“Play Authentic” can eat my authentic ass

[RevDrucifer]

I’ve never really had a big interest in Les Pauls, except for Norlin-era Silverbursts because I LOVE the way they fade over time. Once I found out about the Adam Jones Epi I started doing some digging to see how they compare to actual Norlin-era LPC’s, or even just a regular LPC, but during that week of digging into LPC specs/eras, I was bit by the LP bug.

No fucking way am I paying Gibson’s prices though. I started looking at all the MIJ LP’s; Burny, Edwards, Orville, Greco, etc and put a few on a watchlist in case I decided to pull the trigger. I came across an Orville that I could not stop thinking about and decided to buy it.

I already ordered a zebra Aldrich for the bridge position, but I’m going to hold off to see what the neck sounds like before swapping it. It’s a ‘97 and yeah, I know it’s a photoflame. Don’t really care!

While I was doing research on all the MIJ’s, I found out that Gibson told Edwards to fuck off with their Gibson models, they were all discontinued around last September, if I remember right. You can still find a new Edwards LP here and there, but they’re getting rare and I’d imagine prices are going to jump up once they’re all gone. Not wanting to miss out on a good deal, I bought this one this morning.

I’ll probably slap some EMG’s in it and call it a day. I would have gotten the white one if I could have found one new for the same price, but I got this for $1027 shipped from Japan. Funnily enough, I had it on a watchlist and wanted to look into what it’s like importing a guitar from Japan before I went through with it. I joined an Edwards FB group and one of the first posts I saw was a dude linking this guitar and saying how the company handles everything, you just pay the Reverb cost and it’s all handled on their end. Sold!

The one good thing about getting older; you still have the same giddy feeling of waiting for a new guitar as you did when you were 15, except now you can actually afford them every now and then!

 

[japetus]

Very cool guitar! Also, Mark Agnesi SUCKS. My gf is in Japan right now and wants to send me a guitar hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

 

[Racerxrated]

Congrats!

The MiJ LPs are killer. I’m on my 4th Greco; all for less than 600 shipped from Japan. Most recent one is an EG500 from 1980; 9.5 lb bourbon burst. Great guitar. Got it 3 months ago. Tuesday night order, here by Friday night.
Had 2 Edwards; nice but fall a little short to the late 70s-mid 80s Grecos; to me anyway. But all those brands are killer in their own way. Maybe the best bang for the buck guitars out there.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Very cool guitar! Also, Mark Agnesi SUCKS. My gf is in Japan right now and wants to send me a guitar hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

I’d imagine before the year is out, it’ll be pretty hard finding a new Edwards, so strike while she’s over there, man!!

 

[RevDrucifer]

Congrats!

The MiJ LPs are killer. I’m on my 4th Greco; all for less than 600 shipped from Japan. Most recent one is an EG500 from 1980; 9.5 lb bourbon burst. Great guitar. Got it 3 months ago. Tuesday night order, here by Friday night.
Had 2 Edwards; nice but fall a little short to the late 70s-mid 80s Grecos; to me anyway. But all those brands are killer in their own way. Maybe the best bang for the buck guitars out there.

I haven’t played a single one of these from either brand, but reading enough reviews about them it seems the only people bitching about them have some kind of emotional attachment to having the name Gibson on the headstock and even then, it’s just a small subset of those guys. Overall, no one talks shit about these!

As long as the necks aren’t tiny twigs and they weigh about what a LP should weigh, I’ll be a happy camper!

 

[romanianreaper]

I'm a huge Gibson fan and have three Les Paul guitars but I'd love to have an Orville or Edwards and would have no problem playing one.

 

[Bardagh]

For the more standard stuff, Gibson pricing doesn’t look quite as bad as it did a few years back but it’s just because all the imports have jumped up so much. MIK guitars cost over $1k now and some are approaching $2k.

Those MIJ LP’s look great though. I’ve almost pulled the trigger on various edwards and tokais untold numbers of times. Good friend of mine had to sell his prized LP Custom some years ago and ended up buying an old Burny lookalike as a replacement and was very surprised by how good it was. Still probably his main guitar.

 

[JackBootedThug]

I bought that greco sykes and love it. eg800 or something.

 

[vultures]

The prices on the Greco, Burny, Tokai and Orville Les Pauls are slowly starting to creep up, but still worth it to get a killer Les Paul on the cheap. I've been on the lookout for a Greco or Burny for a while and I found one local for $850. Jumped on it. Much more appetizing than a Gibson from the same 1985ish era for $4000-6000. The Burny sounds absolutely massive, lots of sustain and low end growl.

Only problem is this damn guitar needs; new pickups, entirely new electronics, new tuners and a refret (which means a new nut too). Thankfully I can do all that on my own. Still having to dump $200+/- into parts blows. I guess that's the nature of the beast picking up instruments made in the 80s that were played hard? No big deal, I love beat to hell and back guitars.

 

[JackBootedThug]

The prices on the Greco, Burny, Tokai and Orville Les Pauls are slowly starting to creep up, but still worth it to get a killer Les Paul on the cheap. I've been on the lookout for a Greco or Burny for a while and I found one local for $850. Jumped on it. Much more appetizing than a Gibson from the same 1985ish era for $4000-6000. The Burny sounds absolutely massive, lots of sustain and low end growl.

Only problem is this damn guitar needs; new pickups, entirely new electronics, new tuners and a refret (which means a new nut too). Thankfully I can do all that on my own. Still having to dump $200+/- into parts blows. I guess that's the nature of the beast picking up instruments made in the 80s that were played hard? No big deal, I love beat to hell and back guitars.

