I bought a new guitar.
It's desperately second hand, it's covered in dings and scratches, a couple of the frets are worn down, really needs new strings etc and it's a cheapo model......and I'm in love with it.
So I've been after a Les Paul variant for ages, I almost bought a legit Gibson a while back but it didn't happen for various reasons. Recently I developed a hankering for one again, but given that I don't have much spare cash at the moment I've been looking at the Epiphone Les Paul and I've not really found anything that grabs me, they're all the wrong colour or too pricey or whatever. So I was out with the wife yesterday and stuck my nose into a second hand amp/records/guitar shop I've never been in, and there at the back, in a pile of dusty classical guitars, behind a pile of amps and DJ equipment is an untuned, battered old Epiphone Les Paul Studio, in a gorgeous cherry red sunburst colour, black trim. Made in Korea. Instant love, no idea why. Bloke wanted £150 for it, knocked him down to £120 then traded my old non brand electric and paid the guy £50.
So silly how I instantly bonded with it, even with awful strings and a couple of worn frets it's a joy to play, it sounds so warm, so full. Much nicer than my previous electric, despite on paper being the worse instrument.
So the hitlist;
- New toggle switch bought £2.50 on eBay, the previous one was missing
- Fret guard removed. Looks nicer without it, it's black. Might replace with a cream or white version, but I'll probs leave it off for now. I don't like the fixing hole by the neck pickup but nevermind.
- A serious cleaning of the body and neck because it's filthy
- Oil the neck
- New strings, obviously
- Might tweak the truss rod a tiiiiiiny bit and some gentle fiddling with the intonation maybe
- The first two frets need replacing but it's playable as is. A slight bit of fret buzz on the g string where the fret is most worn down, but only at certain times. Not a job I can do myself and probs more than the guitar is worth to get it done, so I'll just suck it up.
But yeah, I love it. It feels right in the hands, it's the first guitar to ever really call to me and who'd have thunk it would be a cheap ass piece of shit.
