# NGD: Epiphone Les Paul 7



## Scali (Mar 13, 2009)

Okay, technically yesterday was NGD, but I didn't have time to edit and upload my pictures, because I was too busy playing my new guitar...

So, better late than never, here we go...

A box arrives at my hideout:






I proceed to open the box using a sharp metal object, and examine the contents, which appear to be a container of some sort:





_Now wait a second... Gibson? They don't make 7-strings do they? Did he post it in the wrong forum?_

The box openeth and revealeth its contents:





It appears to be a familiar guitar at first sight... but upon closer inspection it appears to have one string more than its relatives.






Yes indeed, it is a Les Paul. Sadly not a real Gibson, 'only' an Epiphone. But you can't have everything in life...
It appears to be a pretty dirty bugger, let's turn it around.






"Epiphone Limited Edition", lovely.
Closer inspection of the guitar reveals that it has very few dents, bumps, or scratches, and everything seems to be original.
The only problem seems to be that the tip of the pickup switch has broken off:





Not a big problem, just a standard switch, easy to replace.
Let's clean this baby up and put some nice new GHS 10-60 strings on.






That cleaned up nicely!

In a way this guitar makes a lot of sense, if we look at the two guitars next to it:





Oh well, enough talk and pictures, let's give it a test-run:


And a short summary of my first impressions:

The first thing I noticed was how light the thing is. Much lighter than I expected, and it actually seems to be a bit lighter than the Epi sixer that I have. That still doesn't make it a light guitar by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a comfortable weight.

Funny enough, even with the rusty crappy strings and the guitar being all dirty and sticky etc, it actually played and sounded reasonably well.

The output of the stock pickups is just stupid high 
They don't actually sound bad either... but I need to roll the volume down a bit to get good cleans. I noticed that my guitar has large USA pots and a large USA switch, rather than the cheapo Asian stuff in my old Epi. I wonder if this is stock. If so, the quality level on these guitars is exceptional for the price.

I find this guitar to play slightly better than my old Epi, which is by no means a bad LP. It also seems to be built with just a touch more attention to detail (really nice fretboard, very straight edges, perfect neck joint, nicely centered top etc).
I find the neck very comfortable, much better than I expected. I didn't need to adjust at all from my S7320 to this neck. In fact, I think I slightly prefer this one.
I was also a bit wary of the low B at 24.75" scale, but it seems to sound just fine.

Overall, my first impression of this guitar is really good. It seems to be well-made, it plays better than I expected, and even with the stock pickups it sounds quite good.


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## thedonutman (Mar 13, 2009)

I used to have one of these, loved the sound, but I sold it because the neck wasn't very comfortable for me.

Nice score


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## 7STRINGWARRIOR (Mar 13, 2009)

fuckin awesome playing!, its great to see playing with emotion!

thanks alot for this vid!


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## technomancer (Mar 13, 2009)

Nice score and awesome vid


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## guitarbuilder93 (Mar 13, 2009)

ha! nice math!
when i first saw an epi 7 lp, i thought it was a little funny looking, but they've grown on me.
nice score!


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## Erick Kroenen (Mar 13, 2009)

nice.. congrats


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## Panterica (Mar 13, 2009)

KICK ASS VID!
i can't add any emotion besides "RAAAWWWRRR" for some reason
that just kicks ass


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## Harry (Mar 14, 2009)

Very nice score.
The 7 string neck actually makes the Epi LP look quite appealing, gives it a beefy, no BS look that I enjoy.


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## wannabguitarist (Mar 14, 2009)

Nice playing as usual

Did they make a trans-red version of these? It would be nice to have a 7-string version of my main 6


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## Overtone (Mar 14, 2009)

Sexy guitar... I always wondered about a 7 LP! I dig the playing as well. Very European prog metal sounding, with some tasty leads.


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## Scali (Mar 14, 2009)

Thanks everyone!



wannabguitarist said:


> Did they make a trans-red version of these? It would be nice to have a 7-string version of my main 6


 
Well, as far as I knew, there was only this black one and a tobacco sunburst (and then there is a 'goth' model made for some store chain). The tobacco one seems to be more rare than the black one. I have seen several people on here with a black one, but never seen a tobacco. Haven't seen a tobacco one on Ebay either.

