I’ve been playing on and off for about 15 years. My main electric is an Epiphone Les Paul Goth, which I’ve had for about 12 years. Now discontinued. I saw a review online where forum dwellers were slating it. On the other hand, I love it in and out. Like Harry Potter, I would say really the guitar chooses the player, in a way. Whatever you play, enjoy it :)
Hey Lee, all of us here in Commentville send our love and best wishes to you, your good lady and the expanding clan. Congratulations ! And please consider naming your new youngling Miku.
Miku? As a middle name, yea. Gotta consider naming her Korg for her proper first name. Great name for a future overlord of the world is the name Korg. I can hear it now. "All Hail Lord Korg!" Korg Miku Anderton, just some food for thought. Might want to be thoughtful about giving her a time out growing up though. When she takes over all of creation it might be her turn to give you a time out, in the Pit or Misery! DILLY DILLY!
The reason they always use a good amp when doing a demo of a guitar is to eliminate a variable. So you KNOW the amp is solid, you KNOW Rob and Cap can play, so if there is any flaw in the tone it’s almost certainly on the guitar.
To answer all the posts about this being a great guitar to modify, I just don’t agree! You could easily spend £100-200 on mods, and you’d still essentially have a guitar that plays like an £89 guitar! If you want a mod project then I’d suggest looking for something that needs some TLC on eBay - like a used Classic Vibe Squier or Yamaha Pacifica. I think this guitar is just fun for what it is - a great looking, ok playing & fun sounding guitar for only £89.
I agree on the classic vibes. those are great to mod and they actually sound great as they are. the main thing to upgrade on all squires is the bridge. they too flimsy and light. great playing guitars though
Aesthetically these do offer something a bit different however, so for some people it's worth modding and creating a unique guitar that fits their style. And let's not forget that you can mod on a budget too with the secondhand market available.
CaptAnderton I 100% agree. To me, this guitar would be an excellent: 'My 1st Guitar'. School knock around. Last resort gig back-up. Rehearsal studio banger.
Received mine yesterday, in Vintage Sunburst. Here is what I think: These guitars, like most well made epiphone entry-level models, need nothing more than fresh strings and a good setup. But it goes beyond just slapping strings on. Lot's of noobs complain about how the tuners suck, and how quick they were to replace them. Some already had the replacements before the guitar! If you string up using the locking method, demonstrated by Gary Brawer (look him up), you can enjoy the most budget guitars without having to replace a thing (as long as they are well built guitars, like Epiphones are). With the locking method of stringing, lubricating the nut with a pencil, and properly stretching the strings, I can keep it perfectly in tune, no slipping at the tuner or buzzing or problems with the nut. Everything works as it should. The wraparound bridge, another common hasty replacement, works perfectly as well. I use 9-42 D'Addario strings and play blues, jazz, classic rock and alternative rock and the pickups will play any of these genres well. The pickups, which you can adjust (modders rarely do this, but they are quick to throw in replacements which they still do not adjust smh) sound great and remind me of a telecaster tone, although sometimes it sounds like p90s. Also, I wish I could share a picture of the frets: they are medium jumbo and perfectly installed, it would seem the neck was pulled from a much more expensive Epiphone, that's how nice they are. I polished them and they look great, no fret spout or sharp frets as reported by other people when they first came out. I put chrome telecaster knobs on it and I am happy with it stock. Bottom line: get one and enjoy it for what it is. If you are a modder, at least spend time with it before throwing unnecessary components that will take time and money away when you can be enjoying this. If you have some decent amps, tube or not, or modeling amps, you will find many great tones with this cheap but killer ax. I got the satin finish and it is a resonant joy to play.
So the guitars aren't great but I will say there was a looseness and childish kind of fun to the playing. There is something to be said for that I think
I know this is late but I couldn't agree more. I have a pretty decent collection, but I just love cheap guitars. I'm going to order one of these tomorrow, I just need to decide on a color
Yeah, the frets on the one i got were like a roller coaster, the 3rd 5th and 8th all needed to be leveled to be playable, and half the frets higher than the 12th are still buzz city. Its still a fun guitar though and I've been having fun working on it. If you are going to learn to work on frets, might as well start on a $99 guitar.
I reckon if you plugged this into a Boss Katana of some description, high gain and heavy on the bass and played some dirty punk through it this guitar would be perfect. It's not a guitar for heavy metal and insane shredded solos, it's a guitar for that gritty early Green Day, Nirvana, Jack White sort of deliberately cheap and harsh tone.
True enough, and that's the kind of stuff most people start out playing anyway is some basic 3 or 4 chord rock songs with some distortion and jamming along with the album. A kid can have endless amounts of fun doing that, especially with a buddy who also plays guitar or maybe a drummer or something, that's how we all start after all.
I own one. Of my 10 guitars, it's my most played. I got a good one. Plays great out of the box. No bad fret ends, action is nice, sounds good acoustically. Changed the bridge pickup, but didnt need to. I like it. It gets more play than any of my other Epiphones, Squires, or LTDs. :::EDIT::: I own a cherry burst, which isn't gloss finish like the solid coloured models.
Got one of these bad boys and I’m going to have some fun lol Something about cheap guitars is that I don’t worry so much with damaging it or whatnot and Epiphone makes pretty good guitars even at this price point. The quality of beginner guitars nowadays is crazy
Lee's playing on this episode is just fantastic. I don't listen to a lot of guitar music with big long solos or instrumentals, and I normally skip through the jams a little, but I actually stuck it out for a while listening to the playing on this one.
