Best Travel Electric Guitar (2024 Update)

Okay this product is good. The pickup is fine and it's a great amount of fun. BUT: The fret work is terrible. Really. They stick out of the neck, and it feels like playing with sandpaper on your fingers. Terrible rash after half an hour of playing, still has not worn off. Also the action is really bad and the second fret is buzzing like crazy on mine. I need to get that fixed, but I hoped to get it working right off the box as I am travelling a lot and don't have time to take care of my guitars (which is why I took this one). Overall if the item and the object is really fun and smart and cool (you really get that "cool" factor when playing live and people notice and start laughing at your baby-sized guitar. Also includes a "cute" factor for those who are into that.) But the quality is really poor and needs quite a bit of work to be really useful without cutting your hand. Also a mild annoyance, but the headstock is not blue. I selected this one because the picture showed a blue headstock and it looked cooler than the black one. I got the black one. Minor annoyance, still an annoyance. I would not make this choice again I think, or be prepared to go to the guitar store and invest an additional 100 dollars in fret work and proper setting.pauwohre_0

I purchased this guitar a few years ago and it is my go-to ever since whether I am at home or while traveling. I have rather small hands and not very good stretch so it makes playing my other guitars rather painful after an extended period of time. I like playing this guitar because even though it has a full scale fretboard, everything just feels smaller in my hands when I play it. The width of the neck is smaller than my other guitars makes it easier for me to reach and my hands don't get as fatigued as easily. The sound is great! I only play for fun and have a small 100W amp but it sounds excellent no matter whether I'm playing metal or jazz. The only problem I have with it is there is a little bit of fret buzz when I am playing certain notes. It is not really a problem with the instrument itself. I ordered this by mail and never had it set up after it arrived. I am not comfortable doing it myself so I will have to take it into the store whenever I get the chance. I am sure that once I get it adjusted properly, I will have no problems with it. I love this little beast.Sordesco

A solid four stars. Travel guitars all have their limitations and this one is certainly no exception. But despite those limitations this instrument fulfilled its needs on a recent trip. Which is why I waited to write this review until after it was used for its intended function. It's size and weight were convenient for traveling through airports and overhead bins. It was durable despite being mashed by other carry on luggage. It was fun to play through Vox classic rock plug in amp with ear buds but difficult to stay in tune. Also used a basic leather strap with rough suede to compensate for awkward weight distribution. This kept the strap from sliding in that the guitar is neck heavy. All travel guitars like the Traveler series suffer the same malady. The Neck is straight as an arrow and the action is very good. Haven't changed the strings yet but the stop tailpiece is adjacent to the pickup which may make string changes difficult. All in all, I would not gig with this guitar but for the money it served its purpose preparing for a gig upon my return. A good value overall with some limitations.Rockinvet

If you’re looking for a great travel guitar, this is it. Ingenious design and good looks. We’ll made and seems to be durable. Pickup actually sounds good and the headphone only with built in amp is awesome! The 4 programmed tones are definitely usable for what it is. It even comes with soft case, batteries and a pick. Exactly what I was looking for! Thanks Traveler Guitar!Raymond T.

I love this guitar. So much fun. Full scale yet i can take it on trips. Sounds great through my 3W amp. Great when I don't want to lug my full size case. Really looking forward to having this on trips from now on. Awesome!Patrick M.

The Traveler guitars are great little instruments. They have a good build quality and feel solid and well made. The humbucker pickup sounds good and the fretwork is very nice, with no fret sprout or rough edges. The only problem I had was with tuning stability. I believe this is from the slightly cheap tuning machines. I installed some Grover mini locking tuners and now it holds tune really well. The onboard electronics are okay and the distortion is kind of high gain and a bit shrill. The clean is more than adequate and sounds good in headphones. The guitar sounds great through a standard amplifier. I highly recommend one of these if you need something to satisfy your urge to rock whilst on the road.kingpicks

This is an absolutely great guitar!! It's small size is deceptive but it sounds like a full size guitar 100%. I have the black one and it is super easy and convenient to take around and get some practice in when a full size guitar is not practical. The way the designer scaled everything down, it doesn't feel weird going between a full size and this one. I took mine on vacation and have used it as an extra layer when tracking guitars during recording. Also, it is great for little people, young players, or players with smaller hands. Highly recommend!!Rendez, P

