Inspired by Gibson Les Pauls

I haven't been on here for ages. I've been a very naughty boy! My head was turned by a Schecter Solo II Apocalypse. It's actually a great guitar with super pickups. I then bought a Schecter Sunset Extreme. Now that was a big mistake. It's not even got one single tone control! Just one volume and a five-way selecter for the two humbuckers. I only realised what a clanger this one was when I picked up my lovely 25 Yr old Les Paul Custom with Seymore Duncans JB and Jazz. The old girl barks and sings so sweetly in comparison! Absolute bliss! So ... the Schecter Sunset's going to be sold along with an Epiphone Les Paul 7 string that I bought in a moment of weakness. I haven't bonded with 7 strings. I thought I'd like the added bottom end but ... it's not for me.

I've got 8 LPs including some lovely Prophecies. I quite like the idea of one of the 'Inspired by Gibson' LPs.

QUESTION: What's the general consensus on these? Are they better than the mainstream Epiphones? Are they worth the extra ££££?

OK! That's three questions!

Your thoughts please.

Edit
I went ahead and bought this beauty! Three years old and is in MINT condition, having been stored in its original case ( with the pink lining!) !
Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard~ In Collaboration with Gibson Custom Shop~ Aged Lemon Burst.
Stunning Gibson Burstbuckers, wired with Mallory 150 polyester film capacitors and CTS pots, Switchcraft switch and jack socket, 50s-era wiring etc. She is so alive and adds an extra dimension! Beautiful maple top and Mahogany body and neck! An absolutely stunning guitar!

I've had a '59 and a P90 Special and they were both great. I played a few more in stores and despite not so good setups, construction quality is there. So yes, new ones since 2019 are mostly all very good.

Now they came out with Inspired by Gibson Custom Shop, with the Gibson open book headstock, hardware and top of the line pickups. Main difference is in the finish, poly vs nitro.

Depends on what you mean by mainstream ones.
The regular IBG models are all decent guitars especially for the money. The IBGC models ( ones with Gibson pickups etc) are really good. The newest releases have done a lot to make them as close to US made as is reasonably possible. The wood isn't the same and poly instead of nitro. The nitro seems to be the biggest deal to some buyers. You want a good Les Paul ( SG, Firebird etc) for a lower price then these are the way to go. Come with hardshell case as well.

The IBG guitars are a good value in today's market.

The quality of build, finishing, fretwork, woods, binding, is no better on the IBGCs than the IBG models. You do get some RW this year on the new 59s. It looks much nicer. Epiphone is marketing it as a premium feature, which is BS. You can buy a PRS 594 SE for considerably less money and they are built and finished better, and have RW boards.

IOW- for the IBGC you are shelling out a bunch extra for some overpriced (but good) pickups, a Gibson headstock, some fancy inlays (that historically dont even belong on the majority of models that come with them) and a mediocre hardshell.

Resale value may be another consideration. Neither series holds value well. In the used market a IBGC is a much better deal than new.

I wanted to like the IBGCs when I went to go try them out, but I just didn't when taking price into consideration. They are $800 guitars at their core.

jbash said:

Resale value may be another consideration. Neither series holds value well.

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Can confirm…

jbash said:

The IBG guitars are a good value in today's market.

The quality of build, finishing, fretwork, woods, binding, is no better on the IBGCs than the IBG models. You do get some RW this year on the new 59s. It looks much nicer. Epiphone is marketing it as a premium feature, which is BS. You can buy a PRS 594 SE for considerably less money and they are built and finished better, and have RW boards.

IOW- for the IBGC you are shelling out a bunch extra for some overpriced (but good) pickups, a Gibson headstock, some fancy inlays (that historically dont even belong on the majority of models that come with them) and a mediocre hardshell.

Resale value may be another consideration. Neither series holds value well. In the used market a IBGC is a much better deal than new.

I wanted to like the IBGCs when I went to go try them out, but I just didn't when taking price into consideration. They are $800 guitars at their core.

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Think the build quality is a bit better. 2 pc body and 1 pc neck plus Gibson fretwire. Case isn't the best but still nice. You don't get one with the PRS you mentioned.

jbash said:

The IBG guitars are a good value in today's market.

The quality of build, finishing, fretwork, woods, binding, is no better on the IBGCs than the IBG models. You do get some RW this year on the new 59s. It looks much nicer. Epiphone is marketing it as a premium feature, which is BS. You can buy a PRS 594 SE for considerably less money and they are built and finished better, and have RW boards.

IOW- for the IBGC you are shelling out a bunch extra for some overpriced (but good) pickups, a Gibson headstock, some fancy inlays (that historically dont even belong on the majority of models that come with them) and a mediocre hardshell.

Resale value may be another consideration. Neither series holds value well. In the used market a IBGC is a much better deal than new.

I wanted to like the IBGCs when I went to go try them out, but I just didn't when taking price into consideration. They are $800 guitars at their core.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I had a PRS and didn't like it at all. It was completely lacking in character and was just a wimp of guitar.

Norfolk Wizard said:

Thanks for the info. I had a PRS and didn't like it at all. It was completely lacking in character and was just a wimp of guitar.

