epiphone les paul '56 goldtop

ian 123

Hey well Im interested in buying an epiphone lp goldtop. I tried one out a few months back and I taught it was sweet. Can anyone gives me pros and cons of this guitar? Im fairly new to playing guitar,my current electric is a epiphone sg so at least it will be an upgrade to this. Anyone got suggestions on where to one buy online? Thanks for any help

spoonbadger

ian 123 wrote: »

Hey well Im interested in buying an epiphone lp goldtop. I tried one out a few months back and I taught it was sweet. Can anyone gives me pros and cons of this guitar? Im fairly new to playing guitar,my current electric is a epiphone sg so at least it will be an upgrade to this. Anyone got suggestions on where to one buy online? Thanks for any help

Pros
-Good quality (for epiphone)
-Good pickups
-All the trimmings (binding etc.)
-Good value (based on US prices,cant find anywhere selling them this side of the atlantic).
-P90s
-Chunky neck

Cons
-...But not great quality (compared to gibbies, bacchus etc.)
-Heavy (as with all les pauls)
-Hardware (ie. tuners) probably wont be top shelf
-Will *NOT* be the same as an original (meaning no long neck tenon, no top shelf electronics, plenty of weight relief holes and a poly finish. These only matter if you're looking for a top of the line les paul though.)
-P90s
-Chunky neck

If you want a solidly good guitar, and you like the sound of P90s, then go for this. If you want something you're going to be buried with, save up and get a bacchus, burny, greco or tokai (notice how i didnt say gibson ).

Alanstrainor

You want a goldtop Les Paul? Get this!
Holy Crap. It's one sexy beast

punchdrunk

just so you know that little junk shop behind jervis has one of these,i'm sure you could get it cheap and then invest in better hardware etc!

our singer has one with the HB's in it,it's a nice guitar alright!

ian 123

Thanks for the help man,I see you dont like Gibson haha I think when you buy a gibson guitar you mainly pay for the name. I plan on changing the tuners when I get the guitar so Im not to fussed on that.Are tokai guitars good? Iv heard alot about them on this site,cheers

spoonbadger

Alanstrainor wrote: »

You want a goldtop Les Paul? Get this!
Holy Crap. It's one sexy beast

That's a nice couch hisashi has there .

spoonbadger

ian 123 wrote: »

Thanks for the help man,I see you dont like Gibson haha I think when you buy a gibson guitar you mainly pay for the name. I plan on changing the tuners when I get the guitar so Im not to fussed on that.Are tokai guitars good? Iv heard alot about them on this site,cheers

Tokai's are good. They used to be the best les pauls you could get, but these days they're not quite the same. They're still mucho better than an epi for the price you pay.

There's another company called bacchus, who are based in japan, that do some of the best guitars on the market, and they aint wallet-killers either!. That pic up there that mr. strainor posted is a bacchus .

ian 123

Its one sweet guitar but a bit outta my price range, Im hoping to spend between €400-€500. But it is a sexy guitar

Alanstrainor

ian 123 wrote: »

Its one sweet guitar but a bit outta my price range, Im hoping to spend between €400-€500. But it is a sexy guitar

Sorry, i'm the same, have been looking at it for the last few weeks, and thinking "Damn!". Just thought i'd throw it out there! If someone wants to give me a grand and a half, i'd like you thhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssss much. :pac::P

Dord

I don't think going from an Epiphone SG to Epiphone LP goldtop is an upgrade, more of a sideways move.

Have you thought about saving a bit more to get a better guitar?

ian 123

I guess your right the current sg i have is this http://theguitarreview.com/images/epiphoneSGSpecial.jpg Cost me like 200 quid,but I taught the goldtop was better because it has the p90's although your probably right,thanks man

Ravelleman

Personally, I think you'd be better off saving your money for now and buying something a little more upmarket. All the best alternatives have been suggested already. Edwards do a nice approximation of a 56 Goldtop. I'd save for that.

Dord

Ravelleman wrote: »

Personally, I think you'd be better off saving your money for now and buying something a little more upmarket. All the best alternatives have been suggested already. Edwards do a nice approximation of a 56 Goldtop. I'd save for that.

Yeah, the Edwards Goldtop is nice!

It has Seymour Duncan pickups and Gotoh hardware all round. :cool:

Ravelleman

Another factor for me would be the finish of the guitar. I find that cheaper Goldtop copies like Epiphones generally have a less convincing Goldtop finish than the like of Tokai or that Bacchus that was posted. Cheaper Goldtops tend to have a more glittery finish, which is much less appealing to me than one which is properly done.

Alanstrainor

Dord wrote: »

Yeah, the Edwards Goldtop is nice!

It has Seymour Duncan pickups and Gotoh hardware all round. :cool:

All i can say is...
Damn you Dord, Damn you to hell! I want it so so bad!

Dord

What about this one, it;s been giving me GAS for ages....



Custom with P90s! :eek:

Ravelleman

Poisonally, I'd go for the Custom over the Goldtop, mainly because it has those Gotoh tuners. I have Gotohs on my Ravelle and they're really solid.

ian 123

thanks for the help lads,Some really nice guitars there!! where is the best place to buy the likes of Edwards and Tokai guitars?

Red Sleeping Beauty

You can only get Edwards guitars from Japan/Asia. There does me some on Ebay sometimes.
I think Tokai have a UK distributor. Musician Inc. used to have them