In general the Guitar is nice the only issues I have with this Guitar is the fret sprout is terrible, like shred your fingers bad. I was disappointed greatly by this. A guitar at this price point should have a better quality neck and finish. I have no issues with the quality of the rest of the guitar. I own other brand traveler guitars and the necks on the others are better. Improve the finish work on the necks and you will have a good product. Samiamyourhandyman

It’s very small but plays true. Good components and very well put together. Holds tuning. Lovely neck. And…. Very pretty to my eyes. Am chuffed to bits with it.Amitava K.

Overall: This is my umpteenth Epiphone custom sg guitar ive bought since the last guitar i had which was the more lower end 61 standard i bought here used last year. The caps pots and Gibson USA burstbuckers are definitely a step up in the right direction and are true to the original reissue Sg standards back in the beginning of the Gibson sg. It sounds like a 2000 dollar Gibson reissue sg but at Epiphone import prices. I intend on keeping this guitar for a lifetime and is a good backup guitar to my similarly pricef esp ltd viper 1000 deluxe i bought a year ago from a competitor in the now disconnected tiger eye finish from zZounds. Lastly i also intend on getting a real Gibson sg custom 63 version used for a discounted price. One more thing i might buy a backup les Paul sg standard by Epiphone just in case this one gets stolen or lost. Thank you Epiphone custom for stepping up your game and making better sg custom shop guitars than in the past. The black Epiphone sg custom with gold hardware is no joke either and i might another one when i get done paying for this Les Paul sg standard first fron here.Isaac

I got this guitar in sparkling burgundy and the finish is beautiful. The workmanship on this guitar is great; it feels very high quality. The fretwork is also really good, with no fret ends sticking out to cut my hands. That being said, the pickups are not very good. I initially debated purchasing the guitar since it sounded very ice-picky and thin when I played it in the store. But I decided to take a chance, knowing the return policy that GC has. I brought it home and the first thing I did was go over it completely. The fretboard was very dry. Even my wife, who doesn't play guitar, looked at it and commented on that. So removed the strings and polished the frets and cleaned/conditioned the fretboard. Then I swapped out the Alnico Classic Pro pickups, which are rather bad, and put in a set of Probucker 2/3 pickups that I had sitting around. Better strings, polished frets, and some nicer alnico 2 pickups made a huge difference. It sounds full and thick and warm, and it plays like an angel. I highly recommend it, as long as you can swap out the pickups.Robert

Just took delivery of a used Hofner shorty bass in black. Lovely instrument. Fit and finish was fine. I had to do a little bit of intonation setting which took no time. The neck is better than expected. Frets are finished properly and the neck has a nice satin finish. Its not to wide, not too thick and feels great. The pickup delivers and even sound across the strings. There are no dead spots. Volume and tone controls work great and the knurled knobs feel very good. I was able to dial in some of my preferred sounds using the VPF control on my Markbass Blackline 250 going through a Markbass NY604 cabinet. I was also liking the sounds going through an Eden World Tour preamp. Im looking forward to rehearsal tomorrow using the Eden directly into an EV ZLX 12 powered cabinet. The bass came professionally packed and really appeared to be new. Love the padded Hofner gig bad with the logo on it. All in all a great small, inexpensive (but not cheap) bass for practice, performance and especially travel.Miguel404

First of all, this bass is just what I wanted for practicing when traveling. Compact, 24 frets, decent electronics and comes with a gig bag. Intonation was pretty good too. I did adjust the intonation, but that's really only because I'm kind of fussy about intonation. One thing I will say is I had never experienced "neck dive" until I owned this bass like. in the resting position, the bass headstock will point right down to 5 o'clock. Since this is a practice instrument, I made some modifications. I put weight in the body cavity, but the body cavity is not huge, so with extra weight, I could get the neck to hang in the resting position at about 3 o'clock. I next removed the front strap pin and drilled a 3/8" in diameter hole 2" into the body at the same angle as the strap pin screw. I purchased 3/8" aluminum round stock and cut it to 7.5". 2" would insert into the body and 5.5" would remain outside to mount the strap button while extending out to nearly the 12th fret. I painted the round stock black (primer and paint). I mounted (drilled and epoxied) the strap button on the end of the round stock. I think epoxied the extender into the body. It looks pretty darned good and now the bass balances perfectly.Kevin1014

