$99 Epiphone SL - Gutshots
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- Опубліковано 12 січ 2025
- Ryan opens up the Epiphone Les Paul SL to see whats going on inside.
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I still want one so I can mod it to an inch of it's life
im thinking about getting one and doing gfs blade pickups with concentric pots so it would have individual volumes and tones so it would have more tonal similarity to a standard les paul
It has to be pretty lightweight. If your looking to get a Danelectro Look and feel at 1/2 the cost, with some modding this may be the way to do it.
Yep that's what I'm doing
I’m stripping the paint off mine
I think they'll sell more of these to people making projects out of them. I mean. $100 for the guitar. Replace the bridge and tuners. Put a used Tele neck pickup in it with a used Strat bridge pickup. A killswitch or rewire it to have individual volume pots for each pickup to save money. Then essentially for less than $200, I got a EpiCaster. Pull off all kinds of crazy Tom Morello stuff. It seems like a worthy investment
Yep. Throw a couple of stacked humbuckers in it.
Or you can call it a tele-phone.
That little block of wood was the first thing I noticed when you opened it up. And I went through that same thought process about how many of those got through the CNC before someone figured out they missed that screw. I'm sure it was in final assembly before someone noticed and some poor guy got stuck gluing all those blocks in.
Dane Nichols I bet it was one guys only job for weeks to cut little pieces of wood and glue them in. Poor guy.
Last new guitar I bought. I removed 2 layers of plastic covering in the pick guard.
Hey Ryan, I'll check my SL for the rout 'fudge'. Can't do it until at least next week, scheduling. Good content!
A guitar and a screw - every man's dream.
Can I get some Bourbon for afterwards?
It looks like they decided the pickguard needed another screw after they'd routed the bodies. If you look at the pictures on the Sweetwater website, the guitars are all without that screw near the bridge. The rout matches the original pictures.
I've got one on order in the UK. £89! Awesome value. Really liking the content.
Dawsons. It's due to arrive in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to it.
That's a pretty good and clean rout. Plenty of room to upgrade to full size pots and a better switch. Also, a lot of room to go to a larger pickup, like a P90.
I'm not a fan of the baby pots in any event, but since everything is mounted to the pick guard, all can be replaced with upgrades without a lot of hassle. Great modding platform.
It's 2022, I just did that, bought the newer MM which is the SL, and put Lindy Fralin p90's and better wiring and pots in, and it now sounds like a classic 50's Les Paul, cool jazz, chimey when 2 pu, and classic bridge sound, and fun to play, and cost under $500, and had fun doing it.
@@michaeld.mcclish Yep - you are the MAN!
Well done; great guitar, and you saved a bunch of money, and have the satisfaction of a job that turned out great.
The more I see videos about this guitar, the more I want one just for the sake of having a real oddball, cheap Les Paul that's more like a Strat.
I used to own an SL and it also had the little extra piece of wood pointed out at 5:44. Really odd choice on Epi's part.
I have a yellow one, I'm about to mod and put some single coil sized humbuckers in. This video was useful to see what I might be dealing with inside, without having to destring mine. Cheers.
That bare spot where there’s no pickguard between the neck and bridge pickup looks like the perfect place to route out for a humbucker or P-90 in the middle position!
My Special II came with a free washer on the underside of the neck pickup. Almost seems like they maybe do it on purpose
My PG is the same with the extra piece of wood unpainted.I'm sure they will sort it out on the next run on the CNC setup.
It almost looks like you could mount some p-90's in there .. but wow looks like you could also make it a 2 vol/2 tone control setup in there.
I was thinking the same thing
I'm thinking a P-90/Mini Hum/Maybe Filtertron should fit, if so want. If not, meh.
I was thinking stacked knobs with a killswitch, coil tap, phase switch or any combo of the three
It comes with two layers of plastic on the pickguard. One to remove if it needs to when the guitar arrives in stock and another for when the owner decides to remove it. So convenient when the hardware is mounted over it.
These come with two layers of plastic protector. One from the plastic manufacturer- one from the guitar factory.
Joshua Crain oh good, I'm not going crazy then
Same, I had peeled mine off but still looked odd so just checked after watching this, theres 2!
Weird about that pickguard mount addition, I bet they fixed that easily on their CNC machines and only the very first run will have that. Still... huh.
