The Les Paul PlusTop PRO/FX is a one of the most recent guitars from Epiphone and is basically the budget version of the Gibson Les Paul Axcess. This will be a welcome sight for many budget conscious guitarists considering the price tag of the Gibson Les Paul Axcess (currently around $2500 / $5000 USD according to the Gibson website). The Epiphone comes in at a fifth of the price looks every bit as impressive on stage.
The Epiphone Les Paul Plustop PRO/FX combines a lot of the great features of a Les Paul and adds a double-locking Floyd Rose Special™ vibrato system and coil-tapping with gives it a really nice combination of crunch tones and versatility. You could probably get away with playing any style of music on this guitar other than country where some double string bends might be tricky with a Floyd Rose.
The Floyd Rose Special™ vibrato system allows you to pitch bend up to 2.5-3 semitones due to the cuteaway beneath the trem unit which is really impressive. It's basically the same as the licensed Floyd Rose tremelo system just with slightly cheaper parts. Interestingly since the guitars' debut at Musicmesse there has been some bad press online regarding the Floyd Rose tremelo and how it doesn't stay in tune however this is most likely a result of some of the guitars being badly setup at the factory.
Our advice is to support your local Epiphone dealer and actually get out there and try the guitar before you buy. Any local dealer worth his salt will have set the guitar up properly and you can easily review the guitar for your self. If your not convinced then check out this video from Andertons Music in the UK. They just couldn't get the Les Paul PlusTop PRO/FX out of tune despite some monsterous whammy bar abuse!
The guitar is available in some classic finishes including Desertburst, Honeyburst, Heritage Cherry Sunburst, or Vintage Sunburst finish. The neck is also highly playable and features a superfast SlimTaper™ "D" profile. The back of the neck is finished in satin making it even faster.
In terms of pickups, you have an Epiphone Alnico Classic™ Humbucker in the neck position and an Epiphone Alnico Classic Plus™ Humbucker in the bridge position. This is perhaps one area that could be improved on as the bridge pickup in particular is a little muddy. Of course given the price of the guitar, a couple of Seymour Duncans or EMG's wouldn't be out of the question for most guitarists and would make the guitar really sing.
Having said that the coil tapping feature is a great addition and allows you to get some great twang like sounds out of the guitar. This adds plenty of flexibility and means the guitar has much more potential outside of playing classic rock and metal.
Specification:
- Body Material: Mahogany
- Top Material: Flame Maple
- Neck Material: Mahogany
- Neck Shape: Options 1960's SlimTaper™; D profile
- Neck Joint: Glued-In
- Truss Rod: Adjustable
- Scale Length: 24.75"
- Fingerboard Material: Rosewood with mother-of-pearl Trapezoid inlays
- Neck Pickup: Epiphone Alnico Classic™ Humbucker (4-wire)
- Bridge Pickup: Epiphone Alnico Classic Plus™ Humbucker (4-wire)
- Controls:
- 3-way Pickup Selector
- Neck Pickup Volume with push/pull coil-tapping
- Bridge Pickup Volume with push/pull coil-tapping
- Neck Pickup Tone
- Bridge Pickup Tone
- Binding:
- Fingerboard - 1 ply (cream)
- Body - 1 ply (cream)
- Fingerboard: Radius 14"
- Frets: 22; medium-jumbo
- Bridge: Floyd Rose Special™ Tremolo with locking R4 nut
- Nut Width: 1-11/16" (R4 nut)
- Hardware: Nickel
- Machine Heads: Grover™; 14:1 ratio
- Finish: Gloss
Guideline Price: £499 UK / $1100 USD
Fretpoint Verdict
At this price it's hard to say anything bad about the PlusTop PRO/FX. Our advice would be to make sure you try the guitar out at a local dealer, make sure the guitar is setup correctly (otherwise you may have tuning issues) and if you are serious about tone think about installing some quality pickups.