My mahogany Traveler Escape arrived yesterday from Musician's Friend. Looking at the label on the inside box it is fresh inventory just delivered to MF a few weeks ago. The build quality is quite nice. It tunes well, it intonates well, sounds like solid body guitar acoustically (loud enough for practice in a quiet room), and can sound quite good amplified. I played one 5 years ago and at the time was not able to get a decent portable amplified tone, but today's amplification options have really broadened. Into a Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb (also from MF) set with bass/treble on 5 and some reverb, all I had to do was slightly tweak back the treble and bass on the guitar for a very good acoustic guitar like tone. Maybe not exactly a mic'd D28 but musical and pleasant. I can get to the same place with a Mustang Micro (also from MF) headphone amp into a Bluetooth speaker AUX input. I've found two Bluetooth speakers where the AUX inputs work well with the Mustang Micro. Not all Bluetooth speakers sound good at all so try a few. Now I've got the same great tone to go. The bottom line is the magic of a Fender Deluxe Reverb really does great stuff to the Piezo UST in this guitar (and probably many other guitars with similar pickups) and would not likely be your first thought on how to sweeten the amplified tone.Jon F.

I bought this to replace my usual travel guitar, an old Gibson acoustic. The top split on my last trip. I don't want to travel with my L-00 or any of my other guitars so I got this to replace my usual travel guitar which is now my beach guitar. This B-stock Escape Mark III is just so convenient. Small, lightweight, full scale, it's just so easy to pick up and practice on. With headphones I can practice all the time without disturbing the entire house. Just a great instrument. Can't wait to see how it handles some of my pedals.Charles K.

My 105EQ just arrived and I have to say that this is a high quaility and wonderful travel guitar. One- it actually has the full length neck which was huge for me, action was high, but I fixed it, the battery pouch was loose in the body, but I reglued it back, oh well nothing is perfect. Two- it will fit in a overhead when flying and the gig bag is excellently made and protective. Do not expect a rich deep full body acoustic guitar sound but it sounds good enough to me to be inspired to play and enjoy it, a good musical idea getter when traveling, beach, camping, Rv'ing, etc. Three- Nice pick-up design, I plugged it in and sounded quite good that you really could sit in/gig with this guitar with no problem. The tuning hardware is good quality and very smartly designed, stays in tune, intonation is good, but be prepared most llikely to lower saddle bone, very easy, I lowered it about a 16th", very nice now. I looked at SO many travel guitars, and this model by far has it going on! Yes its pricey, but if you love playing the guitar as I and don't what to travel around with your expensive regular sized guitar without it getting damaged like on aircrafts, it's well worth the money. I highly recommend this model for many reasons, but the main reason, it's high quality with a solid top and ProLevel Pick Up. I love it and it's only been 2 hours, PERFECT!JvG

I live traveling. I'm on the road sometimes one week per month, sometimes more or less, and I just bought this guitar about 2 months ago. It's a great guitar for what it is, but what is really frustrating is: THE GIG BAG SUCKS!!!!! Come on, guys…does anybody who built this thing actually travel? The shoulder strap always loosens as you're walking, and wants to fall off your shoulder all the time. It's unusable. Also, the bag doesn't have protection in the key areas (like at the ends, or along the neck) and the guitar takes a lot of dings that it shouldn't. The bag should be more rigid, and able to stand on its end, and have plastic shin-guard-like protectors along the neck. The bag strap should have some rubber and padding and not slip off your body. Oh yeah: AND I don't want to pay a huge amount extra for that. If you have any pride at all in your product, you'll call the REI guys and figure out how to make a bag that someone who travels a lot can actually use.Out in the cold

I love this guitar. Great quality and perfect size for airplane travel. The full size scale length is awesome. Tuners work great. Sound and playability is fantastic. After about 5 years I had a minor issue and reached out to Traveler. They got back to me right away and resolved the issue very quickly. Great guitar from a great company. If you are in need of a compact travel guitar with a full scale length, buy this thing!Rocko

