Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom Les Paul Custom Electric Guitar Ebony

This Gibson Inspired L/P is a sweet guitar. I did an adjustment on the neck & saddles. Perfect Intonation, & super fast neck, with true Gibson wiring make this beauty one of my all time favorites, out of 28 to 30 guitars, over the 57 years I've been playing.

This review may annoy a lot of Gibson Les Paul Custom groupies, but the ebony 'Epiphone' Les Paul Custom, officially crowned "Inspired by Gibson Custom" (IGC), is 99% the same guitar, with its long tenon set neck, ebony fingerboard, actual mother-of-pearl block inlays, 50s profile neck, Grover tuners, maple cap over mahogany body, large open book style headstock, hand-wired US Switchcraft switches and jacks, Mallory capacitors, CTS potentiometers, and those legendary Gibson USA 490R-498T p/ups heard on thousands of hit records from the 50s and 60s. That's right. The same features as on a USA Nashville built Gibson LP Custom. The ONLY variation is the high quality gloss polyurethane finish on the Epiphone instead of the often troublesome nitrocellulose finish on the Gibson. (Reviewers Note: I own both guitars. A '59 Gibson LP Custom and the new Epiphone LP Custom IGC.) Plugged into the same Fender Twin you simply can't tell them apart. In hand, they feel and play identical. So my two cents worth as a fifty year pro player is based on hands-on playable experience, workmanship and raw tone, not conjecture. And lest you think the Epiphone LP IGC is not built to the same US standards, you should know Gibson's elite Nashville custom shop builders personally trained Qingdao's guitar makers on the Epiphone Les Paul Custom. Gibson's master builders also remain at the China plant to oversee and sign off on every Epiphone Les Paul Custom IGC that leaves the factory. The big question is: How Gibson allows the Epiphone LP Custom IGC with HSC to be produced and sold for thousands below its US price is a head scratcher. Doesn't make sense, as obviously the quality of this guitar will cannibalize their own USA LP Custom sales. My final take? Again, these two guitars are built the same… sound the same… play the same…and feel exactly, I mean exactly the same in hand. I don't know. But you can't help wonder what Gibson is up to. There's something going on. Advice? Get one. Now.

This is a very well built and finished instrument. Mine was sold as a blem at reduced price. No blems at all. It appeared to be a customer return for a simple problem. It was very difficult to insert the cord. Relieved tension on the arm for the input jack. No other issues.

The differences between this guitar and the real thing are so minor that It's hard to justify the price difference. Nitro vs gloss finish, fret binding or none, thicker body on Gibson, headstock angle, 3 point vs 2 point truss rod cover. What matters: Tone, feel, sustain the same.