Everybody should have one of these! When I were a lad playable guitars started at about £100. 1970. £2000ish today... Gilmore could record his next album on one of these, and no-one would ever know...
I'd be interested to see one of these that has been modified with all new hardware and electronics vs a LP shape guitar of similar cost. Epiphone Les Paul standard is £399... You can get a lot of upgrades for £310.
When I taught mobile music stuff at Apple, I bought one of these and an iRig to show how folks could spend around $250 and use free GarageBand tools to lay tracks, learn, etc right on their phone. Great little guitar for the price, especially with how light it is. It gets a lot more play at home than I figured it would.
i recently bought the same sunset yellow sl and it is absolutely amazing. its a great base for a guitar that can be customized to a number of variations. yes the frets are a little unlevel but get yourself a damn file and you cant go wrong. i personally love it for blues and funk.
Not for sure but SL could possibly mean "Student Line".Congrat's to you and the Mrs on you're addition to the family Lee.Have a great holiday season to all of the Andertons crew and families.
I really enjoy these videos and I love the Anderton's channel but what is the point of plugging a £89 guitar into a £2000 Friedman rig? People looking to purchase this guitar are not going to have a two thousand pound boutique amp standing around. Next time, could you maybe use a more realistic setup like a 50W Boss Katana or something that is below £500?
Agreed! The amps were the first thing I looked for in the video. I've watched a couple of other vids that demo the SL where more "reasonable" amps were used, and the tone was not impressive. I also don't see why they stretched this demo to 24 minutes. They pretty much summed it up by the 9:00 mark. Yep, it's a cheap guitar with cheap components. You'll get what you paid for. You can get a decent used Ibanez GIO for the same price and get twice the guitar.
This is the problem with reviewing electric guitars. Is it fair to review 4000 pounds and 90 pounds guitars on the same amps? Maybe expensive guitars through expensive amps and cheap guitars on cheap amps? Or maybe the other way around? It's hard to tell but you have to choose some way. In my opinion reviewing a cheap guitar using high end amp is fair cause it shows how much sound you can squeeze out of it. It's obvious that it will sound worse on a cheaper amp such as any guitar would. Similarly, when you review acoustic guitar you should use the best mic you can get to record both a cheap and an expensive, no matter if the mic is much more expensive than the cheap guitar.
The point probably is to get a good representation of what the guitar sounds like. A high headroom, defined amp will give you all the sound details of the guitar, good and bad, a shitty amp will sound like shit no matter what is plugged into it. Plus, they are using the sort of amp that they use on most of their videos so there is a reference point for comparison.
I don't know if it is "fair" or "unfair". I just think that using a boutique amp to review sub 100 pound guitars is not going to be a good representation of what the guitar is going to sound like for 99% of people buying it. Similarly, it would be beyond idiotic to plug a PRS Custom 24 into a Harley Benton CG-10x.
Upgrade path for one of thes: Roller bridge, Bigsby trem, locking tuners and stacked/hum cancelling pickups. If you add these up going from the cheapest Amazon prices you would pay £63.95 for the lot. I challenge Chappers and Captain to do this mod with one of those Epiphones and post the results in a review video.
Awesome to see Lee implement what he learned from his lessons from Pete and Ariel. Your solos are so much more fitted to the backtracks now! Also congrats on your new child!
Mycatis42 I'd still do katana because with that you don't need pedals or anything to have a rig,for strict budget and want to hold onto it for awhile I think the features on the katana would totally keep a kid exploring in creativity but I don't trust that epi sl much. I don't know how long a kid would want to play it
I remember when they first came out, I immediately said it was a remake of the Melody Maker, and the Epiphone host on FB said it wasn't. Now here it is 2022 and what are they calling them? The Epiphone Melody Maker E1.......I just bought one, and am replacing the electronics with a Lindy Fralin set of P90's, new harness wired for "50's style", and am working on the fret ends and going to put a little rolloff on each side of the fretboard. It's a 43mm nut width, slim 60's style neck, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, poplar body. Not as heavy as mahogany body, but heavier than basswood. I like it. It's going to be my Poor boy's 50's Les Paul Special.
Next time adjust the pickup heights on it first, you'll find out that they are actually very decent sounding pickups. Unfortunately people have never learned how to to do this or use the volume and tone knobs on guitars, they are not just there for looks!
@@socialdef3 I agree to a point. I ended up buying one for a project. The pu's weren't bad, but. I completely replaced the pickguard, pu's, wiring, and put in 2 Lindy Fralin p90's, CTS 500k pots with paper cap, 50's style wiring, and now I call it my Po'Boy 50's Les Paul. The body is poplar so it is very close to the same weight as mahogany, and the neck is improved, but with 43mm nut width. I was very happy with the changes.
I went to my local guitar shop. Lifted one, played it, bought two of them, yellow and torquise. I've always been a les paul fan but there's something about the sl line.
I got one, I love the thing. I have 7 electric guitars, and it's my most played for an electric other than my vintage 60s Epiphone Olympic. I do plan on some mods eventually when I have time to put some work in, but mine had great action and playability out of the box. It's lightweight and I love the sound and look. I play it DI through a Marshall Class 5 normally. Just gotta play what you like and makes you happy, and mine makes me very happy!
