Sold: Epiphone Japan Les Paul Standard LPS-80

Cirrus

Made in Japan at the FujiGen factory in 2000. Maple cap, 2-piece mahogany body, Mahogany neck & rosewood fingerboard, classic open-book headstock shape. Not an expert on necks but slim 60's, I think.

I got it thinking it'd be perfect for a band I'd just started out with, but I've ended up playing a lot more with edge of clean sounds on my Strat and Filtertron equipped Gretsch, and it's a shame for this to just be hanging in my bedroom.

Set up by the Little Guitar shop in Birmingham. Frets have very little wear. I know it's a cliché, but this will go toe to toe with a good USA Gibson LP Standard in how well it's put together, the quality of wood used, the standard of binding etc. The stock bridge has been changed for a Faber which is solid as a rock - the guitar's very stable tuning-wise. It's also got Schaller S-Lock strap locks fitted.

Sale includes the original bridge and a Tour-Tech hard case from PMT.

A couple of knocks to mention - a small ding in the top corner of the headstock, and an area under the tail piece where some finish has cracked off - both shown in the photos. Other than that, a couple of small difficult to photo dents in the finish on the back.



More Photos Here;

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzNU1t


Looking for £800  £750, £700 SOLD either collected from Birmingham or meeting up in person. Want to avoid posting just because it's so much extra risk/stress. 

Snags

Ooooh, shiny 

meltedbuzzbox

thats a pretty rare thing indeed. GLWTS

Cirrus

Cheers, it's a beautiful guitar. I suspect most people are going to see Epiphone, the price and not see the value - I've already had a couple of (rather rude) laughs on facebook. This range are easily up there with the best of Tokai, Burny etc, the only thing it's lacking is a nitro finish, for anyone who cares about that.

prudd

I have owned owned one of these and my brother has a MIJ Epi SG from the same year, very good guitars IMO, and as far as I know these evolved from the Orville by Gibson range when they stopped using that name in the late 90's.

GLWTS

Cirrus

Yeah, that's my understanding too - same business reason, to make a Gibson-USA quality guitar for Japan's domestic market & get around import duties, or something like that. Except the Japanese factory made them way more consistently, no issues with tool marks or badly fitted binding.

I've taken a few guitars in to the Little Guitar Shop for work, this is the only one that had the owner calling another member of staff through to admire the quality of the craftsmanship.

If only the LP sound worked for the music I was playing, rather than me always going back to twangier, trem equipped guitars...

beed84

Essentially a Gibson Les Paul built to Japanese standards. A winning combination IMHO. Have a free bump 

equalsql

  Cracking guitar these MIJ Epiphones.  Correct open-book headstocks with a very high quality build and as rare as hen's teeth.
I've got the LPC-80 model, i.e. the Custom version and it's a corker, right up there with the best Greco and Edwards guitars.
Good luck with the sale.

Cirrus

Bump

Cirrus

Bump, come get sexy Les Paul.

Sexy Les Paul is sexy.

Les Paul Sexy is Les Paul.

Epiphone. Japan. Made for Gibson. Sexy. Feel the burn. Buy the guitar. Live the dream, bro.

Cirrus

Bump. I'd withdrawn this, but a couple of months down the line I'm just not using it enough.

Cirrus

Bump

Cirrus

Bump for the coming weekend. This is a very nice guitar, perfect setup, slim '60s neck. I'd keep it if I didn't inexplicably love my (cheaper and worse) Gretsch Electromatic so much. Will consider offers.

Cirrus

Bump with price drop to £750

bertie

removed - I cant read

Cirrus

You're the last one to touch it, so you have to buy it. Sorry mate.

THR1LLHAU5

This is so nice. I'd be dm'ing you if I hadn't bought @Iamnobody 's lovely Gold Top recently. 

What are people waiting for?!

Cirrus

Bump!

And some honest subjectives, for anyone who's on the fence:

Reasons to buy it: The setup - action, intonation, tuning stability, sustain etc are fantastic. The fretboard is a joy to play. It's set up with 11-52s. The build is excellent. When I took it to the Little Guitar Shop in Birmingham to get the Faber bridge fitted, the guy called his mate over to check out the binding - "If only Gibson could do it like that." The stock, crappy, pots, pickup switch and caps have been replaced with good quality ones.

Reasons to walk on by: Relatively heavy - around 10lbs, so far from a boat anchor, but definitely not a light instrument. Kind of tail heavy, too - if you balance it on your right leg sat down, it'll fall to the right if you don't hold the neck. The stock pickups are probably not going to be your cup of tea; low output and a little muffled. They've got loads of character with distortion, kinda Klon-like midrange roar on the bridge pickup*, but if I were keeping it I'd definitely have kept my T-Top clones in it, because they're a bit flat clean.


* Think '90s Monster/ Automatic era R.E.M. - that big dirty midrange gain sound.

roberty

This has better tuners than the Gibson USA box ones

beed84

This would sit nicely alongside the genuinely fantastic MIJ Epi SG I got off @prudd . The build quality is top notch, and the neck is one of the best I’ve played. I imagine this is just as good.

sawyer

Very nice!