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No problem. I've had great PRS and not so great ones. And Epis, and Gibsons, and Fenders, and...

I just bought a used one with case from GC for cheapish. (The new 2024 version Gibby headstock, Gibby Custombuckers ect) let you know when it arrives

The market says that the various price-point (I mean "models") Epis, Inspired By... guitars included, are worth what buyers pay, particularly if purchased on sale. But that also means that they are not seen as actually comparable to genuine Gibsons. Regardless of how much Epis get praised by owners, it remains clear that given the resources and opportunity, most players move up the food chain to IBG and then G. We can argue all we want, and everyone gets to make their own choices. Overall, people choose a Gibson -- when they can swing the $$.
Personally, whatever brand you like, I think it is best over the long haul to get the best instrument you can afford -- that you can afford -- and be happy with that. Even the cheapest Epi is a pretty cool thing even if it's not Best in Show.

moreles said:

The market says that the various price-point (I mean "models") Epis, Inspired By... guitars included, are worth what buyers pay, particularly if purchased on sale. But that also means that they are not seen as actually comparable to genuine Gibsons. Regardless of how much Epis get praised by owners, it remains clear that given the resources and opportunity, most players move up the food chain to IBG and then G. We can argue all we want, and everyone gets to make their own choices. Overall, people choose a Gibson -- when they can swing the $$.
Personally, whatever brand you like, I think it is best over the long haul to get the best instrument you can afford -- that you can afford -- and be happy with that. Even the cheapest Epi is a pretty cool thing even if it's not Best in Show.

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If it doesn't say Gibson on headstock then obviously many will never view any guitar as equal. Epiphone was and still is a stepping stone. Gibson hopes that at some point buyers do move on to them. They also are beginning to understand that their is a mid tier with a lot of buyers. That tier requires a certain degree of quality to compete in. Down the road I think you will start to see more buyers sticking with Epiphone as the Gibson counterparts will be to expensive. Right now a 50s / 60s Standard ( Epiphone) will work just fine for the average weekend warriors band. That wasn't the case even a few years ago.

moreles said:

The market says that the various price-point (I mean "models") Epis, Inspired By... guitars included, are worth what buyers pay, particularly if purchased on sale. But that also means that they are not seen as actually comparable to genuine Gibsons. Regardless of how much Epis get praised by owners, it remains clear that given the resources and opportunity, most players move up the food chain to IBG and then G. We can argue all we want, and everyone gets to make their own choices. Overall, people choose a Gibson -- when they can swing the $$.
Personally, whatever brand you like, I think it is best over the long haul to get the best instrument you can afford -- that you can afford -- and be happy with that. Even the cheapest Epi is a pretty cool thing even if it's not Best in Show.

Click to expand...

If you take it from the performance point of vue, as a tool, Epiphone doesn't have anything to envy to Gibson. You want to add bragging rights, patriotism and bling, go for a Gibson.

The IBG Firebird V and T-Bird Vintage Pro are top notch, I've had Gibby versions of each and with the exception of a vintage T and a '72 Medallion they smoked the Gibby versions.... poly or no.

fleahead said:

The IBG Firebird V and T-Bird Vintage Pro are top notch, I've had Gibby versions of each and with the exception of a vintage T and a '72 Medallion they smoked the Gibby versions.... poly or no.

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I used to have a 2018 LPB Gibson Firebird and didn’t love it. It sounded good, but had a toothpick thin neck and very bad neck dive, I didn’t have it for long. I now have a recent drab olive Epi Firebird that I got from Zzounds for $449, a much nicer feeling and chunkier/rounded neck and no neck dive. Just a great guitar w/ excellent sounding pups, from memory it sounds just as good as the Gibson and plays better.

just wondering how my Fuigen built epi SG compares to the newer IBG Sgs.It seems to be nearly equivalent to my gibby LP in terms of playability and build quality.

Grabbed one of these a couple of weeks ago from Andertons. A 57 gold top.

They had a few and I’d reserved the one with the lightest weight, 9lb and it turned out to be the nicest.

Also tried it against a 50’s gibson standard. Honestly there were definitely some things I preferred the Gibson on as you’d expect right, but likewise there were things I preferred this Epi for too. For example the gibson was a bit brighter and leaned more to the whole tele on sterile thing (which I do like) whereas the epi was way more resonant unplugged and wiped the floor with the gibson on cruchier rhythms, power chords and higher gain things.

Overall for my budget I couldn’t justify the extra money on a gibson at the time, this epi ticks so many boxes on what I’d want from a Les Paul right now and is feeling like a keeper already, even when I do finally get the money for a custom shop version in some years to come haha.

Also I’ve had a few Les Pauls before, some gibson studios, and an epi black beauty that was upgraded, this is the nicest I’ve owned both for sound and playing, I think being able to trial a few helped as there were some others I would not have bought were they the only one they had left kinda thing.

Also this is the only Gibson I’ve had minus my 335 that doesn’t have the G string tuning issue haha, it stays in tune amazingly so whenever they were putting this one together it doesn’t feel like it was Friday afternoon.