Do yourself a favor and pass on this very strange instrument. You are much better off with a standard acoustic bass that has far better tone, is easier to set up, stays in tune better, and is easier to play. Changing strings is a royal pain and it's not particularly well balanced. A fair price for this Asian bass would be about $100 max. Dull looking wood as well.kraigster414

Okay, as the title says, this is my first left handed bass. I've only messed around with right handed equipment & I've always felt discouraged to play but when this came in yesterday & I took it out of the box, it felt right. I still have to tune it right, no complaint, every instrument needs to be tuned but still, I hooked it up & it sounded beautiful to me. She's a wonder. I love the feel of it in my hands, fits just right with me. As a left hander I gotta say, this baby is perfect.the_atheist

I work away during the week and play guitar to chill out. This little thing fits the bill perfectly. Light and very playable. I play mine through and chorus pedal and small 3w amp. A strap is a must for this. It love it. Give it a try…imichael.2007

First, and most importantly, this does not feel like a toy. It is solidly built with quality materials. I have several regular sized guitars but I always reach for this one because of the convenience factor. The coil tap was a pleasant surprise and my only gripe is that there is a pretty significant volume drop of when you tap the coil for the single pickup sound (which is not uncommon). The carry on and the fly 3 don't compare to my Tele/Katana 50 but they are not meant to. That being said, you are not compromising anything with this guitar. The neck, frets, easily accessible truss rod adjustment, tuners, mini humbucker all feel like solid quality parts. And for those wondering, yes, you can actually travel with it. I took it from Oklahoma to South Carolina (flying) with no issues. I may end up getting a fender mustang micro to minimize my setup even more but for now, I can play this guy anywhere without issues.Malav

I have bought several guitars in the 100 to 300 range. I was surprised on the quality of this guitar and felt it was superior to many other brands in this range. From neck joint to fret polish & leveling and finish this guitar is quality except the tuners, however the guitar stays in tune and rarely goes out. The neck is not a Fender Strat or Tele neck so don't expect it to play like one, Its its own thing. It is not wide at the nut so if you need a wide neck at the nut it may not be for you. I find it fine and would not consider it narrow. The neck is slightly fatter than a Squire neck but it is still a C shape and a bit thicker as you go up the neck to higher frets. It plays great. Its set up well for Rock and Blues playing, neck adjusted with a light bow and strings set low (but not to low to buzz). Bridge saddles are stainless steel and this make the strings ring out bright and loud even when not plugged in. Intonation was spot on. Frets are tall enough to allow for string bending (there not super low). As regards pickups this is a personal thing. Pickups are very basic and do okay, one may want to upgrade them to ones own liking other wise there fine.pchapm

I was hesitant when ordering the guitar, but after I received it worry washed away from a single glance. I'm not good at instruments, I never played anything than doing ukulele club when I was a kid so I didn't expect myself to buy a guitar. It's delicate and beautiful, feels great to hold and sounds just as good. I do not regret buying this guitar at all, in fact I'm greatful that I'm able to own it. I strive to become great at playing it, little by little . Thank you!Nazma B.

It's a beautiful guitar and really well made. I bought it for my 9 year old daughter and she loves it. I don't know anything about guitars as I'm a pianist myself, but her guitar teacher was absolutely delighted with it. It's definitely worth paying the extra for the upgrades. I can definitely see it lasting her as it feels really solid, and the knobs and twiddly bits etc feel really solid. I genuinely can't get over how nice it is. Makes me want to learn the guitar myself!Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

I had played one of these in a store and liked the feel. After having one for a few weeks, I like it even more. I'm slightly taller than the average guy. Hence my fingers are a bit longer than the average guy. Maybe it is just because the neck seems to get thinner as you get up to the higher notes, but it seems like the neck is a little wider than the rest of my guitars up around the 15th to 24th frets. ("rest of my guitars" include Les Paul, Strat, Ibanez RG550, EVH Wolfgang, and others for reference). Aside from how great the paint job LOOKS, it does not have a gloss coat on it. This is a good thing since the paint job extends up the back of the neck allowing your hand to slide quite freely on the back of the neck. The bridge humbucker is fantastic. It screams the notes clearly with ZERO noise or hum when not playing. I'm not that impressed with the neck humbucker, but that's comparing it to the neck hum on my Les Paul, Carvin, and PRS Custom. AND, for about 90% of the 80s hair band songs you are never using that pickup anyway. The Floyd Rose is great! I got tired of waiting for it to need minor tuning adjustments naturally, so I'm to the point of TRYING to make it go out of tune even slightly and it STILL stays locked in tune. Overall, this guitar is now my GO TO for anything 80s (the biggest chunk of my playing preference).Steve

