May 2011 \ Reviews \ Electrics \ Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Les Paul Goldtop Electric Guitar Review

Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Les Paul Goldtop Electric Guitar Review

Adam Perlmutter

For those with thinner billfolds, Epiphone has released a special version of Gibson’s Bonamassa model—retailing for less than a fifth of the price and limited to 1,000 instruments.
Premier Guitar May 2011
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Clips recorded using Fender Pro Junior, Planet Waves Custom Pro cables, Fryette S.A.S. and Apogee Duet into GarageBand. 
It takes more than a little creativity for a guitarist to forge his own musical identity within the confines of the minor pentatonic scale. Joe Bonamassa is one of the elite group of players who have managed to do so—often with the assistance one of his Gibson Les Pauls, from an original 1959 Standard to recent Historic reissues. To honor Bonamassa and his accomplishments, Gibson offers a costly Custom Shop signature model (MSRP $6491). But for those with thinner billfolds, Epiphone has released a special version of Gibson’s Bonamassa model—retailing for less than a fifth of the price and limited to 1,000 instruments.

Student of the Old School, a Foot in the New…
The Epiphone Bonamassa model is very much a traditional Les Paul, built around a solid mahogany body, a hard maple cap, and a thick mahogany neck with an old-style long tenon that extends well into the neck pocket for strength and sustain. Other traditional appointments on the Bonamassa include a rosewood fretboard with pearloid trapezoidal inlays and single-ply crème binding around the neck and the top of the body.

The Bonamassa departs from tradition a bit too. It’s got a black-painted back where the original Goldtop’s is natural mahogany. And while a ’50s Les Pauls has crème pickup surrounds, pickguard, toggle-switch washer and tip, those parts on this guitar are all black. Instead of Kluson tuners, with their green plastic buttons, the Bonamassa is equipped with higher-performance 14:1 Grovers. Other modern touches include Epiphone’s LockTone Tune-o-matic bridge, stopbar tailpiece, and strap locks. And the control panel includes the eccentric combination of two amber ’50s-style top hat knobs and two gold ’60s-style reflector knobs (though in this reviewer’s opinion, the guitar would look better with a matched quartet of black reflector knobs).

Electronics include Gibson’s Burstbucker 2 and 3 pickups in the neck and bridge positions, respectively. The 2, which has a medium output, is wound in the range of Gibson’s ’57s Classic and patterned after the original P.A.F. humbucking pickup. The 3 is over-wound for a slightly hotter sound that works well in concert with the 2. Both pickups are controlled by a standard three-way switch.

Bonamassa’s Epi comes inside a very cool case patterned after the classic Lifton “Cali Girl,” brown on the exterior and pink on the interior, but featuring sturdy modern construction—a scheme that Gibson Custom ought to use in its Historic line of ’50s reissues. It also includes a certificate of authenticity hand-signed by Bonamassa himself.

Craftsmanship on our Chinese-made test model is quite good. The fretwork is super tidy and the slots for the nut and saddles are cleanly cut. The neck is situated solidly in its pocket and the binding is tight and flush throughout. A hint of an orange-peel effect can be found here and there on the finish, which seems just a bit thick, but then again it is not uncommon to find this subtle irregularity on guitars at many times the price.

Heavy Feel, Heavy Sound
When I removed the Epiphone Bonamassa from its case, the first thing I noticed was that it was pretty heavy at 9.5 pounds. (Most Gibson Historics, for reference, weigh in at less than nine.) The neck, with its rounded ’50s “D” profile—the contour that Gibson Custom features on the 1959 Historic Reissue—also felt pretty massive. I generally find this neck to be exaggeratedly large and not very comfortable, but it didn’t take long before it felt pretty natural given the overall heft of the guitar.

The guitar came from the factory with smooth, low action. The 24.75-inch scale neck was comfortable from the open position to the 22nd fret and was hospitable to barre chords with big stretches and rapid-fire single-note lines alike. However, the guitar felt slightly stiff when I bent some strings more than a half step, and the tuning was sometimes negatively affected by the bends.

