Comparison: Gibson Les Paul Studio vs. Epiphone Les Paul Standard

I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that, once again, I've failed to bond with a Les Paul Studio. As much as I want the Studio to be the beginning and end of my need for a Gibson, the truth is that of all my guitars, I enjoy it the least...

And that includes the Epiphone Les Paul Standard.

Believe me, I hate to admit it.  I've never been a fan of Epiphone, and while my ridiculously inexpensive acquisition of the LP Standard shifted my line of thinking, the prices they command new seem nothing short of ridiculous.

The headstock is definitely another factor. At this price point with a Fender, you get a Fender headstock, so at a distance who's to know that you didn't buy USA.  But that Epiphone headstock? Might as well be a neon sign saying "NOT A GIBSON".

That probably shouldn't matter.  Let's not pretend it doesn't.

Trying to put obvious bias aside, I've decided to compare the two in an attempt to justify either keeping the Studio or sending it to Kijiji once and for all.

The Comparison

The first thing I can't help but think of is my first Les Paul Studio - a 1996 non-weight relieved Wine Red version that sported the 498T and 490R pickups.  This 2007 version has the same pickups, but has modern weight relief, which significantly changes the construction of the guitar.  Obviously, it isn't going to sound the same, and I really wish I still had the 1996 version.

Oh well. For this comparison, we're going to run through a variety of sounds in both the neck and bridge position:

1. Clean
2. Overdrive via a Fulltone FD2
3. High Gain via a JHS Angry Charlie

For each setting, I wrote down as much as I could with the guitar on my lap so that my impressions were as uncoloured as possible. I also tried to avoid fidgeting with settings on the amp or the pedals so that the comparison remained as "sterile" as possible.

The first picture is the amp settings I used for the test (the Z-Brake was set to "4").  There is definitely some preamp push happening, but only to the point where really banging on the strings would yield in natural overdrive.

For what it is worth, the Epiphone Standard dates to 2005, and the Gibson Studio dates to 2007, so they're about the same age.  Most importantly, neither offers any coil splitting/tapping, which to me is such an unnecessary addition to a Les Paul anyway.

Finally, setting aside the cost of each new, I'm keeping in mind the fact that I paid $250 for the Epiphone, and $800 for the Studio. That's a little over 3x difference for those keeping score.

Do they feel like a Les Paul?

The first and most obvious difference, beyond color of course, is the weight.  The Epiphone is easily on the chunky side of 10 pounds, while the Studio, with it's modern weight relief, is likely no more than 7.5 pounds.  I don't have the exact weights, but knowing that my Maple EJ Stratocaster weighed in at just under 7.5, this seems like a pretty good approximation.

Back to the Studio - this is just too light for a Les Paul.  My American Series Telecaster is heavier than this, and just as I'd prefer the Tele to be a bit lighter, I would prefer the Studio to be heavier.  The Epiphone on the other hand has this satisfying feeling of having an armoire on your lap.  That isn't necessarily a good thing, but the tactile difference in weight compared to a Stratocaster makes switching to a Les Paul somehow more satisfying.

Acoustically, the presence of the weight relief is obvious again, with the Studio being much louder and more resonant.  This is probably down to the finish as well as the weight, with the Studio being finished in Nitro, and the Epiphone being finished in 3 inches of poly (that may be an exaggeration). Whether it's the chambering or the finish, the Studio resonates more like a semi-hollow, whereas the Epiphone resonates at an obviously lower frequency.

I hate to say it, but the Epiphone "feels" like a Les Paul, while the Studio feels like... I'm not quite sure.

Does it sound like a Les Paul?

Clean Neck

Probably the most important thing to keep in mind when reading this review is that I'm firmly in the Fender camp, meaning everything I hear is undoubtedly influenced by what I think a Les Paul should sound like in comparison to a Stratocaster or Telecaster.  Having said that, I made a point not to play any Fender instruments that day so as to keep my ears as sterile as possible.

I opted to start with the Epiphone, for no other reason than it was physically closer to me when I decided to begin.

Right off the bat, the Epiphone sounded jazzy.  I'm terrible at explaining these things without sounding like I've read guitar magazines most of my life, but I'd say that there was a certain squishiness to the sound (compression I guess) the really smoothed the decay immediately after the attack and just begged for complicated jazzy chords.

The Studio on the other hand had much more clarity, and what I'm certain is far less compression.*** The bottom end seemed deeper and tighter, with a more open mid-range, and much clearer highs.  I found that rolling off the tone knob to about 60% would yield similar highs to the Epiphone, but recreating that squishy warmth in the bottom end (fatness? Is that what they're always going on about) wasn't possible.

