Epiphone 59ri Les Paul Mods: Part 1! Can an epiphone sound as good as a Gibson custom shop?

Part 1 of modifying my new epiphone 59 reissue Les Paul! This episode includes checking out the guitar as it came from the factory, disassembly, finish polishing and plans for mods that we will do in part two.
*part 2 is up now! • Epiphone 59RI Mods Par...
Pickups:
brandonwoundpickups.com/produ...

[@heatstreak1]

Part 2 is up now! kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ6tooKBdtiJgas

[@user-ks6up1vi5t]

I have 2 of those Epi. '59's, I hotrodded both of them, Dimarzios in one, Duncans in the other, and I used Novus 2 and hand rubbed mine to look like a Gibson VOS. Cool to see somebody also knows what to do

[@johnmoua235]

So awesome! Wish I could have you do the same to my 59 Epi. Love the polish and all the upgrades…looking forward to the finish product.

[@mhdz10]

Great video series! Thank you!

[@markpell8979]

Glad I stumbled onto your channel today. I like to score good used Epis and Squiers and I've been lucky. So I will probably enjoy your show. I also have a couple 'budget' used guitars I'm modding for fun, good starting points and nothing to lose. It's not hard to make them very good or great. Also, as you did I polished out an Epi matte poly 'worn' finish on an LP, mine a Special stained wine red and I used the appropriate Turtle car polish. Came up to a nice luster with plenty of varnish left, I paste waxed that. Left matte neck alone except smoothing the back with 1500, otherwise it feels good. The polished matte poly looks beautiful.

[@seancook2264]

Thanks for this Just picked up a 2022 Epi 59 Lemon Burst from Reverb and like the idea of giving it a bit of a buff and maybe at some point putting in some Seymour duncan zebra pickups alongside upgrading the electronics but think for what it is and for a rank amateur carden shed noodle like me it plays and sounds great. 👍🏼

[@dieuexiste]

Interesting video. Am considering buying this guitar. Friendly advice to improve your images : instead of using the auto white balance mode on your camera, use a specific setting. That will prevent the image from flicking and changing color when your christmas lights flash. Cheers!

[@ManlyMcBeardFace]

Looking to polish mine. What polish did you use? I see a big ol bottle of something on your work space.

[@saarbrandvin7749]

What is the brand of the bridge

[@These_go_to_eleven_1959]

Zach i agree with the upgrades you did to the 1959 Epi! Now it is a really great guitar. in stock form it is better than what they were offering with the exception of the old Elitist Models and the Bonamassa limited run Lazarus. I didn't not care for that tribute 60's a few years back i had two of them both were sold soon after. My 2018 True Historic R9 that is upgraded with genuine 50's and 60's parts would destroy all of those though😁

[@ScottDreyfus]

Good Ole mudbuckers. I put Duncan ap2 pro slash in my cherry burst and Bournes pots with 50s style wiring. I haven't decided what to put in my custom.

[@michaelwhite4333]

You happy with your Duncans? I'd like to change to something a little cleaner.

[@betting4life948]

What kind of.polish did you use

[@cameronduffy8115]

Good vid I am a bit confused tho - with all the things you didn't like what made you buy it? And btw I also have one of these in dark burst and couldn't be happier I mean the "for the money" thing is valid if that's how you want to square a circle but... - different strokes I spose - cheers from the great white north 🇨🇦

[@heatstreak1]

I actually bought it to make the video, and had planned on giving it to my brother. He loves it, plus I got a great deal on it, I’m also very picky when it comes to guitars, the only guitars I don’t mod are vintage generally

[@Anne6621]

wish you showed some of the polishing action , what type of polishing machine did you use ??

[@stratolestele7611]

You can very easily polish them with, believe it or not, metal polish (like Mother's Mag Polish for example). It's not really so much a physical/mechanical buffing, as it is a chemical thing. I've done it to two guitars - both turned out great. One of them was an Epi Lazurus (mostly same specs as the '59,but with a one-piece neck).

[@adamwatson6916]

Brandon of Brandon wound pickups is running the gibsom pickup shop .

[@heatstreak1]

Correct, Jared sold me the business. He is now the head of pickup development at Gibson,which is super awesome

[@joe-dp3ng]

It made sense to me at the end you make pickups so of course yours sound better to you. I like Gibson sound not your pickup sound. All you did was show your personal taste that lives in your head alone. But your young and like to show your Gibson Les Paul as a comparison. It says Epiphone on the headstock so that's what I compared it to.