Bastian Besenbeck they gave away epiphone juniors around 2005, 2012-2013 they gave away custom telecaster and 2016 onwards they give away custom epiphone specials. So 2012ish was the best time to get a free guitar from green day
You should do a Anderson's instrumental CD with all the guitarist on it that outdo jam could be called the £ 89 guitar jam for example .thoughts ??????
Or if you spend another £11, you can get the hard tail bullet strat. You get adjustable intonation, and an extra pickup. The nut is pretty nasty though.
Just wanted to say they play fine after you take some time to set them up. And new strings are a must buy if you do buy this guitar. Intonation is adjustable by a screw at both ends of the bridge. I'm honestly impressed for the price of the guitar and the fact the neck was gloss I actually really love this guitar and play it regularly alongside my other few guitars. Has strangely good acoustic resonance.
Epiphone presents the 2017 Les Paul SL™, the most affordable 2-pickup Les Paul ever made with a slim lightweight Poplar body with powerful Epiphone Ceramic pickups...... So Slim Lightweight?
Congratulations Lee! Happy for you. I have a daughter and it's awesome being a daddy. I'm already teaching her guitar among other life skills. She has a squier Stratocaster. I'm researching a cheap Epiphone for myself. Think il go with something a little more higher end than this one lol. Good luck buddy
I just pulled the trigger on a Pacific Blue SL. Excited to have a telecaster sounding LP with a wrap around bridge, rosewood fretboard, 3x3 tuners and 22 frets. Everything the Squier Telecasters are NOT. No finicky saddles to deal with or string through bridge, no maple neck. Sounds great when overdrive, kind of like P90s, clean sounds like a Tele. I love it.
I would have been happy to have a beginner guitar like that one when I started. Beginner guitars back in the 90s were horrible. This is really decent for beginners. Cheap hardware and wood but good build quality.
Just picked one of these up in yellow like Rob had, sanded down the neck so it’s satin instead of the gloss. Playing through my Bugera V22 it sounds great. Only issue was it had one bad feet that I fixed. For $119 it’s a steal, I have 10 guitars and just bought it for fun and I would 100% recommend!
I own one of these in the Heritage Cherry finish... contrary to what Lee said about the bridge, it can be adjusted enough to get the intonation better than an acoustic guitar, and usually you can adjust the action to be very fast... that being said, I have mine adjusted to 5/64th on the top E and 4/64th on the treble E... plays like butter... also, those pickups sound far better than you might expect at first inspection... very full sound, not quite a P90, but fuller than a Fender single coil, and they sound great (albeit there is some hum), but when you select the middle position, they become a huge, fat, juicy, full, rich, wide range humbucker... by tweeking the pickup heights of the front and back, you can dial in an incredible custom humbucker sound of your very own... much more guitar (for yer money) than at first glance... and then there is the finish... mine has the very thin open pore satin finish, and it has already begun to relic in a most pleasing manner along the edges of the guitar... the poplar is quite soft, and will dent in a heartbeat... all in all, a guitar (set up as I have it now) I would hand to any player without cringing...
Come on guys - you're playing them through decent amps. Surely the guitars should be at least slightly matched to their amps. Imagine the disappointment of 14 year old Billy when he gets one for Christmas, plugs it into his 10w fender frontman and it sounds like somebody stepping on a duck. Come on! Play it through something appropriate - maybe a similarly priced amp!
But these are amps they play the expensive guitars through, so now they can compare them. Rob even said they sound good. Put my €3200 Fender CS Strat to a ridiculously cheap amp and it sounds shite.
They’re playing through high end amps to make sure that the amp is not bottlenecking the guitar’s sound. If they were playing through cheap and bad amps, then it doesn’t matter what guitar is being played through it, it will always sound like garbage.
Really appreciate your honest advice, Lee. I fall into the 'intermediate" category you described. Was tempted to buy one to do up just because of the colour... Think I'm going to spend a bit more to get a better quality starting point
But as far as single coil beginner guitars go these have a lot to compete with, especially with squire. Also I feel it is a little unfair to play these guitars through amazing expensive amps. People buying these probably have a budget or no amp.
Part of testing is creating a standardized bench that will not limit the thing you are testing. If you tried this guitar through a Marshall mg10 and recorded it you would not know if it was the guitar or amp cause the good or bad tone. If the amp is good and you still end up with bad tone then the likely deficit is the guitar which then tells you things about its sound.
In regards to the bridge, one could always change it for a wrap around tune-o-matic (yes, those exist). I think it's a good guitar if you wanna try to get into customizing your guitar. It's a good modding platform.
14:22 Good. Because I bought one from a pawn shop for $70 (The thing was basically mint, though, still had the factory strings and even the plastic film over the pickguard), and I'm going to give it to my little sister for Christmas, as her first electric guitar.
I bought one two weeks ago on a whim, feeling like having 6 guitars is better than having 5. It feels pretty cheap honestly, but it sounds alright and plays alright, and if the tuners held it would be super worth the pennies it costs
Well now that you said it. We need to see you guys buy and mod them how you would see fit. Then sign the guitars and give Les Pauls SL's away at the end of the show.
They look like some vintage creation from the early 50's. They have that era's style... hmmmm... I want to make one rusty, banged up and burned. make it look like a guitar in the Fallout video game universe.
I own the yellow one . I bought it from someone that had it worked on for performance wise in a music shop. Not a bad guitar for the price . Its very fun to play with . Well mine is as the tension has been lowered .