I was keen to find a 6 string that had a fixed bridge that I could use for covers and so I can retune to alternate tunings easily without having to get the screwdrivers and spending a lot of time retuning like a Locking Tremolo guitar. Thankfully the guitar already had Seymour Duncan pick ups in which are essential to having a aggressive tone but as well allow good expression so this meant it would be a case of getting the guitar out the box and playing rather than buying separate pick ups having to fit them in and so on. As I wanted a guitar that wasn't black or brightly colored the desert sand finish on the guitar really stood out and attracted me. Most of the SLP2's have a great selection of finish's. As for the neck and wood finish it is very smoothly and allows you to get quick access from from end of the neck to the other. Behind each the tuners on the headstock, there is this interesting circular turning device to help lock in the strings. This may help keep it in tune more but I also just attribute it staying in tune due to the general quality of the guitar. I bend the strings a lot for my lead playing and I play very aggressively with thick picks and rhythmically so once I put some heavier strings on (my preference) and configured the bridge saddles with a very small L shaped Allen/hex key the guitar stayed in tune.Tom H.

Overall: I've been a guitarist since the late 80's, but I no longer play professionally, but I do play at home a lot. I've sold off most of my Gibsons (I held on to my '19 Les Paul Traditional) and I'm having a blast with these new Epi models. Everyone is raving about the Standard and the '59 models, and rightfully so. I own both, as well as a new Custom Silverburst and they're all great. This Classic is no exception. It actually arrived needing the least amount of setup work of all the others. The Alnico Classic Pros are brighter and a bit hotter than the Probuckers, but they're not at all harsh. The electronics work as expected, the neck pickup sounds sweet when split and the Phase feature sounds good with some moderate gain. The nut was cut extremely well and the frets don't need really much dressing. The neck is a little slimmer than what I'm used to, but it's easy adapting. The fretboard is a bit dry, but that's normal. Actually, these new Epiphone models all arrived in better condition than most of my Gibsons did in the past. The new Epiphone models are players guitars. Not wall art or collector's (cork sniffers) guitars, I wouldn't hesitate to take any of them to a gig and have fun with them. That's the whole point, right? I just wish they had made import guitars of this quality when I first started playing.Uriah

Out of the box and tuned, this guitar was completely unplayable with the neck so bent that pressing the strings at anywhere beyond the 8th fret fouled the frets higher up the neck, this also meant the action (measured at the 12th fret) was over 6mm. Fortunately I’ve a good understanding of how to set-up a guitar so adjusted the neck to have minimal relief with the truss rod – as a point of interest there was no truss rod allen key in the box, so just as well that I have my own tools. Once the action was set to my preferred settings (and by no means not as low as many like it) I had loads of fret buzz all over the place. So resetting the neck flat and using a ‘fret rocker’ I found 17 of the 22 frets (at various points across the neck) in need of remedial work to get them level. However as the guitar was new I decided initially to just add a bit more neck relief & set the action a shade higher, while I decided if I should just send it back or spending some hours sorting the frets in the near future? There are some positive points! I really liked the ‘worn’ (satin) finish although I feel there should have been a higher discount over the gloss finished versions as this must have saved loads of time during the finishing process. The Alnico Classic PRO pickups sound powerful with loads of variation between the neck and bridge and support coil-splitting. With the coils split option, with push/pull volume pots, there is (as expected) a significant drop in output but they do sound good, verging on P90 territory, rather than Strat/Tele sound ‘alikes’. One of the areas that lower cost guitars usually fail on is the quality of the tuners, here they have fitted Grover Rotomatics with an 18:1 ratio. They are smooth and easy to operate with the large kidney button heads, holding tune very well. The nut, a Graph Tech, was superbly cut, but unfortunately this was completely wasted with the poor quality of fret levelling from the factory as several of the strings would buzz when played open when set at a reasonably low action! The trapezoid neck inlays are very well fitted and although acrylic, do a very good impersonation of mother of pearl. Visually the guitar look stunning with its unusual colour and matt (worn) finish, but I do find the inclusion of gold knobs a bit of a clash with the all Nickel hardware and at the back cream control plate covers just don’t look right and should have been black. But both of these last two issues are a really cheap to resolve at about £12 for both black cover plates and 4 clear knobs. Overall both positives & negatives to consider and if I’d been unable to adjust the guitar myself, there would have been no option but to just send it back for a refund/replacement (hence 3 stars which I think is quite generous) as it is I’ll be keeping this. If I could have bought this locally it would have been great to try before I bought, but my local Epiphone dealer (90 mile round trip) didn’t have any in stock and was unlikely to get one, so I went the mail order route. The guitar is now playing well and will be even better when I get the time to sort out the frets and put a set of 9-42 gauge strings on.Paul