[@garyarmstrong9542]

What products and how did you polish the guitar? Thanks!

[@heatstreak1]

I used meguiars polishing compound on this one

[@mohannair]

Meguiars Ultimate Compound or Meguiars Ultimate Polish? Thanks! @reak1

[@Worlds_Worst_Guitarist]

There's literally no need to Upgrade that Guitar. It's totally fine as is! Guitaristas (YT Channel) did an extensive Video series on Upgrading it and omparing and making it closer to a Custom Shop with the result, that the difference is neglectable.

[@heatstreak1]

I think it depends on what you are after, I don’t like the custom shop guitars stock either. I agree these epis are great guitars as is, but improvements can be made. Especially if you are going for a different sound, I just did it for fun. Didn’t really cost me anything since I already had all of the parts

[@Worlds_Worst_Guitarist]

@@heatstreak1 Get ya! Only things i upgraded was changing to Gotoh Locking Tuners, and just for fun i put another Tailpiece on it - don't know what it is, came with a cheap guitar- making the Epi sound a little tiny bit more dark and less harsh.

[@michaelwhite4333]

I have this guitar, and there is some static like sound emitted when the volume on the guitar is turned low. Like it's cutting out, but not smoothly. Is that normal? Also, if I want cleaner sounding pups, what would you recommend?

[@stratolestele7611]

​@@michaelwhite4333 that's common. It's dust in the pot. Every electric guitar player should have electric contact cleaner. Google it.

[@rigodon97]

You don't need guitar tuners on most of these as long as you fix the next and setup the intonation. Same for pickup and setting pickups height. ​@@Worlds_Worst_Guitarist

[@chief6749]

Great video btw I can take donations for used parts 🤣🤣🤣

[@scottbrower9052]

Probably can be made to sound better.

[@user-uy8wf9ye4i]

Why wreak a great guitar dah

[@BarqB]

You can make all the mods you want but take it from me, it may sound like a real gibson but its never gonna feel like a real gibson standard ever. It will be a good guitar but theres just something about the real deal in the playability. Especially if you went to a store and played all the ones available and got the one that felt the best in your hands. Once you go real gibson you'll never go back

[@heatstreak1]

I would say that’s not totally true, as you can see from the video I have lots of Gibsons, including from the 40’s and 50’s. I still play and like epiphones. The satin finish on these epi 59’s actually feels pretty nice, a lot nicer than than the standard epi finish. although you are right I do still prefer the feel of nitro most of the time, it always depends on the individual guitar. Gibson is great most of the time, but they’ve made a lot of turds too. I won’t buy Gibson standard models, I don’t think those are quite worth what they charge. Only Gibson custom shop or pre 1965 for me, otherwise I’d get an epi like this if I’m spending less

[@stratolestele7611]

​@@heatstreak1wait, you're saying what was until this year, a $2499 guitar, is overpriced, but a Custom Shop isn't??

[@jameshughes6049]

The Epiphone '59 Les Paul is basically a Gibson. It has 50's style hand wiring & HIGH END CTS pots. You're pretty clueless.

[@heatstreak1]

They do come with CTS pots from the factory, that is correct, but they are the cheapest pot CTS makes. You can tell by the pot metal shaft, the brass shaft vintage taper pots are a huge upgrade in both reliability as well as taper.

[@heatstreak1]

Although as I said in the video, they are a great guitar even from the factory. Better than a lot of Gibson USA models, but they can still be improved. Even the Gibson custom shop guitars can be improved as they don’t compare to the original 50’s guitars

[@jameshughes6049]

@@heatstreak1 No. Let's agree to disagree. Rock on.

[@danwguitar8651]

@@heatstreak1don’t the high end CTS pots use brass instead of pot metal? Still a huge improvement over alpha pots. The stock wiring in these is kind of sloppy looking. The upgrades are totally worth it. These are already better than a lot of Gibson USA stuff. The upgraded pots/wiring on these really bring them closer to their custom shop cousins.

[@Worlds_Worst_Guitarist]

@@danwguitar8651 Umh? I've never had any Brand pots sounding different than others (other than maybe different Values). I don't understand all that fuzz about Alpha pots, CTS, better CTS, worse CTS etc.