I put gibson humbuckers in mine and upgraded the pots, switch, input jack, tuners and bridge. I know how stupid that sounds but honestly it was worth it. They're super lightweight guitars and you can do so much under that pickguard
Unless you're particularly drawn to the design (which I can't see why you would be) the Squier Bullet Strat would probably be a better buy for not much more
For anyone who sees this, know that I thought it was absolutely total crap out of the box and was not even interested in putting on the new bridge, nut, tuners, and strings I'd bought for it ahead of time. A few weeks later, I finally decided I should at least try it out because it wasn't worth it to ship it back to the seller during a pandemic. Holy cow! Changing the nut, bridge, and strings (roughly an extra $50 with shipping) gave me a guitar that I will keep and play, regularly. (I tightened the stock tuners and felt they were holding tune quite well so no new tuners install yet.) So, for $150, it is so worth the parts upgrades and would make a great guitar for anyone, honestly. Yay!
!great video. you guys entertained me. I found one of these at goodwill for 50$. I put a tune-a-matic style wraparound bridge on it. It's fun to play and sounds cool.
Congratulations Lee! Great video guys, but yeah it may have been better using more affordable amps.. on the other hand, an idea for a video: you and Rob (or another presenter) choose a few of your own guitars and a few of their guitars and talk about why you liked them and what you were shopping for at the time in terms of price range, if it was planned in the first place!
My first Guitar I’ve ever bought, I don’t care what people say about them, I love everything about it, especially the sunburst wood on it.
I also think they are pretty eye cat catching, and I own a LP standard from Harley Benton, in case you are wondering
I’ve been playing on and off for about 15 years. My main electric is an Epiphone Les Paul Goth, which I’ve had for about 12 years. Now discontinued. I saw a review online where forum dwellers were slating it. On the other hand, I love it in and out. Like Harry Potter, I would say really the guitar chooses the player, in a way.
Whatever you play, enjoy it :)
i agree carter
Good for you. Obviously, it’s about the musician, not the guitar.
i agree carter
Hey Lee, all of us here in Commentville send our love and best wishes to you, your good lady and the expanding clan. Congratulations ! And please consider naming your new youngling Miku.
Yes Miku Anderton!
Miku? As a middle name, yea. Gotta consider naming her Korg for her proper first name.
Great name for a future overlord of the world is the name Korg.
I can hear it now. "All Hail Lord Korg!"
Korg Miku Anderton, just some food for thought.
Might want to be thoughtful about giving her a time out growing up though. When she takes over all of creation it might be her turn to give you a time out, in the Pit or Misery! DILLY DILLY!
It's just perfect.
2nd Lt. Miku Anderton maybe?
"Hey man, we're gonna play some guitar. Wanna come?"
The reason they always use a good amp when doing a demo of a guitar is to eliminate a variable. So you KNOW the amp is solid, you KNOW Rob and Cap can play, so if there is any flaw in the tone it’s almost certainly on the guitar.
To answer all the posts about this being a great guitar to modify, I just don’t agree! You could easily spend £100-200 on mods, and you’d still essentially have a guitar that plays like an £89 guitar! If you want a mod project then I’d suggest looking for something that needs some TLC on eBay - like a used Classic Vibe Squier or Yamaha Pacifica. I think this guitar is just fun for what it is - a great looking, ok playing & fun sounding guitar for only £89.
Maybe a fret job and an action adjustment would make it play better
I agree on the classic vibes. those are great to mod and they actually sound great as they are. the main thing to upgrade on all squires is the bridge. they too flimsy and light. great playing guitars though
I’d put a set of heavy strings on, tune it to open E and use it as a slide cheapy.
Aesthetically these do offer something a bit different however, so for some people it's worth modding and creating a unique guitar that fits their style. And let's not forget that you can mod on a budget too with the secondhand market available.
CaptAnderton
I 100% agree. To me, this guitar would be an excellent:
'My 1st Guitar'.
School knock around.
Last resort gig back-up.
Rehearsal studio banger.
Received mine yesterday, in Vintage Sunburst. Here is what I think:
These guitars, like most well made epiphone entry-level models, need nothing more than fresh strings and a good setup.
But it goes beyond just slapping strings on. Lot's of noobs complain about how the tuners suck, and how quick they were to replace them. Some already had the replacements before the guitar!
If you string up using the locking method, demonstrated by Gary Brawer (look him up), you can enjoy the most budget guitars without having to replace a thing (as long as they are well built guitars, like Epiphones are).
With the locking method of stringing, lubricating the nut with a pencil, and properly stretching the strings, I can keep it perfectly in tune, no slipping at the tuner or buzzing or problems with the nut. Everything works as it should. The wraparound bridge, another common hasty replacement, works perfectly as well. I use 9-42 D'Addario strings and play blues, jazz, classic rock and alternative rock and the pickups will play any of these genres well. The pickups, which you can adjust (modders rarely do this, but they are quick to throw in replacements which they still do not adjust smh) sound great and remind me of a telecaster tone, although sometimes it sounds like p90s. Also, I wish I could share a picture of the frets: they are medium jumbo and perfectly installed, it would seem the neck was pulled from a much more expensive Epiphone, that's how nice they are. I polished them and they look great, no fret spout or sharp frets as reported by other people when they first came out. I put chrome telecaster knobs on it and I am happy with it stock.
Bottom line: get one and enjoy it for what it is. If you are a modder, at least spend time with it before throwing unnecessary components that will take time and money away when you can be enjoying this. If you have some decent amps, tube or not, or modeling amps, you will find many great tones with this cheap but killer ax. I got the satin finish and it is a resonant joy to play.