Alec J I was gonna say the same thing.
I was wondering if they tried to get away with a knotty piece of wood and it went wrong.
Alec J n
You probably do remember taking the plastic off. I just bought a new pickguard for my strat and I took the plastic cover off and later while I’m putting on the pickups, I see something peeling. I thought I had chipped the pickguard but it was just another plastic peel layer
Another use for Altoid tins, put your screws and such in it when disassembling your pickguard.
Noooo Ryan! That screw is fundamental to the structure and tone of that pickup!!!!
Santiago Martin lol, what if it is. What if it sounds totally different now?
60 Cycle Hum lmao
I once had an Indonesian made Höfner Galaxy Bass, which came with even two glued in chunks of wood, to hold the pickguard screws properly.
I have that drill. Bought it in 2009 and it's still on 1 of the 2 original batteries. The other went dead about 3 or 4 years after I bought it.
GC owed me a C note so I just took one of these off the shelve and took it home. It's really a very good guitar for the price. It's an Epiphone and they've been making better guitars than the parent company for decades now. It sounds great and plays very good. I set mine up for slide work which is to say some heavier gauge strings and I raised the action just a touch. The single coil ceramic picks up provide a nice bright clean sound for slide. For the money it's a good guitar. If you want PRS quality, go spend 3000.
You can install 2 hot rails and 2 extra switches for coil splitting. I'd like to get one of these and try some Wilkinson pickups and a Gotoh Buzz Bridge..
I love Epiphone. But my SG-400 Pro wouldn't give this SL the time of the day, and my EJ-200 would turn its back lol
You're such a nice guy, Ryan. Keep up with the nice shirts.
Looking at newer pics of this guitar, it looks like they eliminated that particular pickguard screw altogether. Lol! I guess it was easier to tell the pickguard guys to not drill that hole than to fix the CNC program!
Mine had some high frets that I will take care of. I also ordered a new bridge (Wilkinson wraparound for $20) because that stock one was so cheap that the strings started to cut grooves in it, and not in the right places. Got some new tuners for it as well. Contemplating putting some pickups but the ones I'm thinking about will cost more than twice as much as the guitar, but the whole reason I got it is cause it looks cool and reminds me of a melody maker. Pickups I'm thinking about are the Seymour Duncan P90 version of the melody maker pickups.
Cool video... I still can't seeing me buy one but it's a neat little guitar to check out.
Put your kill switch in the existing switch hole and then cut a slot to fit a 4-way Telecaster blade switch for neck, parallel, bridge, and series humbucker.
Yes, every SL has the same chunk of wood inside.
Really ... Wow 😅😅😅
Mark my works - in 30 years time those early models with the extra wood “pick up mounting” will be highly sought after and fetch thousands of dollars ;-)
Looks like the template to route the cavity is too big so they had to glue a scrap in by the lower bridge post so they could affix the pick guard... that's shoddy.
*He noticed it too.*
honestly it seems like you're the only person making vids abt this rn and that's annoying but seriously good on you these are some great videos
Probably because the first ones out of the factory are just now being shipped out. I got my Ebony SL the day before Ryan did - but I am still learning how to hook everything up to make decent videos, planning the content, and practicing riffs so I don't fumble (as much).
Ryan has a head start on me in video production experience, but I don't see it as a competition. More are coming, it takes time for n00bs like me to get past the learning curve, which I told someone on my channel looks like a right angle at the moment.
Keep up the great work, Ryan!
Right angles are ok! It's when it becomes a 180 you gotta worry...
Felt like they should have gone with P90s. I wonder if they would fit.
Some pickguards actually have several layers of plastic! My Jazzmaster had the same thing; had me completely confused for a moment.
i wondered why you changed the strings before taking the pickguard off
I think a short scale fender style neck would be a cool mod
There were two layers of plastic on mine.
I'd like to get this in all 6 finishes eventually and trick them all out differently. Just got one in this same finish. Being as I bought one out of a fresh batch I'm curious as to whether they've corrected the routing issue to accommodate that pickguard screw. I'll know soon enough lol.
ive been seeing pictures that show a corrected route on the new ones.
And at only 99 dollars it means they are still priced at twice what they are actually worth.
You had removed the plastic covering the pick-ups before your sound test, yes ?
