It's a little early to say but I'm saying it anyway - Epiphone's 2020 lineup is easily the steal at Winter NAMM. Everyone's a little skeptical when it comes to the new headstock outline especially when some early hints of them debuted in the signature models late 2019. We are now assured that the Casino type dovetail version won't be the staple of the revision, this Kalamazoo-esque early design is it.
Folks, the Inspired by Gibson collection basically apes the current Gibson Original versions & I've featured two of them here - the Les Paul Standard 50s. They simply look the works. I will entice you into considering one for future acquisitions by stating the fact that it's only USD 599 vs the Gibson version of USD2,499. That's merely a quarter of what you need to spend should you be going for the Gibson. My take os that, the Epiphone wins it in terms of value-for-money (had always been the case) & a possible put off might be coming from the pickups. They won't sound too shabby but they are the compromise when cost-cutting is involved.
The LP Custom version if you think they stopped at the Standards.
Looks like everything is falling nicely into place for the Epiphone camp & their re-think at the close of 2019 was well considered & helmed by good leadership. We can say that nothing much happened in terms of fresh ideas. Re-iterating existing ideas with a little twist is risky; it's a 50/50 take on the current success in terms of sales figures, Folks, if you don't already know, Epiphone instruments are the revenue-making units in stores everywhere. It's partly due to the Gibson affiliations & partly due to the fact that quality got better along the way. Loyalists would tell you that the clipped dove tail headstock version is not an entire put off especially so when you value other details in the package.
