on it are superior to the plastic ones on American-made;
• this guitar is made like a ’59 les paul used to be made.

Cons of Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus Electric Guitar

• pretty heavy, many Gibsons are heavier;
• the pickups aren’t that great for heavy distortion, but sound really good for clean/blues/rock;
• the frets are short, about half the size of a Gibson fret in height;
• some complains on the pickups.

Suggestions for this Epiphone Guitar

• if you want a “November Rain” tone, replace the P/Us with Alnico II Pros;
• if you want the Slash sound, replace the pickups with Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 pro;
• if you want a great distortion use a Digitech Grunge distortion pedal;
• not for punk;
• .10 gauge strings;
• on playing open-tuning slide – replace the high E with a .11 string and it intonates perfectly w/slide all over.

Amps & Effects used by users – Line 6 amp, TonelabSE, Marshall, Digitech Grunge distortion pedal (for great distortion)