This guy gives me ASMR. I love this guy
I've seen worse routing mistakes. I have an Aliexpress tele (bought secondhand) with some of the roughest, most inept routing imagineable. I had to add a chunk of wood (similar to what the epi factory did on yours) to mount the control plate properly. Pickup routes were oversize and very irregular...overall, the SL don't look that bad in comparison.
Jeff Hatcher with the exception of the little bit of wood I actually like the route on the sl. Very utilitarian
Worst routing ever award goes to my "Spectrum" Strat copy. Hands down.
I ordered a cherry burst one from MF and should have it next month. Thats why I am enjoying watching and learning from you. What about an adjustable bridge and moving the stop tail down?
Joe Allen stop tails and bridges use different sized screws installed in different ways. It's possible to convert it to a full tune o matic set up but it won't be pretty.
I love firewood when it has wires inside.
This cheapy looks great! As far as I can see the manufacturer used Shielded Cable!! and that is more than there is in a 1k Fender strat. lol. Further the wood is Paulownia. That is is wood from a fast growing tree. It is very lightweight and very resonant. Fender uses this in a high quality Tele. I have a few strats with paulownia body's and I love them. The only bad thing of Paulownia is that it is very soft! In my strats I glued some beech wood pieces in it to get enough strength for the bridge screws. So I think that is the strange kind of wood that is sticking out. To give more strength to the bridge screw. Unfortunately the pups are ceramic. Clean very nice but with some overdrive too aggressive. Maybe I will buy one and give it a good mod. Thanks for sharing this.
Great video, as usual!
My first electric in the 90's was a black no-name strat, which had no tone and no tuning stability, real junk. It cost me $100 used, which was a lot more money than it is today. It's not a bad time to start playing guitar. Back then entry-level Squiers and Epiphones were far junkier, as I recall.
Well, I can always fit hot rail pickups in that thing but I wonder are those pickup routs wide enough to accommodate P-90's?
nope
Be nice to see if a humbucker will fit in the body rout.
akc5150 A mini humbucker or strat sized humbucker would work
So these are actually just Melody makers with bolt on necks? Cool!
My SL does not have that little glued piece...it was done properly
It's a 2017
The routing is much cleaner on newer epiphones these days.
pickup route almost looks big enough for mini humbuckers
KEK don't give me any ideas
get a cup or an old ashtray for the small screws.
Would a set of P90s fit in the cavitys under the scratchboard? And would that mod make Any sense at all...🤔😉
0:46 Riotous applause!
60 Cycle Hum - Do you know if the neck is the same as the Epiphone junior. Would that fit an Epi jr bolt-on neck pocket?
I love your reviews
Thanks!
please swap out the pickups and give it one of those awesome arcade buttons !
Great looking guitar. Too bad about those tuners. Fret leveling is a must nowadsys. A good thing to learn.
do you think this could fit dano lipstick pickups?
I want a mod platform and I'm torn between this or an M2,both crappy components but I still gravitate more on an M2 :/
the M2 is a better playing/feeling guitar, is it $400 better playing? maybe not, its kind of subjective.
60 Cycle Hum yup that's my same thought, thanks 4 replying and also big thumbs up on the vids 👍👍👍
LSTNR thanks! Yes I saw an m2 today wow they really dropped the ball with quality, now I'm more on a Mexican strat or an used Melody Maker, sub 800 bucks range :/
LSTNR well we all hoped it would be a bargain and there we go lol and yessssss that's my new plan, for now I'm super hooked on a fender teleacustic that I bought for 200 bucks, I dunno why they're so unheard of and they're weird but cool
R D I had a M2, it’s built very well but the tuners are trash, they sometimes hold tune, very very strange tuners, the selector switch was not working properly, and the action was a bit high. But the guitar itself is built good and smells great. It also looked like they dropped it a couple of times while being made. There was two places on the body that was pressed in on the sides, it wasn’t a big deal but noticeable.
There was a wire that came from the tone pot and disappeared into a hole into the body of the guitar. Where was it going?
It is a ground wire going to the bridge stud.
It's a cheap axe but it looks great. I think they'll sell shit loads of them. It looks like the sort of guitar I could get on with providing the neck doesn't flex. Good news is it's a bolt on mahogany so it should be sturdy enough. If not I won't but one but other than that I will.
