Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty Electric Guitar

July 31, 2007 by Jo Minor 


The Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty electric guitar is just that - a real beauty! Gleaming black finish, gold hardware, and classy pearloid block inlays make this guitar a real head-turner. It features three humbucking pickups that will give you a wide range of tones. It also has that great Les Paul feel and sound that has contributed so much to the development of all types of rock music down through the years.

The Les Paul Black Beauty from Epiphone, which has a list price of $1165.00, features three humbucking pickups that have been double dipped in wax. This procedure helps reduce feedback from microphones. The humbuckers produce a creamy sound and have strong output. The guitar also has a set neck. This is different from both bolt-on necks and neck-through-body construction, and is designed to give excellent sustain.

The Les Paul model of guitar is usually associated with Gibson. The Gibson corporation bought out the brand name, Epiphone, in order to be able to provide the public with their fine quality and well designed guitars at a lower price. Epiphone was an old company that originated in Turkey over a century ago. The founder was named Anastasios Stathopoulos, and he named the business after his son, Epimanondas. (They called him “Epi” for short.)

Epiphone originally made various types of fretted stringed instruments that were popular in the Mediterranean regions of Europe and Asia, but they became more and more well known for guitars, especially after being purchased by Gibson in 1986.

Epiphone guitars have been used by many well known musicians. If you have ever wished you could own a real Les Paul but did not have the funds for a Gibson, an Epiphone is the next best thing. The Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty is not a cheap guitar, however, even as Epiphones go, but it is an improvement in price over the designer priced Gibson Black Beauties.

Advantages: The looks are not the only advantage to the Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty electric guitar. The sound is fat and creamy, and with the three humbuckers to choose from, you can make a wide range of tones with this guitar. The details are very nice. For instance, it has a raised pickguard, which is a detail you do not usually see on a mid-range priced guitar.

The gold tuners not only look great, but they also keep the guitar in tune well. The Black Beauty has a really great tone as a rhythm guitar. The guitar is playable and has great sustain. Definitely a guitar that is good enough for gigs, and is versatile enough to handle about any type of music you can throw at it.

Disadvantages: The Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty, like other LP’s, does not have a Floyd Rose or other tremolo system, and only has 22 frets. These will not be issues for many people, but if you can only afford one guitar and you require 24 frets and a Floyd Rose, you will probably want to pick a different model of guitar. This particularly is true if you are into metal lead guitar and need those extra frets for soloing, and like to dress it all up with whammy dives.

Like most guitars, it will probably need a setup to be done by a professional guitar tech. Some people have reported buzzing frets when they get the action down as low as they like it. The factory strings have been easy to break for some guitarists when they play hard.

Specs:

  • Mahogany and alder body in LP styling with single cutaway

  • Black catalyzed finish

  • Three ply cream binding on body and fingerboard

  • Carved top

  • Mahogany set neck

  • 24.75 inch scale

  • 1.68 inches wide at the nut

  • Rosewood fretboard

  • 22 frets

  • Pearloid block inlays

  • Epiphone logo and diamond emblem pearl inlay on headstock

  • Gold Grover machine heads and tuners

  • Gold hardware

  • Three humbucking pickups

  • Alnico Hot Humbucker pickup at the bridge

  • Alnico Classic HB pickup at the middle position

  • Alnico Classic HB pickup at the neck

  • Pickups dipped in wax to reduce microphone feedback

  • Two volume control knobs

  • Two tone control knobs

  • Three-way pickup selector switch

  • Tune-o-matic bridge

  • Stopbar tailpiece

  • Comes with a gig bag

  • Limited lifetime warranty

Kelly Industries has a nice review of the Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty electric guitar posted, which you can read from this link.

There is another review at Guitar Bitz, too.

For a You Tube video clip showing this guitar in action go here. The pickups have been changed, however, so be aware of that.

Finally, there are tons of reviews of the Black Beauty on the Ultimate Guitar website.

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