@Jan Hammler Thank you! I still enjoy this guitar, it is basically Telecaster tones all day in a nice LP package!
So the guitars aren't great but I will say there was a looseness and childish kind of fun to the playing. There is something to be said for that I think
John Osborne hang on... If you're John Osborne, then who am I? "Stops copies me stops copies me"
John Osborne
Sharoooon!!!
Ozzy is my father
John Osborne
Is there any more space for Osborne #3, lads?
ua-cam.com/video/7sB0HphvCSs/v-deo.html
I know this is late but I couldn't agree more. I have a pretty decent collection, but I just love cheap guitars. I'm going to order one of these tomorrow, I just need to decide on a color
i'm good and whelmed thank you
Gee, I hope someone's come to dig you out by now...
Or rather flip you back over?
Where did you folks learn your English....Australia?
@@truthsRsung Whelm: engulf, submerge, or bury (someone or something)
That username isn't helping...
Yeah, the frets on the one i got were like a roller coaster, the 3rd 5th and 8th all needed to be leveled to be playable, and half the frets higher than the 12th are still buzz city. Its still a fun guitar though and I've been having fun working on it. If you are going to learn to work on frets, might as well start on a $99 guitar.
Lee, that outro jam was one of the best i have heard you play! So tasteful. Great work man!
God damn Captain, your playing with this backing track was absolutely fantastic!
I was watching his 2015 vids and he was atrocious. And he got real good. Big inspiration for me to be honest
Christian Damm I was thinking that as well.Great backing track and great playing too.
He has always been good..
The black pickguard on the burst makes the pickups look like P90's at distance.
Mike Roeder that exactly why I was fooled yet impressed to get that guitar in my exchange for BC Rich Beast.
...they're not P90s?
@@jamesdereybekill755 single coils :(
I just bought one and I love it. I am just beginning to learn to play and this is my first guitar. No complaints especially for the price.
I reckon if you plugged this into a Boss Katana of some description, high gain and heavy on the bass and played some dirty punk through it this guitar would be perfect. It's not a guitar for heavy metal and insane shredded solos, it's a guitar for that gritty early Green Day, Nirvana, Jack White sort of deliberately cheap and harsh tone.
Very good point, amigo. I could imagine some White Stripes and Nirvana tunes on this.
That’s what I was thinking
Chris Preece You say "dirty punk" then name Green Day and Nirvana. Ha.
And yet everyone understood his point, he got 33 likes at time of writing and you got none...
True enough, and that's the kind of stuff most people start out playing anyway is some basic 3 or 4 chord rock songs with some distortion and jamming along with the album. A kid can have endless amounts of fun doing that, especially with a buddy who also plays guitar or maybe a drummer or something, that's how we all start after all.
Do a mod challenge with these for £200 then put them up against the price equivalent guitar.
Zippy yes yes yes please
Great idea!!! I find setup and pickups can do wonders.
What exactly is "better spec"?
KhronX expensive hardware.
Kinda figured... "Expensive" not necessarily meaning "of better quality" though, right?
I own one. Of my 10 guitars, it's my most played. I got a good one. Plays great out of the box. No bad fret ends, action is nice, sounds good acoustically. Changed the bridge pickup, but didnt need to. I like it. It gets more play than any of my other Epiphones, Squires, or LTDs. :::EDIT::: I own a cherry burst, which isn't gloss finish like the solid coloured models.
These things are so cheap maybe you guys could grab two off the shelf and have another Mod Challenge
I second that. Brilliant shout.
Yes, this
This would be awesome.
Or, how about a epiphone sl vs a squier mustang, the two most popular budget guitars of 2017.
I was sure that you were going to end that sentence with sword fight 😂
Is it me or Lee's playing is drastically improving? Keep on rockin'!
Got one of these bad boys and I’m going to have some fun lol Something about cheap guitars is that I don’t worry so much with damaging it or whatnot and Epiphone makes pretty good guitars even at this price point. The quality of beginner guitars nowadays is crazy
Lee's playing on this episode is just fantastic. I don't listen to a lot of guitar music with big long solos or instrumentals, and I normally skip through the jams a little, but I actually stuck it out for a while listening to the playing on this one.
So rob has found a guitar that doesn't 'play great'
Even Rob's endless positivity has its limits haha
At the end of the day they have to sell something so take any Andertons “review” with a grain of salt
MC Brodz they’re gonna sell shit no matte what bruh
@@mcbrodz1663 But I bet they'd rather sell something expensive
Everybody should have one of these! When I were a lad playable guitars started at about £100. 1970. £2000ish today... Gilmore could record his next album on one of these, and no-one would ever know...
The Captain plays some really nice riffs on this video, getting better all the time Cap'n 😊
I'd be interested to see one of these that has been modified with all new hardware and electronics vs a LP shape guitar of similar cost. Epiphone Les Paul standard is £399... You can get a lot of upgrades for £310.
Actually it's the amps that make everything sound good.
halosunday jujujjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjdjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjdjjjjjjogogggggggggggogooooog
When I taught mobile music stuff at Apple, I bought one of these and an iRig to show how folks could spend around $250 and use free GarageBand tools to lay tracks, learn, etc right on their phone. Great little guitar for the price, especially with how light it is. It gets a lot more play at home than I figured it would.
Mine arrives tomorrow. I can't wait to hate it! I also can't wait to be incredibly impressed. A mixed bag of surprises!