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Comments

 (16 comments) display by
UsernameComment
Bert vd Sanden
on 04/16/2013 		Purchased mine one week ago. Great sounding guitar with excellent playability. Great value for money.
helvis
on 04/15/2013 		the wait is no longer there gone a be a second quantite made of that amazing guitar.
Tommy
on 09/06/2012 		Hello, I purchased the J.B. les paul and was extremely impressed will all functions of the guitar, have owned many guitars and have played many guitars however epiphone has done a lot for working musicians especially their wallets and this guitar will make a believer out the most hard core gibson fanactics, yes it was made in china take the sticker off swallow your pride and place some blues.Thank you Epiphone for making it possible to own such a great guitar without morgaging your house.
Dave
on 04/19/2012 		I to have just purchased one of these and spent a long time playing it against a Gibson before making a choice. For me it was a no brainer. I have a '66 335 that i am scared of gigging/losing and so i wanted something i don't have to worry too much about that will do the job. This guitar is for the money fantastic, and not that much different from a Gibbo. Sure if you want a Gibson headstock pay the extra money but this Epi is great at a third of the price. Who's laughing now?
George
on 02/19/2012 		the guitar is decent, but I won't buy it due to it being made in China and due to the quality control in general on epiphones made in China, if you look at the recent volume in factory refurbished, factory used, or ones stamped 2nd from china, there's a reason, inferior quality, I would buy a Japanese or Korean one first before one made in China, gibson has gone way too overboard on their prices in general so a lot of people look at the epiphones as a solution, we need to start making more guitars in America and making them affordable, our economy is in the gutter for a reason and China's getting rich because of it.
Johnny Part 4
on 12/27/2011 		Apparently the comments have a max length, so I guess I need to split my post up into chunks. Start from my first comment and work your way up. In summary: I am completed impressed with this Epiphone LP and still would be if it was twice the price. Get your hands on one and play it. Forget that it says Epiphone and that the head stock profile is slightly variant from a USA Gibson. If you have an issue with it being manufactured in China, explain that to your wife and your wallet and good luck with that. I'm sold on this guitar and I think you will too.
Johnny Part 3
on 12/27/2011 		Apparently the comments have a max length, so I guess I need to split my post up into chunks. Start from my first comment and work your way up. Playability: Well, how does it sound? In a word, like butter. This guitar has all the sound and spirit of my plek'd Nashville Les Paul. You have no reason to trust me, but trust me, this thing is a beast. The neck - this is a chunky, D profile neck, non-tapered. Some have referred to it as a baseball bat. Yup, it's chunky. The neck on my Epi SG is very similar, so I'm used to that profile. As well, my LP Traditional has a hefty neck profile, so I'm used to that as well. My suggestion is to try to play something similar to get a feel for it. Either you like or at least can deal with it or you don't dig it. I happen to dig it. Sound: It's really all about the sound, right? The genuine Gibson Burstbucker pickups sound fabulous. Roll back the volume pots and they clean up very nicely with no cliff drop-off in volume along the entire range of volume all the down to 2. One thing the description doesn't mention (I think) is that this guitar is equipped with knob pointers all 4 pots. I like that too, +1. This pickup combination is very well balanced and pickups are hot. I find myself rolling back the volume a tad to about 8 or 9 until I find the sweet spot. They are also fairly bright in comparison to the Classic '57s in my LP Traditional, so I also roll back a tad on the tone pots. I play though 3 primary amp rigs - Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue tweed, an Egnater Rebel 20 into a custom Geezer 2x12 cab with Celestion G12M greenbacks as well as virtual many virtual rigs VSTi within Guitar Rig 5.
Johnny Part 2
on 12/27/2011 		Apparently the comments have a max length, so I guess I need to split my post up into chunks. Start from my first comment and work your way up. Another flaw, there are some light, and I mean light, gouges in the rosewood just below the 6th string and the 1st string at the first fret. Looks like the strings might have been rubbing against the rosewood pretty hard, maybe during transit from China? I don't know how it happened, but it exists. I might be able to lightly sand them out or just let them be. It's doesn't affect playability and it's strictly a visual thing, although no one else would be able to see it unless they inspect the surface of the fret board at an angle to the light. Okay, so those are the ONLY two flaws I could detect. The rest of the fit and finish is absolutely outstanding. The binding is excellent. The fret work is outstanding. The finish is flawless (except for what I mentioned). No paint bubbles, pits or anything except glassy gold top goodness. The hue of the gold top is just what I like too. It's not the greenish-hue gold top that I've seen on some other Epiphones or even the "Midas" Gibson SG that I've seen in the stores.
Johnny
on 12/27/2011 		Okay, let's get this out of the way - this is a great value and a great sounding and playing guitar, especially at this price point. If you're hung up on having "Gibson" inlayed on the head stock, I encourage you to read on. For my comparison, I have a 2010 genuine USA Nashville made Gibson Les Paul Traditional cherry burst - $2300 buck-a-roonies. The Gibson is equipped with Classic '57 pickup in the neck and Classic '57 plus at the bridge. The USA Nashville Gibson LP is everything I thought/wanted it to be and it sounds and play amazingly good. After everything I read and heard about this Epiphone Les Paul, I was hoping to not be disappointed. I did not have an opportunity to play one at a retail store, so I bought on faith alone. I was not disappointed in the least. I also have an Epiphone G-400 Limited 1966 SG that I call the "$350 wonder guitar", so again, I was hoped that this Epi LP would deliver the goods, given it was twice the price of the Epi SG. Genre: I mostly play classic rock, blues and rockabilly - Zeppelin, AC/DC, Yes, Setzer, SRV. Why I bought it: I've been heavily into Joe Bonamassa over the last year, so when I saw this guitar, I really wanted the Gibson Joe Bonamassa Les Paul Studio, but had a hard time justifying the $1500 ticket, however the electronics on this Epiphone are THE SAME as the USA made models. Out of the case: Setup was great straight out of the case, which btw, is better in my opinion than the Gibson case I got along with the Traditional, so +1. Upon receiving the guitar, I scrutinized every visual detail before even plugging it in. There are a couple problems that I should mention in all fairness. There is some light feathering along the paint line edge of the gold top. It's not obvious and you absolutely can't see it unless you're really looking for it, but it's there, -1. Another flaw, there are some light, and I mean light, gouges in the rosewood just below the 6th string and the 1st string at the first f
Brian
on 05/18/2011 		I did purchase one from Guitar Center then had buyers remorse with buying a chinese made guitar for almost $700.00. I then called Guitar Center to cancel the order because I found a Hamer USA Monaco Elite all Mahogany guitar for roughly 150 more. Its a shame that people do not get with it and understand American Made Quality like Hamer and Carvin due to the lack of advertisement since our so called guitar heros do not endorse these brands.



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