Korean Epiphone Les Paul Deluxe (1998)

Guitars, like all instruments I imagine, are sentimental.  Spend any extended period of time with a particular guitar and you'll find yourself rationalizing it as one might another person.  "Flaws" transform into lovable idiosyncrasies that define what makes the guitar unique to your experience. 

Basically, you learn to love it.

Sometimes.  

Other times the damn thing just wont stay in tune, and that fact haunts you for 20 years.

Behold, the 1998 Epiphone Les Paul Deluxe.


This particular guitar was given to me by a friend who had spent the better part of a decade ignoring it. When I received it, the frets were green, the pickups were touching the strings, and the body was covered in what might be generously described as DNA.

Also, there was a Tool Sticker.

I wish I had taken pictures of the cleanup process, which took place over the course of a week.  Bridge hardware was removed, the entire guitar was cleaned, the fret board oiled, and the frets lightly filed to remove the corrosion and grime. I proceeded to remove all the saddles from the bridge to clean them, and reinstalled.  Add strings and voila.

In retrospect, I should have taken pictures.  It's not like I was planning to write about it or anything...

It should be noted that I only roughed in intonation, but the saddles are in such rough shape that I figure that I may as well investigate replacements.  The mini-humbuckers are pretty cool sounding, though I immediately noticed that despite full sized Alpha pots, the highs are almost completely lost on roll-off.

More than that, tuning stability remains an issue, despite the owner having installed mini-grovers years ago to address.  Years later, and with much more experience, I think we're dealing with a combination of wonky nut, worn saddles, and a neck that is especially susceptible to bowing with slight changes in humidity.  In short, keeping this thing in tune is still a dream that hasn't died yet.



Which is a shame really. I'm tempted to make this my next long-ish term project.  New electronics, nut, bridge, etc. should make this a decent little player, and I do dig what the mini-humbuckers are putting out.

In the shorter term however, I think this warrants a loose comparison to my newer Epiphone Les Paul Standard, which was made in China.  Having posted it for a sale a few times, I've gotten the "is it Chinese or Korean?" question, only to find that generally speaking, the online world seems to think the Korean ones are better.

Not in my experience, and certainly not here, but I guess I'll get more into that in the near future.


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