I was not planning on buying a guitar today, but one came up on our local FB group and it appealed to me. For some time I have fancied a guitar with the classic P90 pickups that were used on early Gibsons. They have a distinct tone. The seller was only up the road from me, so I went to try it out.
At first glance you might think this is a Gibson Les Paul Juniour, but the seller was up front that it had not started out as one. A big give-away is this neck plate that clearly says it is an Epiphone (Gibson's budget brand). Also, Gibsons generally have a glued in neck and not a screwed on one. There are other Epiphone models with glued necks. According to this site it was made in China in June 2006.
According to the seller he bought it from someone who had modified it to look like a Gibson. Those have a different headstock shape. I cannot see that wood has been added there, so maybe the whole neck was replaced. I expect it is not too hard to buy the stickers. It has also been re-painted in TV Yellow which was used as it looked better on black and white TV than white. I am not sure if this is the original pickup, but the bridge matches those used by Epiphone. It is a very simple one-piece, but with intonation compensation. I am not sure about the volume and tone knobs as they seem to be numbered in reverse. Anyway, I played it through an amplifier and it sounded fine. It is also set up well with a fairly low action. It was really cheap and came with a gig bag, so I could not resist. I had a good chat with the guy and he said he just was not using it.
A Gibson would normally have the serial number stamped on the back here along with Made In U.S.A. It looks like it has been on a wall hanger that has dug into the paint. The finish is generally good, but a bit rough in places and was perhaps a bit soft.
I am not that fussed about brands. It is quality that matters more to me. There is actually a whole thing of 'Chibson' guitars which are Gibson counterfeits made in China. In my case I knew what I was buying, so no fraud is involved. Anyone who knows guitars would not be fooled if they did more than glance at it. It will be interesting to see what reactions I get if I play it at any pub gigs.
I think it plays well. It has a hefty weight to it and good sustain. I plugged it into my Fender Blues Junior clone and it sounds good. The tone is darker than other single coil guitars. With use of the tone control you can get something like the neck pickup sound of other guitars. You just have to be more creative with such a limited configuration.
I now have three electric guitars, but they all have different pickups and so it gives me a variety of sounds to play with.
I will feature the guitar on a future playing video.