But today I found this in my 'related videos':


Hard to tell what it is exactly, but it doesn't look either black or tobacco. So apparently there are more


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## Stealthdjentstic (Mar 14, 2009)

Nice score man


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## GazPots (Mar 14, 2009)

It's been a long time comin but welcome to the club. 


Looking good dude and sounding nice too. 



Awesome. 



Edit - you've reminded me how awesome they are and i want to play mine but its in the shop for a week getting upgrades.


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## Apophis (Mar 14, 2009)

Congrats


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## harvested (Mar 14, 2009)

Scali said:


> Thanks everyone!
> 
> 
> 
> ...




hey guys,
it's my first post here, but I've been reading the forum for some time now.

ok so now to the point..
I'm from Romania, and there is a black metal band here called Negura Bunget (in english it would be Dark/Foggy Forest) they are pretty known in Europe and one of the guitarist has a 7-string Epi Les Paul Classic Tobacco Burst.. as far as I know he has it for several years now and he bought it from Australia 
If you want to see that guitar check them out at:
Negura Bunget - The Official Website there is a pop-up window with some news and you'll find some pictures there or
NegurÄ Bunget on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads 

I own a 7-string Epi Les Paul "Goth" model, I bought it from US from music123.com and it's true, I never seen it in other shops, not even in Europe.. 
From my opinion the goth model is inferior to the Classic model, because it doesn't have a Maple Top, like the other Les Pauls, and so the sound isn't as bright..but I still love 'her'  
I'll post some pictures in the following days 

Andrew


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## RXTN (Mar 14, 2009)

Those alway made me hard.... nice one!


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## Stengah_2012 (Mar 14, 2009)

Damn Scali, you play really, really well.  Awesome stuff man. 

Nice guitar too. When they first came out, I didn't like them; I thought they looked disproportionate. Now, I'm pissed I didn't buy one earlier.


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## Scali (Mar 15, 2009)

Thanks, glad you all liked the guitar, and the video 

I've now replaced the switch and some of the wiring aswell, and polished up the frets. These guitars really are monsters.
I thought my S7320 was a pretty damn good guitar, especially given the low price... but this Les Paul is even better. The neck is just fantastic, and the tone is more balanced, it sounds tighter and more controlled.
This guitar is amazing to play, even unplugged. Its sound is so full and resonant, and it has a nice snap to it aswell.


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## Brord (Mar 15, 2009)

harvested said:


> hey guys,
> it's my first post here, but I've been reading the forum for some time now.
> 
> ok so now to the point..
> ...



First thing I had to think about when reading this thread title was Negura Bunget. Absolutely love that band!

Very classy guitar, really nice score. I saw one once, in Switserland, so nowhere near home for me.


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## budda (Mar 15, 2009)

I agree, LP's are win.

I'm jonesin' for my custom singlecut, but the wait will be worth it 

congrats


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## Scali (Mar 15, 2009)

Perhaps we need a singlecut 7-string player group


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## GazPots (Mar 15, 2009)

Yes.


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## ugmung (Mar 15, 2009)

awesome video, great playing. i would love a seven string les paul! jealously...


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## Scali (Mar 16, 2009)

By the way, Gaz... what pickups do you use in yours? I don't think the stockers are bad, so I'm not thinking of replacing them just yet, but I wonder what the options are.
For 6-strings I love whatever Gibson makes... The 490R and 498T in my sixer are great. But I can't get those in 7-string ofcourse. My 7 sounds a lot darker than the 6-string, and has quite a bit more output.
Any idea what kind of pickups the stock ones are anyway? As in, what magnet types used, and what 'common' aftermarket pickup would resemble it most?


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## GazPots (Mar 16, 2009)

Mines getting a dimarzio set of a d sonic in the bridge and an air norton in the neck just cause i like that combo. 

In zebra too. 


I'm not really sure what type of pickup the stocks are but i know a few people who swear by semour duncans in les pauls and my bandmate has SD's in his lp 6'er and it's classic rock-tastic. I'd assume the 7 string stocks are just 7'er versions of the usual epiphone stock pickups in their 6'ers.

They look to be the same style of pickup visually at least.


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## Scali (Mar 16, 2009)

Thing is that there's no such thing as a 'usual Epiphone' 
My sixer is from 1995, made by Samick in Korea.
The sevener is from 2000, made by the Unsung factory in Korea.

