I had an Epiphone Les Paul Standard PlusTop Pro, a great guitar, but I had to sell it 3 years ago. But I always had a soft spot for Les Paul style guitars again, and as I was satisfied with my HB CST-24T and my Fusion III, I thought to give a try to the new Custom III line - I like the EPS style knob configuration and the belly cut.
The guitar arrived in perfect condition, without any damage. The look of it is really amazing, there were no flaws in the paint job. The setup was acceptable:
- it was almost in tune (with 36 C outside I consider it "perfect")
- for my taste, the action was a little bit high (~0,5 mm)
- and I had to adjust the neck relief a bit, too (~0,2 mm)
- the neck pickup was set too low (~1,5 mm)
- I only had to adjust the intonation on the high E string a little bit
The Tesla pickups sound quite OK for me, all the pots work as they should, even the pickup selector switch works tight.
I really like the thickness and the shape of the neck, the Grover tuner work properly.
One minor "flaw" is the nut. The positions of the slots are perfect, but they are a little bit high (0,1-0,2 mm may), and the edges of the nut are little bit sharp in some places, so minor work is needed here. I don't really like pure white color of the nut as the binding of the neck and the headstock is ivory colored.
The frets are stainless steel, there were no sharp fret ends, and I could fine only 2 or 3 high spots, where the frets needed a little leveling. The frets needed some polishing too (less then with my earlier HB-s, but still).
Overall, it is a really good guitar for the money.
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