I bought a complete used emg set with everything on here and rewired mine. also did the 24v mod. guitar fucks hard. the kahler just makes it even beefier.

 

[Briman24]

I love my made in korea epi les pauls.

 

[Exo-metal]

I play what I've always played. That said, these days with what can be done to a guitar that was made by a CNC machine, throw in a touch from a PLEK machine and set of Scottosan pups and you are@90% of the real deal.

 

[Devin]

May I also eated it?

 

[Rex Rocker]

About the new Adam Jones, I've had two of the new gen Epis with the new headstocks, and I find they're hype, more than anything. I don't feel they've improved in quality whatsoever from the last gen.

I've always wanted an Edwards. Please let us know how they are. Right now, I'm playing a Gibson Les Paul Tribute which I absolutely love the sound of, but I'm not particularly fond of the looks, if I must be honest.

 

[vultures]

I bought a complete used emg set with everything on here and rewired mine. also did the 24v mod. guitar fucks hard. the kahler just makes it even beefier.

We need pics! I thought about a JH set of EMGs, but went with some custom shop Seymour Duncans.

 

[RevDrucifer]

I bought that greco sykes and love it. eg800 or something.

Man, I had two of them on a watchlist and the *only* reason I didn’t get it is because I saw the Edwards pop up brand new for around the same price and the Sykes had some fretwear already. I can’t believe more people haven’t grabbed one of those!

 

[Racerxrated]

I haven’t played a single one of these from either brand, but reading enough reviews about them it seems the only people bitching about them have some kind of emotional attachment to having the name Gibson on the headstock and even then, it’s just a small subset of those guys. Overall, no one talks shit about these!

As long as the necks aren’t tiny twigs and they weigh about what a LP should weigh, I’ll be a happy camper!

When I was trying to learn about the different MiJ brands, I read up on them on the Les Paul forum, under 'other single cuts'. 99% of the guys posting on that sub forum owned many real Gibbys, including vintage and historic series yet they still loved their MiJ lawsuit LPs just as much. Just upgrade a few things and they are every bit as good as a standard....some felt they compared favorably against their fav custom.

 

[RevDrucifer]

The prices on the Greco, Burny, Tokai and Orville Les Pauls are slowly starting to creep up, but still worth it to get a killer Les Paul on the cheap. I've been on the lookout for a Greco or Burny for a while and I found one local for $850. Jumped on it. Much more appetizing than a Gibson from the same 1985ish era for $4000-6000. The Burny sounds absolutely massive, lots of sustain and low end growl.

Only problem is this damn guitar needs; new pickups, entirely new electronics, new tuners and a refret (which means a new nut too). Thankfully I can do all that on my own. Still having to dump $200+/- into parts blows. I guess that's the nature of the beast picking up instruments made in the 80s that were played hard? No big deal, I love beat to hell and back guitars.

Yeah, I keep seeing people talking about buying them for $600 in mint condition…..that’s definitely not reflective of the current market! You can find ‘em for $600 but they sure as hell won’t be mint!

That’s a sick JPIIC+, too!!

That’s the trade off of getting a broken in guitar that I really don’t mind at all (tuners, electronics, etc) especially since I have preferences for all of those things, it’s stuff I end up replacing anyway, it just gives me more incentive to get it done right away. And shit, if needing to replace those things is what will get me a killer guitar for under a grand, I’m a happy dude!

 

[RevDrucifer]

When I was trying to learn about the different MiJ brands, I read up on them on the Les Paul forum, under 'other single cuts'. 99% of the guys posting on that sub forum owned many real Gibbys, including vintage and historic series yet they still loved their MiJ lawsuit LPs just as much. Just upgrade a few things and they are every bit as good as a standard....some felt they compared favorably against their fav custom.

Yep! It wasn’t on that forum, but literally everywhere I read about these over the years has said the same thing. I really wonder if Gibson not renewing the contract with Orville was because Orville‘s were cutting into their sales. I know it’s rumored that Fender did an “Oh shiiiiiit” when word started getting around how great their MIJ’s were and that was pre-internet days.

With Gibson’s QC over the last couple decades wavering up and down, I’m definitely not surprised that some people who own both guitars ended up digging the MIJ more. Someone in an Orville group posted a pic of his Gibsons next to an Orville and said the Orville gets played a fuck of a lot more than the Gibsons. And ya figure, if the quality is up that high, it’s getting into the zone where it’s just individual differences between guitars, not so much the brands, that decide if it’ll be the one you play all the time or not. Like when you have two of the same model of anything but dig one more than the other.

 

[RevDrucifer]

I love my made in korea epi les pauls. View attachment 151672View attachment 151675View attachment 151678

I still plan on getting the Adam Jones Epi when the next batch goes on sale. I love that aged Silverburst color WAY too much and I’ve heard nothing but great things about the job Epiphone is doing on the Customs lately. They really nailed quite a bit of a Norlin-era Silverburst with that signature model, long neck tenon, volute, teardrop burst, stuff you think they’d skip out on and just go for the finish. Once I read a couple reviews from guys with actual Norlin LPC’s, I was sold.

At this point, I’ll probably hold out for the one without the graphic on the back. I don’t care enough about the graphic and would prefer not to have it, surely some crazed Tool fan would be happier with it than me, so I don’t mind waiting until they release the black-backed ones.