Les Paul Player Pack, Vintage Sunburst

My wife heard I wanted an Electric Guitar and ordered me a full Fender Squire kit, I put this into my amazon cart and she knew when I did that I am the type to read tons of reviews prior to buying anything. She was correct I had read a ridiculous amount of reviews about guitars in the beginner range. I am not going to repeat what I read but basically this guitar was said to be much higher quality than the rest of the guitars in the range. It turned out my mom bought the other guitar off me when she found out i had it as my dad also wanted one. I have had a chance to use both and I can say a few things, the Fender looks a little cooler, and the sound is a little richer, but the weight and feel of the fender was wimpy compared to the Les Paul. When I played the fender the string vibration rang through the wood and made if feel like force feedback from gaming controllers. I didn't like that at all. the Les Paul has nicer hardware and the construction of the guitar Is amazing. When i got the guitar I thought it was damaged because the volume knob didn't work right, It turned out it was just loose from the body of the guitar, apply a little force and pull the top of the knob off and use pliers to tighten the nut and now its sturdy and works perfect. I didn't need to adjust the truss rod or the strings much, they took a half turn to get them in tune for playing. **BONUS REVIEW** BUY ROCK SMITH 2014!!! I wanted this guitar to learn how to play but I live in an area where the nearest place to take lessons is 50+ miles away, and I work 50 hours a week and have a 45 min commute each way, so my time is limited. My first day with rock-smith 2014 i could barely find the fret in time to hit a single note and when the song switched strings i was like "this is impossible, forget about this!" but I just bought this expensive guitar so i thought I will at the very least complete the 60 day challenge. LET ME TELL YOU! I have been playing for 2.5 weeks and now i am playing 3 songs at full speed and full difficulty with 75% accuracy, I can play the recognizable parts of: Lenard skynard - sweet home Alabama Rolling Stones - paint it black Everclear - Father of mine Foreigner - Jukebox Hero I have always been a artistically talented person; sculpting, painting, drawing, etc... but this is the first time I have almost been in tears with pride when I heard the familiar sounds of songs i love coming out of my hands. I cannot recommend Rocksmith enough. I bought the origonal rocksmith and the disc import tool so now i have a TON of music to learn at any time i feel like it, from a tool that is amazing.

Ordered this package from Amazon for $199. Received the order in a timely manner. The package was shipped in a very large plain cardboard box. I opened that and saw the box from the product page on Amazon. Inside THAT box things seemed almost haphazardly placed, but everything still fit inside. I opened all the boxes and everything was included (nothing was missing). I was annoyed to see there was no pick included!! Didn't matter, I have my own. The guitar is a very nice instrument. It tunes true and doesn't have a problem going out of tune quickly. Nice looking and has a nice fat sound, like a real Les Paul. It's not fancy, but plays true and that is all you need to begin. The guitar has serious heft as well...it's not superlight like some cheap electric guitars I've had in the past. The "gig bag" is thin with hardly any padding and I can't see how it could provide any protection except from, perhaps, rain. The amplifier is small, but has a solid sound for a beginner amp. The included tuner works like a champ, but there was no battery in it and I had to go buy the oddball shaped batteries before I could use it. No biggie. Long story short...for $199 I feel I got a pretty good deal. I absolutely love the guitar. I played it so much the first couple days I had it I gave myself a light case of carpal tunnel syndrome! Combined this excellent deal with Rocksmith 2014 and I'm having a blast while at the same time improving my playing. Despite not including a pick or a battery for the tuner I'm so happy that I'm giving this product a 5 star rating. If you've ever wanted to play....the Epiphone Les Paul Special II is a fine honest instrument.

Great beginner guitar! If you're a beginner like I am, I'd recommend this guitar if you're looking for something affordable. Great build quality, it's heavier than I thought it would be. The pickups are nice and responsive - you'll want to replace the machine heads and strings if you're looking for longevity. I'm only giving this package 4 stars because the rest of the stuff is mediocre. The picks are decent, the guitar bag is cheap and the amp leaves something to be desired. If you're looking for a decent rock tone, you're going to at least want an amp with some basic effects. The amp included in the package has a decent clean tone, but everything else is pretty crappy. The dirty tone is tinny and thin, and the bass and treble knobs don't help much. If this is your first guitar, I'd suggest buying the guitar by itself and picking up a better amp. You should shop around for something with basic effects - reverb, delay, overdrive, etc. I used this amp for two weeks and quickly got tired of the cheap sounding tone and lack of effects. Great guitar if you buy it by itself and get a decent practice amp. As a beginner you should start with something (anything really) - don't buy into what professional players recommend, just start here and you'll figure out what you want as you learn more about guitars and setups. Also, Rocksmith isn't the greatest teaching tool. It doesn't teach you chord shapes or scales, which are helpful if you're trying to learn the songs in the game. I bought Rocksmith and have barely played it because I've been learning way more from YouTube videos. Just some food for thought, good luck!