I JUST GOT ONE, FOR THE MONEY, YOU CAN'T GO WRONG, I LOVE MINE, A GREAT DEMO, THANKS, COUSIN FIGEL
i recently bought the same sunset yellow sl and it is absolutely amazing. its a great base for a guitar that can be customized to a number of variations. yes the frets are a little unlevel but get yourself a damn file and you cant go wrong. i personally love it for blues and funk.
Epiphone’s $99 version of the 1960’s Gibson Melody Maker. I love them.
Right? Soon as I saw this I thought damn, I hope they make a sub-200 dollar version that isn't for newbies, these are heaps cooler than a LP Jr
Not for sure but SL could possibly mean "Student Line".Congrat's to you and the Mrs on you're addition to the family Lee.Have a great holiday season to all of the Andertons crew and families.
I really enjoy these videos and I love the Anderton's channel but what is the point of plugging a £89 guitar into a £2000 Friedman rig? People looking to purchase this guitar are not going to have a two thousand pound boutique amp standing around. Next time, could you maybe use a more realistic setup like a 50W Boss Katana or something that is below £500?
Agreed! The amps were the first thing I looked for in the video. I've watched a couple of other vids that demo the SL where more "reasonable" amps were used, and the tone was not impressive. I also don't see why they stretched this demo to 24 minutes. They pretty much summed it up by the 9:00 mark. Yep, it's a cheap guitar with cheap components. You'll get what you paid for. You can get a decent used Ibanez GIO for the same price and get twice the guitar.
This is the problem with reviewing electric guitars. Is it fair to review 4000 pounds and 90 pounds guitars on the same amps? Maybe expensive guitars through expensive amps and cheap guitars on cheap amps? Or maybe the other way around? It's hard to tell but you have to choose some way.
In my opinion reviewing a cheap guitar using high end amp is fair cause it shows how much sound you can squeeze out of it. It's obvious that it will sound worse on a cheaper amp such as any guitar would.
Similarly, when you review acoustic guitar you should use the best mic you can get to record both a cheap and an expensive, no matter if the mic is much more expensive than the cheap guitar.
The point probably is to get a good representation of what the guitar sounds like. A high headroom, defined amp will give you all the sound details of the guitar, good and bad, a shitty amp will sound like shit no matter what is plugged into it.
Plus, they are using the sort of amp that they use on most of their videos so there is a reference point for comparison.
the thing about that is, the boss katana doesnt even sound like a cheap amp anyways
I don't know if it is "fair" or "unfair". I just think that using a boutique amp to review sub 100 pound guitars is not going to be a good representation of what the guitar is going to sound like for 99% of people buying it. Similarly, it would be beyond idiotic to plug a PRS Custom 24 into a Harley Benton CG-10x.
man, you guys are really trying to sell those guitars with that intro. LOVE IT!
SL Shaffordable Light
So Low
Upgrade path for one of thes: Roller bridge, Bigsby trem, locking tuners and stacked/hum cancelling pickups. If you add these up going from the cheapest Amazon prices you would pay £63.95 for the lot. I challenge Chappers and Captain to do this mod with one of those Epiphones and post the results in a review video.
Honestly this is an amazing looking guitar!
Thanks for doing the SL and Lee best wishes on the new little Anderton :)
For the money, it seems like a really fine guitar.
Awesome to see Lee implement what he learned from his lessons from Pete and Ariel. Your solos are so much more fitted to the backtracks now! Also congrats on your new child!
I would love to hear this through a BOSS Katana mini, that would be an insanely cheap rig.
cmdrsocks I say crush 25 instead, as you can be decently loud with that considering the price
Not bad for less than £200!
Mycatis42 I'd still do katana because with that you don't need pedals or anything to have a rig,for strict budget and want to hold onto it for awhile I think the features on the katana would totally keep a kid exploring in creativity but I don't trust that epi sl much. I don't know how long a kid would want to play it
I have the Positive Grid Spark amp and a Mustang IV modeler. Gonna grab one of these SL's and see what happens!
I remember when they first came out, I immediately said it was a remake of the Melody Maker, and the Epiphone host on FB said it wasn't. Now here it is 2022 and what are they calling them? The Epiphone Melody Maker E1.......I just bought one, and am replacing the electronics with a Lindy Fralin set of P90's, new harness wired for "50's style", and am working on the fret ends and going to put a little rolloff on each side of the fretboard. It's a 43mm nut width, slim 60's style neck, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, poplar body. Not as heavy as mahogany body, but heavier than basswood. I like it. It's going to be my Poor boy's 50's Les Paul Special.
Next time adjust the pickup heights on it first, you'll find out that they are actually very decent sounding pickups. Unfortunately people have never learned how to to do this or use the volume and tone knobs on guitars, they are not just there for looks!
@@socialdef3 I agree to a point. I ended up buying one for a project. The pu's weren't bad, but. I completely replaced the pickguard, pu's, wiring, and put in 2 Lindy Fralin p90's, CTS 500k pots with paper cap, 50's style wiring, and now I call it my Po'Boy 50's Les Paul. The body is poplar so it is very close to the same weight as mahogany, and the neck is improved, but with 43mm nut width. I was very happy with the changes.
SL - Slightly Lacklustre?
Congrats and luck with the coming baby !!!
Lee's wife is playing Command & Conquer 2?
