I committed sacrilage...DONT SHOOT ME lol

[coloradoman25]

So browsing ebay late at night a while back I snagged a "gibson" copy. It was coming in from China and had like 5 minutes left on it. FREE SHIPPING with hard case and the current no reserve bid was like 1.59$......

So being it was 3am and i figured what did I have to lose I bid 5$....Well I won this trans pink "les paul" with hard case for a whopping 3.86$ shipped to my door.

I paid never expecting to receive anything..... Today I get a massive EMS package. Thinking WTF I didnt order anything as I had totally forgot aobut it. It had been like 2 months since I won it and it honestly slipped my mind...beer and ebay ya know....

SO I got this thing unpacked it and cleaned it up. By the looks of it it seems like ply with a veneer of some sort. It needed severe amounts of setup. I spent 3 hours leveling, crowning, adjusting, swearing, drinking, farting, etc....

What I ended up with was a really nice Epiphone quality playing Les Paul. But the Tuners and bridge leave a bit to be desired as to the pickups which though not bad are a bit oddly responsive....so now I am torn. I dig the color alot the trans pink was something I had wanted but just never found anything cheap that I could buy and just kept talking myself out of the Axis and Suhr I keep looking at.

So this thing kinda really fit the bill I mean less than 4$ wtf.....

So I am thinking of getting either a better bridge or going with one of the Les Paul style Kahlers and a set of locking schallers or similar. Maybe a set of Schaller Golden 50 pickups ala kramer style as well...

What do ya think I got a decent action out of it and it seems stable minus the tuners which I can honestly watch move.

FWIW it looks just like this one here



I mean after the work it sounds okay and feels better than ANY epiphone I have played. But I think anythign with this much work would feel decent. What do yall think?

[coloradoman25]

Actually it may not be ply theres so much crap and the pockets are so rough cut now i am thinking it almost looks like cedro where I scraped it down through the 800mm of clear

[Hellbat]

If you can carve it with your fingernail, it's probably cedro. Thats what my Squier Hello Kitty is made from (or maybe it's agathis). And in any unfinished areas it's like friggin balsa wood. Luckily the finish is like 1/4" thick.

[Cygnus X1]

Load it with EMG's and rock it!

[straycat]

Upper and lower bouts look funny but for the price and the color not a bad deal at all.
I would take the Gibson logo off of it because it doesn't look much like one.
Maybe refin the face of the headstock with a logo of your own choosing.
Hello Kitty with an AK 47 maybe?

[coloradoman25]

Cedro is my guess but i dont know its not ply its just horrendously rough cut in the cavities.

[coloradoman25]

Stray im not gonna sell it so for now im gonna leave the logo till I find some sort of waterslide decal I like and then ill redo it. Actually that pic really distorts it in person the specs are pretty damn close we laid it up next to my friends real LP and stuff at least to someone that wasnt well versed would pass very well. The electronics are "interesting" with some sort of plug system. I have a set of blackouts but dont know what to do in the middle location.

I am thinking if I went that way and did the kahler and lockers itd be fairly brutal and rather useful for some sound I need. I dont own a guitar with actives currently.

[straycat]

Cedro or Luan would be my guess.
That wood was used a lot on the Jap guitars of the 70's.
Its cool no doubt, 3 actives might sound pretty good in it.
When you change strings watch out for the stop tail piece studs wanting to pull out.
I have done set ups on a lot of those Chinese copies and 7 out of 10 will pull out.Wood glue them back in and you should be OK.

[coloradoman25]

Ya know I have a set of GFS cream rails somewhere around here maybe ill swap out the bridge and neck and see what they sound like?

[wilkinsi]

4 bux? That's a great deal considering some poor kid swam across the ocean to get it there

[coloradoman25]

LOL maybe he floated over on it.

[Grawnday]

[QUOTE=coloradoman25;1563536 I have a set of blackouts but dont know what to do in the middle location]......... That's where the smoke bombs go !

Really nice looking guitar, I'm off to windowshop them on Ebay.

[tomanyjacksons]

So you're saying you bought a guitar for $5 and stage smashing it hasn't at least crossed your mind? :think:

[coloradoman25]

LOL the seller "is no longer a member" and today his feedback and info disappeared. He went by c2cinternational and was one of those same day registrant 0 feedback deals with 100 different knockoffs in his description.

The guitar was listed as being shipped from Oregon but I assumed otherwise. I cant even find the listing now but the paypal addy was the same name at gmail so who knows. Like I said I never expected to even get the guitar.

[wilkinsi]

You put them out of business!