u/mrdavis909

https://youtu.be/pmVm5XwkkTA?si=J2MfwW-q5C1JVOdZ

Pata and the boys from Ra:In playing "Pink Spider" with an X Tribute Band. I'm guessing this was a Pata birthday celebration.

Die plays some absolutely unhinged piano licks.

When I was considering buying this guitar, there were few reviews or posts about it, so I'm posting this for anyone else considering buying this guitar: buy it.

I mainly play a Shinichi Ubukata ES-355, but one of my bands is into pretty high-gain territory, and I wasn't quite able to get the sounds I was looking for. I'm not really into Les Pauls, and I was frankly looking for something close to that sound with a different look.

Man, did I find it. With full-sized Seymour Duncan humbuckers, this baby has the attitude of an SG with the creaminess of a Les Paul. I took it to band practice last night, and my bandmates told me not to come back without it!

I had a few reservations about this guitar, so I'll cover those for anyone interested:

• Neck dive. The majority of the neck dive can be covered by moving/adding a strap button on the back of the guitar. There are numerous videos on YouTube walking through how to do this. Luckily for me, the prior owner already performed this mod, so I can't say how bad it is without it, but I assume it is mandatory.
• The real issue, though, is the size/shape of this thing - it's not a similar beast to a 355/SG/LP. Due to the location of the bridge when standing up, it's actually more comfortable to play the lower it is and the more horizontal it is! What I'm saying is - you actually don't want the neck pointing up at the same degree you'd want an LP or SG. It sounds strange, and I'm sure worrisome the first time you put this thing on. But trust me: by the second song at last night's practice I'd forgotten I was playing a different guitar as far as performance goes. It's very comfortable and easy to play leads on after about 10 minutes of getting used to it.
• The bizarre tuners. I was sure I was going to have to swap them, as getting them on pitch is a bit more of a dance than the locking 40:1 Gotohs I'm used to. However, after putting some pencil lead and nut sauce in the nut, changing the strings, and getting it in tune, the guitar stayed in tune through practice more or less the same as my other guitars. I'll be leaving these in, no need for a swap.

Seymour Duncan Alnico pickups, 500k pots with Orange Drop caps, and a LockTone ABR Tune-o-matic bridge. The only weak point on the guitar is that Epiphone went with a cheap plastic nut. The guitar still sounds great, but I'll swap it for a Tusq nut eventually, and I'm sure it will sound even better. Only other mod I plan is to replace the Slash skull logo pick-guard with a standard Firebird one.

Anyway, hope this was helpful!