This guitar is absolutely stunning. At about $450 the Epiphone Les Paul Special certainly hits its price point without question. This is the 2nd time I bought this guitar, but I couldn't resist buying this again. I'll start with the cons first, that I noticed applied to both Special's I've owned.. The poly finish is thick. The combination of the "tv yellow" color and the thick polyurethane sort of gives a toy like feeling, or a bit of a cheapness to it.. Speaking of "tv yellow," it's really more of a Dijon mustard/ Carmel color. I don't think that's a bad thing or ugly by any means, but as other reviewers may have stated, the Epiphone isn't quite as accurate to its high end counterpart. The pickup routes and control cavity were also a little bit choppy, but that's just nit picking. If you buy this guitar, you will most likely need a setup. 2nd time around, I knew that going in but both guitars I bought needed set ups. That being said, this guitar is awesome. Surprisingly the laurel fingerboard was really smooth and moist. I do not sense bad or tall frets, but are scratchy at first. The P90 pros are so good. The CTS pots are so dynamic. The volume and tone sweeps combined with these P90 pros are so dynamic and touch sensitive, that they can hang with the best of em. The guitar resonates so well and plays both clean and crunchy top notch. Punchy and warm…Absolute quality electronics. I haven't found a bad tone in any position. If your used to playing your guitars with everything at 10, this guitar with inspire you to play around with all the tonal possibilities by simply rolling in & out your pots. The neck on this is fat, and so nice but not absurd. I highly recommend it. For the price, you can't go wrong and will love the tones, just plan on getting a setup and you will absolutely love this guitar.Zac F

Overall: I've been a guitarist since the late 80's, but I no longer play professionally, but I do play at home a lot. I've sold off most of my Gibsons (I held on to my '19 Les Paul Traditional) and I'm having a blast with these new Epi models. Everyone is raving about the Standard and the '59 models, and rightfully so. I own both, as well as a new Custom Silverburst and they're all great. This Classic is no exception. It actually arrived needing the least amount of setup work of all the others. The Alnico Classic Pros are brighter and a bit hotter than the Probuckers, but they're not at all harsh. The electronics work as expected, the neck pickup sounds sweet when split and the Phase feature sounds good with some moderate gain. The nut was cut extremely well and the frets don't need really much dressing. The neck is a little slimmer than what I'm used to, but it's easy adapting. The fretboard is a bit dry, but that's normal. Actually, these new Epiphone models all arrived in better condition than most of my Gibsons did in the past. The new Epiphone models are players guitars. Not wall art or collector's (cork sniffers) guitars, I wouldn't hesitate to take any of them to a gig and have fun with them. That's the whole point, right? I just wish they had made import guitars of this quality when I first started playing.Uriah