This is my very first guitar but i did hours and hours of research on things to look out for when buying one. the main and most common issue i would see is guitars not staying in tune. this one doesn't have that problem at all. I re-tune it maybe once or twice a week after playing for 1-2 hours a day bending strings and strumming hard. sometimes ill check the tune and be surprised i don't even need to tweak it. its a solid guitar for a beginner. even after i bought it, i continued to read good reviews on this instrument, including top 10 lists featuring this model. which makes you feel even better that you made the right decision. I'm right at 3 months into buying it and the strings that come on it are still fine. the tuners are solid. the pickups work wonders. absolutely no fret buzz. which is crazy for a guitar this cheaply priced. most need to be taken somewhere to get them setup. but i literally pulled this out of the box, tuned it, and been playing everyday for 3 months. I'm sure some minor adjustments "could" be made but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. i've upgraded my amp and cables though. the cable is fine for a beginner. and so is the amp, however the lack of effects on the amp are VERY limited. and the distortion on the amp is borderline terrible if your wanting to jump straight into rock or metal. but i started out playing without distortion so i could learn everything without making my ears bleed. haha. the action is also set perfect for a beginner in my opinion (string height off the fret board). its not too high and not too low. i've been looking for another guitar to purchase for the past few weeks because i love playing so much now, and i've yet to find one that i would've rather have had than this one as my first guitar. bottom line, its well made, sturdy, no imperfections, and the tone sounds AMAZING. don't believe me?, just google Epiphone Les Paul Special 2 and look at all the reviews and all the top 10 lists this guitar has been featured in. you literally cant go wrong.

I'm an older person who has never played a guitar, but I've always wanted to learn, sort of a bucket list thing. I started shopping for a quality beginner guitar that wouldn't break the bank. After checking dozens of listings, reading, hundreds of reviews, and watching countless Youtube review videos, I decided on this one. It looked fantastic, the reviews - especially from experienced players - was great, and the price was right. It was hard to get at the lower $250 price because inventory was low and they sold out quickly. I missed out on the deal several times, but patience paid off. As soon as I saw the kit available this time, I ordered. I'm glad I did! The kit was shipped quickly, the guitar was pristine, and the accessories, though not the best on the market, were very acceptable, especially for a beginner like me. If I'm able to pick up on guitar playing over the next few months, I'll probably upgrade the amp and the case. I was impressed by the appearance of the guitar itself. Everything seemed perfect. The control knobs are a clear acrylic with black underneath, which gives them the look of outstanding quality. The body is smooth and glossy, even though the pictures here in the listing make it appear satiny. The fretboard is a beautiful dark wood grain. I really appreciate the tuner that came with the guitar. I'm hard of hearing and tone deaf, so I was particularly worried about properly tuning by ear. But I didn't need to worry. The tuner just clips on to the headstock and when you adjust the tuning knobs, the tuner will turn green when the correct note is played. It took me all of about 10 minutes, taking my time and enjoying the strumming. No worry at all. I love it. It may not be a guitar that can be used professionally, but it's more than enough for a novice or intermediate player.

I don't know enough about guitar yet to understand why this is so low priced. It's got a great brand name, looks awesome and sounds pretty good too. If I'm being super picky, it can be challenging to find the exact right balance between bass and treble, but I don't think I'm good enough to complain about that yet. for practicing scales and learning chords, this is a perfectly fine instrument. The amp is plenty loud for what I need. I live in a typical suburban house, and I usually practice with the volume set around 5 - 6 and it gives me everything I need. In the evenings, the headphone plugin feature comes in handy. A side note: the first one of these I ordered shipped in snapped where the headstock meets the neck — clearly damaged in shipping. Amazon refunded my purchase and allowed me to reorder, but it was kind of an annoying week-long delay to start playing the guitar. A minor nuisance, but worth mentioning. Overall, great, great value for this little beginner guitar. I'm very happy with this purchase.