I love it😍😍 I'm a newbie just learning. I got the same guitar in the cherry sunburst vintage. God u guys play it so beautifully.
I went to my local guitar shop. Lifted one, played it, bought two of them, yellow and torquise. I've always been a les paul fan but there's something about the sl line.
I got one, I love the thing. I have 7 electric guitars, and it's my most played for an electric other than my vintage 60s Epiphone Olympic. I do plan on some mods eventually when I have time to put some work in, but mine had great action and playability out of the box. It's lightweight and I love the sound and look. I play it DI through a Marshall Class 5 normally. Just gotta play what you like and makes you happy, and mine makes me very happy!
Green Day used to do the 'give a cheap guitar away' thing with squiers
Sam Brenton as far as i know they gave epiphone special or special II guitars away where the changed the bridge PU to a P90
Bastian Besenbeck they gave away epiphone juniors around 2005, 2012-2013 they gave away custom telecaster and 2016 onwards they give away custom epiphone specials. So 2012ish was the best time to get a free guitar from green day
@@pistolgoo imagine liking telecasters 🤢🤮
@@slaterdeflow Imagine being so incompetent and closed minded you not only fail to appreciate teles, but judge those you can’t
@@dr.lyleevans6915 i love teles, i thought it would be obvious i was making a joke
Great playing in this video Capt. Lee!!
You should do a Anderson's instrumental CD with all the guitarist on it that outdo jam could be called the £ 89 guitar jam for example .thoughts ??????
Or you can download the track and record yourself jamming on it? :-)
Where's Andersons.co.uk? I've never heard of it.
Oliver Morton it's in Guilford
gilford
Oliver Morton in the heart of guilfordshire
Loved the Captain's playing in this one!
Or if you spend another £11, you can get the hard tail bullet strat. You get adjustable intonation, and an extra pickup. The nut is pretty nasty though.
These are two of the best sounding guitars you've ever reviewed!
It’s kinda like the Gibson melody maker but in Epiphone
Just wanted to say they play fine after you take some time to set them up. And new strings are a must buy if you do buy this guitar. Intonation is adjustable by a screw at both ends of the bridge. I'm honestly impressed for the price of the guitar and the fact the neck was gloss I actually really love this guitar and play it regularly alongside my other few guitars. Has strangely good acoustic resonance.
Epiphone presents the 2017 Les Paul SL™, the most affordable 2-pickup Les Paul ever made with a slim lightweight Poplar body with powerful Epiphone Ceramic pickups...... So Slim Lightweight?
thats exactly what it stands for
Congratulations Lee! Happy for you. I have a daughter and it's awesome being a daddy. I'm already teaching her guitar among other life skills. She has a squier Stratocaster. I'm researching a cheap Epiphone for myself. Think il go with something a little more higher end than this one lol. Good luck buddy
Plugging a 89 pound guitar into a friedman ^^
They mention that
youre right, wrote the comment before that point in the video
That’s why a great amp is more important
I just pulled the trigger on a Pacific Blue SL. Excited to have a telecaster sounding LP with a wrap around bridge, rosewood fretboard, 3x3 tuners and 22 frets. Everything the Squier Telecasters are NOT. No finicky saddles to deal with or string through bridge, no maple neck. Sounds great when overdrive, kind of like P90s, clean sounds like a Tele. I love it.
10 seconds into this video I knew I was gonna get one!
I would have been happy to have a beginner guitar like that one when I started. Beginner guitars back in the 90s were horrible. This is really decent for beginners. Cheap hardware and wood but good build quality.
The Captain really nailed the playing on this one... 👌
My Friday night regular gig usually ends in a punch up so I'm havin one of these.
They sound fine. That end jam was mighty tasty chaps.
Carry on !
Guitar looks great and sounds decent too,great buy for the money
Just picked one of these up in yellow like Rob had, sanded down the neck so it’s satin instead of the gloss. Playing through my Bugera V22 it sounds great. Only issue was it had one bad feet that I fixed. For $119 it’s a steal, I have 10 guitars and just bought it for fun and I would 100% recommend!
Next year's holiday special... buy a Strymon Timeline, get a free Epiphone guitar...
I own one of these in the Heritage Cherry finish... contrary to what Lee said about the bridge, it can be adjusted enough to get the intonation better than an acoustic guitar, and usually you can adjust the action to be very fast... that being said, I have mine adjusted to 5/64th on the top E and 4/64th on the treble E... plays like butter... also, those pickups sound far better than you might expect at first inspection... very full sound, not quite a P90, but fuller than a Fender single coil, and they sound great (albeit there is some hum), but when you select the middle position, they become a huge, fat, juicy, full, rich, wide range humbucker... by tweeking the pickup heights of the front and back, you can dial in an incredible custom humbucker sound of your very own... much more guitar (for yer money) than at first glance... and then there is the finish... mine has the very thin open pore satin finish, and it has already begun to relic in a most pleasing manner along the edges of the guitar... the poplar is quite soft, and will dent in a heartbeat... all in all, a guitar (set up as I have it now) I would hand to any player without cringing...
Come on guys - you're playing them through decent amps. Surely the guitars should be at least slightly matched to their amps. Imagine the disappointment of 14 year old Billy when he gets one for Christmas, plugs it into his 10w fender frontman and it sounds like somebody stepping on a duck.
Come on! Play it through something appropriate - maybe a similarly priced amp!
