As I type this on Friday, February 18, 2022, Guitar Center is selling an exclusive “limited edition” Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro IV. Basically this is a $499 Epiphone Les Paul without the normal thick poly (plastic) finish. Epiphone will sometimes make exclusive guitars for Guitar Center, Sam Ash, Sweetwater, etc. Find ye an Epi Les Paul with a super thin finish for $499 and you’ll have something very similar to this guitar.
Right now, this thing is on sale at Guitar Center for $399. That’s a steal… sort of. Let’s do the review.
The Good
At $499, this guitar is a good value. Compared to the more expensive Epi Les Pauls, it mostly looks the same, it plays the same, and it’s cheaper. This guitar will show wear far more quickly, which some will see as a bonus. I’m not going to talk about the lack of a poly finish enabling the guitar to “breathe” because that’s mostly BS. Does the amount of plastic coating on a Les Paul affect the tone? Mathematically, yes. You could see the difference using the finest scientific measuring tools. But I doubt anyone could hear the difference in a blindfold test. The model I tested was a nice shade of blue. With my eyes closed, it was like any other Epi Les Paul, meaning it played pretty well. It needed a setup, but they all do at this price range. It’s a good value at $499 and a great value at $399.
The Bad
Now we get to the pickups. This model features those dreadfully mediocre Alnico Classic Pro pickups. Will they be fine for some styles, like blues? Sure. Just because I don’t like them doesn’t make them “dreadfully mediocre.” Except that they ARE. Sigh. OK, to be more specific, I don’t like the “eq curve” of these pickups. To my ears, they have too much lower mid frequencies, which is where “mud” lives. If I bought this guitar, I’d have to replace at least the bridge pickup, so add on another hundred bucks.
The Ugly
If I want to replace BOTH pickups with something like the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates, I’d be dropping at least $200. At the regular price of $499, now I’m up to $699 and I might as well get a better Epi Les Paul with ProBucker pickups, which are good enough that I wouldn’t need to replace them. So are you REALLY saving money on this guitar, if you don’t like the pickups? No. Also, for some people, they won’t like the lack of a protective finish.
Summary
I don’t like the pickups, but at $399 this is still a great deal. If you want a Les Paul and you have $399, this IS the best you can do, unless buying used. You can always upgrade the pickups later. Heck, you can buy a set of bootleg ProBuckers on eBay that come with the correct clips to make doing a swap easy. Are the ProBucker pickups on eBay real, or just copies? I don’t know, but either way they probably still sound better than the Alnico Classic Pro pickups.
