Epiphone ES335 PRO Review- Still the best.

I've always wanted a decent semi, I love the acoustic characters it imparts to your tone, it just seems more harmonically richer, more versatile and cleaner to something like my old Gibson Les Paul Studio, which was rapidly falling apart.

On paper the PRO seems like an obvious choice, it's basically a Epiphone ES335 DOT but with upgraded pickups (split Alnico PROs) for the same money, and in my case a gorgeous ice-tea finish.

I paid £299 for it online about 2 years ago online and the Gibson was sold.

Do I regret it?

Not one bit.

Most obviously the Epiphone stays in tune. i'm tuning less and worrying about tuning less, always a good thing.

Next, it's so much more versatile than the Les Paul. I can get massive Oasis style chords which still have all the clarity on the top strings, something I used to struggle with.  Backing off, and or using the coil-splits cleans things up far better too, but overall the range of the Epiphone is phenomenal.

As for the core tone, the Epiphone (and indeed any semi) takes some getting used to. The attack isn't as immediate as on a solidbody (strat or les paul). So you'll need to adapt to the slightly delayed, spongier response.

... I've adapted and I'm over it.

Playability? I've resigned myself to the fact no action will get lower than my old Les Paul, unless I get a professional levelling. On arrival the fretboard was rather scruffy so I've since cleaned it up and polished the frets. It's close,  Closer than what you'd expect on a guitar costing a fraction of the price.

.... I can live with it, and there's nothing I could play on my Les Paul which I couldn't now. The neck is also quite a bit squarer on the Epi.

Live. The Les Paul was predictable, but not dependable.

By contrast, the Epi is wild, constantly surprising you in good ways, glorious controlled feedback, spiky lo-fi single coil tones hidden away, but it's construction just works for cleaner, jazzier stuff.  but you can depend on the Hardware and the tuning.   It does Les Paul, it does other things, it can be moulded to do your own unique thing.

With the Les Paul, I always felt constrained to the middy bark of it's range. 

Similarly with a Strat, I always felt that woody push was missing.

With this Epi though, I can explore all worlds with a twist of a knob.

The best guitar I've ever owned, and I've owned a few.