This guitar set is the PERFECT set up for the beginner. The guitar itself costs $169 on Amazon. This set comes with a small practice amp, cable to attach guitar to amp, nylon guitar strap, a few pics, a guitar tuner, and a gig bag, which by itself sells for $19. The great thing about this is it is specificlly aimed at the beginner, and comes with everything you need to start playing right away, without having to do homework and figure out the accessories you want/need when as a beginner you don't really know and aren't that interested in, you just want to start playing! Well not only is the guitar in this set a really good quality guitar, you get the periphery items that will definitely work for you as you're just starting out, that you will very much most likely upgrade after you figure out what you want. The amp is a really nice amp. It is small and louder than you'd imagine. It has bass and treble settings, a headphone out jack, and an input that you can plug a standard ipod headphone cable into so you can play your ipod out the amp speaker and "jam" along. The cable that attaches to the guitar and to the amp is about ten feet long, one end is right angled. The amp runs off regular US 120V power. The guitar is much more beautiful in person than you can tell from the picture. It is very well made. Mine had a couple of very very small cosmetic blemishes that are hardly noticible. The sound of the guitar is good as well. It does indeed sound different than my Fender Squire Stratocaster, but not in a bad way at all. It has a "warm" tone to it. It has some heft to it, but is not what I would consider "heavy." Epiphone is owned by Gibson, and the Epiphone line is much like the Squire line of Fender products; a beginner and cost friendly alternitive while having similar apperance to their much much more expensive brethern. The included tuner didn't have instructions, and took me messing with it for quite some time to figure out what it wanted, and is quite finnicky. It includes battery. It works fine. The nylon strap that connects to the guitar that you wear over your shoulder is highly adjustable, and could probably be adjusted down or up to fit a small child or a very large adult. The "gig bag" guitar case has a big pocket that you can use to store a couple song books or whatever. It too has a sling strap you can tote over your shoulder, or you can use its handle. The pics it comes with are just as good as any other pics. Mine was shipped in the box shown with a plain brown box with padding surrounding it, so you can order this as a gift and not worry about it being not wrapped. So why order this set for $30 more than just the guitar? Well, as a beginner you don't really know what you want yet. It's better to start out with decent, cheaper items and go up from there. Here you have a base to build upon. Since purchasing this set, I've upgraded the case to a hard case for travel, bought some new pics, and bought a Snark tuner,(<$15) and bought a nicer, stylish and more comfortable guitar strap. So for $30, I figured out what works and what doesn't. The amp and cable and guitar are great, and in no way are needing upgrades for the beginner. The bag, guitar strap, and tuner work, and are fine, but I quickly grew out of them. All in all, this is very much worth $199!!! -As a side note for any future players interested in self paced guitar instruction, the set I chose after hours of research and is VERY highly reguarded as being excellent for beginners, is called "Learn and Master Guitar." by Gibson. They have a website and the more complete set which I got is right around $200. They also have it here on Amazon, but I'm not sure if you get all the extra "bonus dics." Anyway, the instruction is terrific and I never thought I'd be able to play guitar! -As far as the included online instruction that is included with this set, I never used it so I can't comment on that. Have a great time learning guitar!! :-) -Shane ****-UPDATE-**** July 29, 2014 Well, since purchasing this as my first guitar, I've since bought a few other guitars, most recently a Epiphone Les Paul Plustop PRO, $499. Well, build wise, the Plustop PRO is much fancier and stylish, heavier, and just way nicer to look at. Aesthetically terrific. HOWEVER, even tho the Plustop PRO has different pickups, different tone selectors, has a glued on neck, better workmanship, quite honestly the sound of this budget Epiphone LP guitar is really not worth the extra $330. For the looks, yes, but actual SOUND, not too much of a discernible difference. I wish it were a huge difference in sound, but in all reality, not so much. I get a few more sounds from the Plustop due to the coil tapping feature and the slightly better pickups, but, again, not a crazy noticeable difference. I notice after messing around for a bit with the Plustop, I grab this one,(its WAY lighter) and rip on it. Just as easy to play. I contend this Epiphone is still a GREAT buy! Also, if you want a little bit more fancier looking guitar, the next step up from this one is the Epiphone LP-100,($249), which has a some better color options and also has second set of tone and volume knobs, and is a bit beefier physically than this model. The pickups however are EXACTLY the same, so most likely you'll get the same sound as this one. So spending the extra $80 may be worth it to you if you want a bit better looking guitar. ***UPDATE FEB.2015*** Well, I've since progressed quite a bit in my playing, and I've acquired many more guitars. This one has now been assigned duty as my primary Slide Guitar, as I use an open tuning on it. So, if you're thinking about buying this and wondering about progressing, you can still find a use for it! Still sounds great, and I think this is one outstanding purchase for a first guitar! *********UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2015*********** I recently took a break from playin' the blues and picked up my AC/DC guitar play along book. "Dirty Deeds" looked fairly "easy" to learn the first few measures, so I went about trying to get the sound of Angus Young on my Fender Stratocaster and Mustang III amp. I just could NOT get that thick, whole, bass'y sound I was looking for, no matter how much I messed about with the knobs. This Epiphone Les Paul Special II, my first 'baby', was sitting right in my closet, and I remembered how nice and full she sounded, so I plugged her in and found a good setting on my amp and bingo, PERFECT MATCH!! This guitar, while kinda plain looking, produces a really full, thick sound. Great guitar. Still!

When buying a guitar, you always need to RAIN it: check and adjust neck reflex, action, and intonation, and then noodle on it to see if it still needs work. You can find plenty of youtube videos showing how to do this initial setup. Neck needed a bit of adjustment, action was fine for me right out of the box, new strings (always replace the strings the guitar comes with) required adjusting the intonation a bit. The frets do protrude from the side a bit, you can feel them when running your hand across the fretboard, but not enough to have to file them down. Knobs and jack and switch are solid, no wiggling. Tuners are normal. Haven't looked at the interior wiring. The included amp is basically the cheapest one they could toss in, you will definitely want to upgrade the amp as soon as you can, a better amp will make a world of difference with how the guitar sounds. The rule of thumb is to spend more on the amp than the guitar, other than practice it's the biggest factor in how good you are going to sound. Basically: perfectly fine guitar. You will almost certainly end up getting another, but I'd highly advise upgrading the amp before looking at better guitars.