The stock pickups in my Samick were crap.
On the other hand, Samick built its guitars with a long tenon. This one doesn't have a long tenon.
The back edge of the body is also rounded on my Samick, the LP7 has a more square edge.
Friend of mine had an LP Custom from Unsung, not sure what year, but probably around 2000. His pickups were pretty darn good.

These pickups are not bad at all, but they're very VERY hot, and sound a lot darker than the Gibbo's in my Samick.
It's hard to determine how much of those sonic differences come from the different construction and the guitar being a 7-string, and how much is a result of different pickup design.
Since the pickups have great clarity and definition, I guess I'll just stick with them. They work well for shredding, good note separation. This guitar also has a really cool grinding attack to it. I like the sound at the very end of my video, when I go for those sorta bluesy licks. The attack there is great.


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## budda (Mar 16, 2009)

I also love the stock pickups in the gibson LP studio's - so what I want to do at some point is get Tim at BKP to wind me a set with the same tonal properties as those pickups. Pricey though.

I was going to get a les paul 7 custom-made... instead I opted for the singlecut 7. It mixes the qualities of the PRS and ESP design along with some custom fun for upper fret access.

It's gonna be the shit. I just have to wait till it's done


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## GazPots (Mar 16, 2009)

Scali said:


> Thing is that there's no such thing as a 'usual Epiphone'
> My sixer is from 1995, made by Samick in Korea.
> The sevener is from 2000, made by the Unsung factory in Korea.
> 
> ...



I'll admit I'm not big on any of Epiphones history or methods regarding what materials and hardware is used for the various models.  I only used the term "usual" as i've actually owned another two 6 string epiphone lp standards and their pickups seemed in the same ballpark. While i didnt do a direct shootout beteen the 7 and the 6'ers i got the vibe they were very similar. 


I take it you looked at the pickup bases to determine if they are still stock and whatnot?

I never really got the "hot" vibe off my lp7's pups. They actualy seemed calmer than what i'm used to (typical high gain stuff) so for me i wanted a change.

The first lp7 i bought actually came with a Blaze in the bridge and that sounded fantastic in there. Gave it a good kick in nuts if you get me. Perhaps this is why i'm upgrading mine to higher output pups. 


All in all, if you are happy with your guitar at the moment then just leave em in. 




Gaz


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## Scali (Mar 16, 2009)

GazPots said:


> I take it you looked at the pickup bases to determine if they are still stock and whatnot?


 
Yes, there was little to see there. No brand or model number or anything. So they look like generic stock pickups to me.



GazPots said:


> I never really got the "hot" vibe off my lp7's pups. They actualy seemed calmer than what i'm used to (typical high gain stuff) so for me i wanted a change.


 
Yea, but that's just the way I like my Les Pauls. They have a really 'round' tone to them, very balanced. Generally I use the Les Pauls for more jazzy/bluesy stuff, ballads and such, and I use an Ibanez or the M3 when things really need to rip.
But ripping on a Les Paul can sound pretty cool aswell.


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## budda (Mar 16, 2009)

yes, yes it can.

*is currently ripping on his LP *


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## CrushingAnvil (Mar 16, 2009)

7 string Epiphone V > Les Paul 7 

but still, sweet score, and nice playing!


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## Mattmc74 (Mar 17, 2009)

Congrats! Looks nice.


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## Scali (Mar 17, 2009)

Mattmc74 said:


> Congrats! Looks nice.


 
Thanks, I'll trade you for the guitar synth set


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## Cucu (May 30, 2009)

Hi! Can you tell me where will I getting one these Epi 7 Standard? I'm from Budapest, Europe and I don't find it any webshop.


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## Demiurge (May 30, 2009)

Cucu said:


> Hi! Can you tell me where will I getting one these Epi 7 Standard? I'm from Budapest, Europe and I don't find it any webshop.



Sorry, but Epiphone doesn't make them anymore. Every so often one or two may pop up on Ebay, but you've gotta grab them fast.

 Looking at those pix again should prompt me to restate that I'm a goddamned idiot for selling my LP7.


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## Cucu (Jun 1, 2009)

What's the LP7's price at now? I said around 750$. Is it too much?


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## Demiurge (Jun 1, 2009)

Cucu said:


> What's the LP7's price at now? I said around 750$. Is it too much?



I got mine for $425-$450USD back in the day (not thaaaat long ago, though).

I think anything over $550USD (if bought from the US) is a bit steep.


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