Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom Shop

[rhythmjones]

Expensive Epis for about what Gibsons should be going for if we're being honest.

That said. They look pretty good and accurate. I'll be interested to play one.

https://www.epiphone.com/en-US/Inspired ... ustom-Shop

What does offsetguitars.com think?

[marqueemoon]

I mean of course they didn’t do a Les Paul Jr.

No, let’s totally have more iterations of 59 Les Pauls and 335s for the blooze paralegals.

My main thought is capitalism is fucking weird.

[andy_tchp]

No non-reverse Firebird offering; no care here.

[Ceylon]

The purple Kirk Hammett V looks great, price tag aside. If they ever get cheapish second hand I'll try to pick one up.

[Pacafeliz]

No non-reverse Firebird offering; no care here.

+1

[sal paradise]

Can’t help but think of these were MIJ people would be raving about them. Getting those specs at 1/4 of the retail price for a new Gibson is pretty cool.

[Chippertheripper]

The black 355 has me lusting, not gonna lie.
And the 58 styled v.
Other than that, I think it’s not a bad take at a premium import line like plenty of other companies do. It’s certainly given the boo birds around the web something to crow about though. Man, are they loud.

[eilrahc]

I hate to be negative, I'm sure they're nice guitars, it's just...a lot of money for a Chinese guitar, especially when you consider what else is out there if you're willing to take a minute to look. The Les Pauls are priced around what I would expect to pay for a lawsuit guitar, and the Flying Vs are more than what you'd pay for a non-Korina Gibson V on the used market.

Agreed with the people who talked about non-reverse Firebirds and Juniors too, this line feels like an opportunity to sell some guitars that aren't available in the standard Gibson line at a lower price point, and they've missed it.

It's a little thing too, but those three-screw truss rod covers really irritate me. I don't know why.

[F15hface]

I’ve played the explorer and the Firebird I. Both felt very well made, and both are huge slabs of guitar. Quite liked the neck finish on the explorer but not the neck profile, those 58 gibson style necks are just chunkier than I like. Not a fan of gloss poly necks or the size of the Firebird I neck.

Both were good guitars, but not substantially more so than any other epiphone. At the price point I’d get one of those Japanese jazzblasters. Even better, my used but immaculate faded Flying V was cheaper than most of the guitars in this range and is my favourite guitar I’ve ever played.

The 355 looks great but I believe Thomann accidentally leaked that there’s a 345 with bigsby and varitone coming for like £700, which seems like such a better value proposition.

[crazyzeke]

Most Epis I've ever played have been solid guitars. I had a black SG-210 or whatever the model designation was, and a white one too, but the black one I bought off of a friend and it was my main guitar for a number of years before I got a "proper" Gibson SG Standard. It eventually became unplayable after years of being stored in a box in the loft and would have been a waste of money to fix (it was like £200 new in the late 90s/early 00s) but parts of it survive as the pots and speed knobs are in the lead circuit of my Jag.

These are mostly pretty cookie-cutter though. I love the Les Paul Special Doublecut (dual P90s, awesome guitars, had one) and I'm not seeing it there.

Weird take when you see Gibson's budget arm having a "you're paying for the brand" thing. Kinda defeats the purpose of a budget marque below your regular one, doesn't it?






This was my favourite - the Sister Rosetta Thorpe model, if I'm not mistaken. White SGs are showperson guitars.

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate that the image used on the Epiphone's actual page is called "Epiphone_IGC_-_Core__BEAST__7.jpg"

[Dok]

Those acoustics have thermally aged tops! And a v-shaped neck on the J45. VERY FUCKING INTERESTING, DUDE

[Chippertheripper]

Apparently zzounds has some sparkle exclusives of the regular ibg types. Theres an orange sparkle 58 styles V that also has me bad.

[BoringPostcards]

I like the 61 Les Paul SG, but I already have a 2013 Standard, which has the 61 specs and is a Gibson. It only cost me 1400 CAD back in 2013. Hard to find a Gibson for that now.

[Unicorn Warrior]

I sadly like the SG custom. Please, someone do not let me buy it. I still don’t think I could rock one and be satisfied at the end of the day knowing it still doesn’t say Gibson on the headstock. Especially if I ended up paying close to 2k after taxes are factored in. You can buy used and really nice Gibson SGs all day for these prices. Not customs, but a grand more give or take would put you in used Gibson SG custom territory.

[crazyzeke]

I sadly like the SG custom. Please, someone do not let me buy it. I still don’t think I could rock one and be satisfied at the end of the day knowing it still doesn’t say Gibson on the headstock. Especially if I ended up paying close to 2k after taxes are factored in. You can buy used and really nice Gibson SGs all day for these prices. Not customs, but a grand more give or take would put you in used Gibson SG custom territory.

What puts me off about 3-pickup customs, which could work as a way to stop yourself buying one - it worked for me - is that during vigorous strumming it's really easy to snag the plectrum on the middle pickup. I do a lot of fast strumming (think flamenco rasgueado but pick not fingers, usually) and alternate picking - not just for surf which I'm getting back into, but for solos as well. Middle pickup gets in the way, usually when least expected.