Epiphone Les Paul Tribute Plus
Roseville, Calif. – Very nice upgrades here as we review the Epiphone Les Paul Tribute Plus in Black Cherry with Gibson 57 classic pickups, bone nut, Plek frets, and a hand set up.
The guitar feels very much like a true Gibson made Les Paul, the finish is perfect, all the frets felt great, the guitar rang true, and best of all it sounded great plugged in.
Gibson Sound
The neck pickup was open with a nice growl the bridge pickup sounded more on the rock side with a nice open midrange snap to the notes. Mixing the two pickups got that perfect classic Gibson spank and this guitar has split coils so you can get some very cool single coil spank as well. Does it sound like a Fender, well no, but it has a nice open clean vibe when playing the split coil sounds. The tuners are locking Grovers and you also get strap locks for a nice set up.
Classic Sound at 1/3 of Price
For $999, it has the killer Les Paul vibe and good looks, with all the upgrades it really rocks but is still very shy of a real Gibson Les Paul in my opinion. A Gibson similar to this model would cost you 3 times the cost. Under playing conditions it really rocked, great overdrive tones and a smooth blues tone as well. Even with the split coils it's not a country sounding guitar at all but not many Les Pauls are. However, if you're looking for some classic ZZ-top, AC DC, Led Zep sounds, yep it's all there.
I have played on a lot of Les Paul type guitars in this price range like ESP LTD, Edwards, Tokai, and even some China look a likes .The Epiphone Les Paul Tribute Plus kills most of them and has that true Gibson heritage.
On a scale of 1-10, the Epiphone Les Paul Tribute Plus rates a solid 7.5