Epiphone Les Paul Special VE HCSB

I've been playing for well over a decade and in that time I've played dozens of epiphones, squiers, harley bentons etc and, in my opinion, this is one of the better guitars in that price range. It feels wonderful to play, sounds excellent and the finish looked gorgeous (a lot better in person than it does in the picture, I reckon!). I bought this for my brother as his first electric guitar and it did the trick nicely. The neck feels very fast and responsive and I'm quite a fan of the single tone/volume knobs as it helps keep things simple for beginners. My one criticism is that the frets are a little sharp. Other than that, it is an outstanding piece of gear for the money!

Either I hit the jackpot or Thomann gifted me a full setup.
Pros:
- Absolutely beautiful finish, the paint job is great and the coating is extraordinarily thin lacquer, so the neck feels great, no gloss, not sticky at all.
- The fret job is brilliant, this might be me being lucky but no sharp fret ends at all and the level is great, checked the whole neck and only one rocks VERY slightly, does not merit a fret job.
- The guitar came fully set up: everything, intonation is spot on, the action came already set LOWER than 1.5mm on the treble side and around 2.0mm on the bass side, no buzzing. Neck perfectly straight. Pickup height correct, but that is down to preference. Only had to tune it and it was ready to rock.

Cons (sort of~):
- Not objectively a con but the pickups are HOT, god are they loud. They sound correct and pretty much the best you could expect for the price.

Others:
- I still can't give an opinion on the tuners, but they do their job.

Before I ordered it I asked Thomann if they could check the fret levels before sending it, they said no problem, add it to the order notes.
Got no word back from them after the order, so not sure if the setup is due to them but it sure has worked out for me! Best buy in my lifetime, plays like a dream.

I bought this guitar for a back up guitar for live work , the price was so affordable I was expecting it to be mediocre, how I was wrong , this guitar holds it tune very well and has a lovely round sound , I play it threw a Marshall and it has a Gibson sound , well done to epiphone for making this guitar , the finish is amazing to, I use it know in my set list because it sounds amazing threw my Marshall, I think you should consider purchasing this guitar .

Partiendo de la base de que es una guitarra economica, un modelo básico, etc... y que puedo compararla con otras similares de un rango de precio similar.
Empecemos por lo bueno:
Lo mas importante es que he quedado muy satisfecho con el sonido, sinceramente me ha sorprendido. Tiene cuerpo y suena limpia. Los potes responden bien.
Es cómoda de tocar, el perfil del mástil es adecuado y los trastes están bien acabados (algo dificil de ver en una guitarra de este precio). Viene con un buen "set up", apenas he tenido que tocarla para lograr un buen ajuste. Es bastante solida, el mástil apenas vence a las torsiones "involuntarias".
Mi unidad no se desafina, repito: No se desafina (al menos con facilidad). Las clavijas responden muy bien. En general el hardware es de una calidad mas que aceptable.
Ahora lo malo:
Mi unidad presenta varios fallos estéticos. En las fotos siempre vais a ver acabados perfectos, pero en una guitarra barata es normal encontrarse estas cosas: Tiene algún fallo de lijado-pintado en el cuerpo, algúna marca en el mastil, el logo de la pala tiene un pequeño fallo y lo que no me ha gustado nada es que el acabado satinado del mastil se está volviendo brillante con el uso.
En general tiene mas pros que contras y estoy muy contento con la compra.
Si quieres una guitarra que suene y funcione bien y no te importa renunciar un poco a la estetica, es esta.