***Whether this is the result of some property of the pickups alone or in some combination with the input gain I can't say for certain.  Yes, I could explore the issue more, but I feel like doing do would be a journey in understanding why X sounds like Y, and adjust Z to compensate with that new knowledge.***

Between the two - and I hate to admit this - I prefer the sound of the Epiphone.  When I reach for a Les Paul to play clean on the neck, what I expect to hear, especially coming immediately after playing a Fender, is a very warm, fat sound.  This can sometimes get into the territory of "wooly", but that term didn't come to mind at the time of testing.

Overdrive Neck

Let's get one thing out of the way - I don't for a second think that a Fulldrive 2 is the most appropriate overdrive for a Les Paul - that thing was made for Strats and Teles.  If this comparison has shown me anything, it's that I probably should have held onto my Fulltone OCD, and that I'll be turning my attention to finding one sooner rather than later.

The first thing that I noticed with the Epiphone was the degree to which highs were lost when rolling down the volume.  I guess this is to be expected with the cheaper components in the Epi (Alpha pots, Epiphone pickups), but it was still rather startling.

Fulldrive 2 settings for the test.
Volume is at unity.

One of the great things about a Les Paul is the ability to roll off the neck pickup volume while going into to an overdriven amp for clean sounds, then flipping to the full on bridge for lead stuff.  Having this much high end roll off the neck means choosing between a neck sound that's too dark and a bridge sound that's too bright.

The volume full up is another story, with the low end compression yielding some pretty great lead tones that get very close to that almost-fuzz-but-not-quite sound that is just infectious. Again, the "fatness" of the Epiphone neck pickup is all I can think of.

The Studio exhibited the same almost-fuzzy interaction with the overdrive in the high end, but the low mids (the fat?) were decidedly less present.  Some might describe this as "open" sounding, and although the description is apt, I'm not sure that's what we should be going for here.

A Les Paul should sound like a Les Paul, right?  The Studio, to my ears, sacrifices some of the qualities of a Les Paul in order to cover more ground - more open, and more clarity provide lots of flexibility, but the sacrifice is that the sound is dissonant with what you think a Les Paul should sound like.

The flip side to this is that in the Studio, you get much more flexibility.  Little to no loss of highs on volume roll off means you can effectively use the neck/bridge as a clean/dirty switch, and the absence of the "fat" makes me think that in a band situation this guitar would cut through the mix better.

High Gain Neck

At high gain, the difference was more of the same, except to say that the Epiphone started to exhibit that "wooly" quality that has been mentioned in other corners of the internet.  Raising the highs on the Angry Charlie seemed to take care of this for the Epiphone, but The Studio definitely cut through all the gain with greater aplomb.

Interestingly enough, the Studio was able to match the Epiphone's tone through the Charlie with a 25% roll off of the tone control.  Brighter indeed.

Brightness aside, it was still hard to argue with the Epiphone's greater low-mid presence - some may find it flabby, but to my ears it was that "fatness" that everyone drones on about.  On the same settings, with a bit of delay, the Epiphone was all about a "Fall to Pieces" tone, whereas the Studio reminded me of "Cliffs of Dover", which interesting enough, Eric Johnson played with an ES-335.

Again, the Studio has more "cut", the Epiphone has more "fat".

Bridge Clean

This might be the point at which the comparison becomes even more unscientific - the previous owner of the Epiphone removed the bridge cover.  Aside from the aesthetic change, this is supposed to increase the output of the pickup by removing the barrier posed by the cover.  A quick search online seems to indicate that removing the cover also has an significant impact on the lower-mids... 

Interesting... Without dwelling too long on whether the difference between the two is down to a simple pickup cover, I'm going to go ahead and say that the construction differences have to play a roles as well, but I'm now considering removing the bridge pickup cover to test the theory at a later date.

At any rate, this might be my favorite sound from the Epiphone, and while the Studio sounds good, it's brighter and more open character was less entertaining - As someone who owns mostly Fenders, I don't want bright and open from a Les Paul.

Bridge Overdrive

Overdrive from the bridge once again reveals the more open character of the Gibson vs. the more compressed sound of the Epiphone. I have no doubt that in a band setting the Studio would require less volume to cut, but the chunk with the Epiphone would be far more apparent with a sufficient number of speakers (think 4x12).

Bridge High Gain

Here's where the difference becomings increasingly minimal - under high gain they sound VERY similar, with the Studio again having a bit more cut.  I'm not going to drone on this any further...

The Verdict?

Prices for used Epiphone Les Paul Standards are ridiculously low, so long as you're patient.  The flip side is that Gibson Les Paul Studios will likely hold their value better.  In that sense, you've got a coin flip on your hands.

But if you're not into flipping, and like me are a "something else" player who fancies a Les Paul once and awhile, it's hard to argue with a $250 Epiphone in the face of a Gibson that cost more than 3x as much on the used market.

But if it were my only guitar, the Studio is far more flexible.