Ben Farrell very true , hey Billy boy here's your new guitar and surprise we got you a £3k amp to play it through
But these are amps they play the expensive guitars through, so now they can compare them. Rob even said they sound good. Put my €3200 Fender CS Strat to a ridiculously cheap amp and it sounds shite.
jma111000 - yes, of course I realise that. Did you not read my next comment?
OP doesn't understand 'headroom'
They’re playing through high end amps to make sure that the amp is not bottlenecking the guitar’s sound. If they were playing through cheap and bad amps, then it doesn’t matter what guitar is being played through it, it will always sound like garbage.
Congratulations Captain on the new addition to the Anderton family when he/ she arrives.
Mod them. As different from each other as you possibly can. That would be cool!
Really appreciate your honest advice, Lee. I fall into the 'intermediate" category you described. Was tempted to buy one to do up just because of the colour... Think I'm going to spend a bit more to get a better quality starting point
4:21 Thanks for the jumpscare
Well done for demoing the clean tones as well as all the grunge.
But as far as single coil beginner guitars go these have a lot to compete with, especially with squire. Also I feel it is a little unfair to play these guitars through amazing expensive amps. People buying these probably have a budget or no amp.
Or are plugging it into their computer and using their cracked copy of bias 2 or whatever... apparently thats how the kids roll these days
@@damiengreen28 LMFAO yeah
Part of testing is creating a standardized bench that will not limit the thing you are testing. If you tried this guitar through a Marshall mg10 and recorded it you would not know if it was the guitar or amp cause the good or bad tone. If the amp is good and you still end up with bad tone then the likely deficit is the guitar which then tells you things about its sound.
In regards to the bridge, one could always change it for a wrap around tune-o-matic (yes, those exist).
I think it's a good guitar if you wanna try to get into customizing your guitar. It's a good modding platform.
This is the guitar you smash at the end of the show.
14:22 Good. Because I bought one from a pawn shop for $70 (The thing was basically mint, though, still had the factory strings and even the plastic film over the pickguard), and I'm going to give it to my little sister for Christmas, as her first electric guitar.
"Your jelly-filled light buckets...." Chappers you awesome! :D
I bought one two weeks ago on a whim, feeling like having 6 guitars is better than having 5. It feels pretty cheap honestly, but it sounds alright and plays alright, and if the tuners held it would be super worth the pennies it costs
i would get the sunburst one and make it look like a 50s melody maker
The Pacific Blue one was down to 77€ on Black Friday and this video just saved me 77 euroquids. Thank you!
I actually love the look of them
Have to say I love the look of the yellow one. It's just something a little different with the two single coils on an LP body.
Chapper's playing in this was off the charts
Cheers Andertons Crew...! From Newport Beach, Ca. My friends SL = Slimline🎉
Well now that you said it. We need to see you guys buy and mod them how you would see fit. Then sign the guitars and give Les Pauls SL's away at the end of the show.
The captains tone is actually amazing
Not everyone has a music store at the disposal. Damn Captain
I know you guys are not impressed with these, but they are some of the best sounding of all the guitars I’ve heard you demo! I’m like, what!!!
They look like some vintage creation from the early 50's. They have that era's style...
hmmmm... I want to make one rusty, banged up and burned. make it look like a guitar in the Fallout video game universe.
It would be a blues machine
krulty that would be killer
I think give them a year it’ll be rusted with blood and burned thru hate.
krulty yeah I’d love to see a Gibson version of this design. It’d actually be something I would play.
Matt Johnson lol is epiphone not a good enough brand name.
I own the yellow one . I bought it from someone that had it worked on for performance wise in a music shop. Not a bad guitar for the price . Its very fun to play with . Well mine is as the tension has been lowered .
For 90 pounds, it's probably still cheaper and miles better than the guitar I started with 40 years ago.
exactly
Aye
I put gibson humbuckers in mine and upgraded the pots, switch, input jack, tuners and bridge. I know how stupid that sounds but honestly it was worth it. They're super lightweight guitars and you can do so much under that pickguard
Unless you're particularly drawn to the design (which I can't see why you would be) the Squier Bullet Strat would probably be a better buy for not much more
For anyone who sees this, know that I thought it was absolutely total crap out of the box and was not even interested in putting on the new bridge, nut, tuners, and strings I'd bought for it ahead of time. A few weeks later, I finally decided I should at least try it out because it wasn't worth it to ship it back to the seller during a pandemic. Holy cow! Changing the nut, bridge, and strings (roughly an extra $50 with shipping) gave me a guitar that I will keep and play, regularly. (I tightened the stock tuners and felt they were holding tune quite well so no new tuners install yet.) So, for $150, it is so worth the parts upgrades and would make a great guitar for anyone, honestly. Yay!
"S"ingle coi"L"
it mean super lite..
Jord S RS 😄
Wtf
I think these sound really good! Look and sound like a perfect slide guitar to me
Lee: What do you think it stands f...
Rob: SLASH!
!great video. you guys entertained me. I found one of these at goodwill for 50$. I put a tune-a-matic style wraparound bridge on it. It's fun to play and sounds cool.
Gibson quality at epiphone prices?
Gibson quality at AliBaba prices.
Makes a change from Janckiewisz’s usual Schtick of Epiphone quality for Gibson prices...
Congratulations Lee! Great video guys, but yeah it may have been better using more affordable amps..
on the other hand, an idea for a video: you and Rob (or another presenter) choose a few of your own guitars and a few of their guitars and talk about why you liked them and what you were shopping for at the time in terms of price range, if it was planned in the first place!