I can see dogear P90's going in one of these in the future
those would surely poke through the edge of the pickguard sideways.
try a single sized humbucker
i have a gfs hot rail laying around, i should put it in there
Can I fit a hummbucker in the bridge pickup?
Maybe the extra screw was there for tone enhancement
this would be a great guitar to mod and mess around with... just like my squier bullet.
A suggestion: next time you do something like this, get a coffee cup or something similar to hold the screws. Much less chance of losing them that way.
please do more guitar gutshots!
Lots of room for mods!!! Worth $200 in my opinion. Hope that extra piece of wood has some Jimi Hendrix mojo haha
Hey man, great videos and facial expressions. Is it possible for you to do the same thing to the Green Duo Sonic guitar? I’m interested in getting one but I’m wondering about the pickups and the overall build quality.
I already returned it :-( I thought the build quality on the outside was very nice though. similar to any other MIM fender. I'm sure someone else out there has gut shots of that model.
Thanks
What's up with the dino pickguard
think It'd be possible to shave the bridge pickup slot out and put a Humbucker in it?? almost looks wide enough hah
Cody Robbins it would be a tight fit in the pickguard, but it could be done.
ive been eyeing one. planned on changing the pickguard some so the adjustments wouldnt bother me! cant wait to see what you do to yours!
Would removing the ground wire require resoldering if I were to put in a different loaded pickguard?
of course.
but you know what i'd recommend?
cover the cavity with aluminum or copper foil (just make sure it's the same as the pickguard, al and cu are incompatible metals - they corrode eachother). that will do wonders to cure hum.
then solder the ground wire from the bridge to the inside of the cavity. when you put the pickguard in place the foils will contact eachother and ground the whole assembly.
and when you need to take the guard off you can just place it aside as there's no longer any (prone to failure by yanking) wires connecting it to the guitar.
kinda wish they made a left handed version
Hello, I have a little technical question. I'm considering switching the pickups to some stacked coils, and I wonder if I'm gonna have to change the whole electronic or if I can just change the pickups. Thank you very much for all your work !
I'm not a pro, but I just did the new MM, and put in Fralin p90's, new wiring w. CTS pots, paper/oil cap, 50's style wiring, and a new pickguard so everything is complete. I just take out the old setup and put in the new one. Do the wiring, the pots in the SL/MM are really cheap, as are the pickups. I hate the sound of the stock pickups. Now I have a 50's Les Paul minus the $$$$ cost.
They dont have enough screws on that pickguard
Mine had two plastic sheets as well
Do a "what's inside a epiphone standard plus top pro"!!
I can see a revolt movement against Gibson's ever increasing prices in buying these cheapos and upgrading and modifying them to no end!
Are you plabning to replace the pickups?
Looks like a fun guitar to mod
So i take it in the middle position the pickups are wired in series
Parallel - both pickups are wired to a traditional toggle switch.
Do you think that route would be big enough for a mini-hum or a p90?
Chris Morgan maybe a mini Hum, I'd be surprised if a p-90 fit without tweaks
there was definitely two layers of plastic on the pickguard...you're not imaging things.
I'm thinking sustainiac pickup in neck
will some mini humbucker fit in the routing?
Get some single coil sized Humbuckers instead
Wesley Zimmerman yeah i really thought about it,but as far as style and sound this with some mini humbucker would be rad.
sir what's the best pickup for this guitar?
I can't tell if the body is made of plywood; anyone know?
Is it possible to put 2 p90 in there?
not too much wood to support that bridge post
Haha! "Power tools are a way to make bigger mistakes, faster".
Les Paul would sit in his grave up and scream if he knew about or saw this.
he would be like 'YEEEE HAWWWWW!!!!!" have you seen his personal guitars? he loved hack jobs.
@@60CycleHumcast couldn't agree more
You sir, have the perfect beard.
Would i be able to replace those pickups with lipstick tube pickups
otis debear Depends on which ones you get. The original Danelectro pups are slightly larger than strat pups. Fender made a surf strat and had custom Strat sized lipsticks. Seymour Duncan makes them and the original Danelectro size. Now, when you go to look them up, be SPECIFIC. SD has them titled so you can't mix them up. One says Danelectro and the other says Strat. Don't forget it
Wesley Zimmerman thank you my guy 👌❤️