Out of the box and tuned, this guitar was completely unplayable with the neck so bent that pressing the strings at anywhere beyond the 8th fret fouled the frets higher up the neck, this also meant the action (measured at the 12th fret) was over 6mm. Fortunately I’ve a good understanding of how to set-up a guitar so adjusted the neck to have minimal relief with the truss rod – as a point of interest there was no truss rod allen key in the box, so just as well that I have my own tools. Once the action was set to my preferred settings (and by no means not as low as many like it) I had loads of fret buzz all over the place. So resetting the neck flat and using a ‘fret rocker’ I found 17 of the 22 frets (at various points across the neck) in need of remedial work to get them level. However as the guitar was new I decided initially to just add a bit more neck relief & set the action a shade higher, while I decided if I should just send it back or spending some hours sorting the frets in the near future? There are some positive points! I really liked the ‘worn’ (satin) finish although I feel there should have been a higher discount over the gloss finished versions as this must have saved loads of time during the finishing process. The Alnico Classic PRO pickups sound powerful with loads of variation between the neck and bridge and support coil-splitting. With the coils split option, with push/pull volume pots, there is (as expected) a significant drop in output but they do sound good, verging on P90 territory, rather than Strat/Tele sound ‘alikes’. One of the areas that lower cost guitars usually fail on is the quality of the tuners, here they have fitted Grover Rotomatics with an 18:1 ratio. They are smooth and easy to operate with the large kidney button heads, holding tune very well. The nut, a Graph Tech, was superbly cut, but unfortunately this was completely wasted with the poor quality of fret levelling from the factory as several of the strings would buzz when played open when set at a reasonably low action! The trapezoid neck inlays are very well fitted and although acrylic, do a very good impersonation of mother of pearl. Visually the guitar look stunning with its unusual colour and matt (worn) finish, but I do find the inclusion of gold knobs a bit of a clash with the all Nickel hardware and at the back cream control plate covers just don’t look right and should have been black. But both of these last two issues are a really cheap to resolve at about £12 for both black cover plates and 4 clear knobs. Overall both positives & negatives to consider and if I’d been unable to adjust the guitar myself, there would have been no option but to just send it back for a refund/replacement (hence 3 stars which I think is quite generous) as it is I’ll be keeping this. If I could have bought this locally it would have been great to try before I bought, but my local Epiphone dealer (90 mile round trip) didn’t have any in stock and was unlikely to get one, so I went the mail order route. The guitar is now playing well and will be even better when I get the time to sort out the frets and put a set of 9-42 gauge strings on.Paul

This guitar is absolutely stunning. At about $450 the Epiphone Les Paul Special certainly hits its price point without question. This is the 2nd time I bought this guitar, but I couldn't resist buying this again. I'll start with the cons first, that I noticed applied to both Special's I've owned.. The poly finish is thick. The combination of the "tv yellow" color and the thick polyurethane sort of gives a toy like feeling, or a bit of a cheapness to it.. Speaking of "tv yellow," it's really more of a Dijon mustard/ Carmel color. I don't think that's a bad thing or ugly by any means, but as other reviewers may have stated, the Epiphone isn't quite as accurate to its high end counterpart. The pickup routes and control cavity were also a little bit choppy, but that's just nit picking. If you buy this guitar, you will most likely need a setup. 2nd time around, I knew that going in but both guitars I bought needed set ups. That being said, this guitar is awesome. Surprisingly the laurel fingerboard was really smooth and moist. I do not sense bad or tall frets, but are scratchy at first. The P90 pros are so good. The CTS pots are so dynamic. The volume and tone sweeps combined with these P90 pros are so dynamic and touch sensitive, that they can hang with the best of em. The guitar resonates so well and plays both clean and crunchy top notch. Punchy and warm…Absolute quality electronics. I haven't found a bad tone in any position. If your used to playing your guitars with everything at 10, this guitar with inspire you to play around with all the tonal possibilities by simply rolling in & out your pots. The neck on this is fat, and so nice but not absurd. I highly recommend it. For the price, you can't go wrong and will love the tones, just plan on getting a setup and you will absolutely love this guitar.Zac F

Just took delivery of a used Hofner shorty bass in black. Lovely instrument. Fit and finish was fine. I had to do a little bit of intonation setting which took no time. The neck is better than expected. Frets are finished properly and the neck has a nice satin finish. Its not to wide, not too thick and feels great. The pickup delivers and even sound across the strings. There are no dead spots. Volume and tone controls work great and the knurled knobs feel very good. I was able to dial in some of my preferred sounds using the VPF control on my Markbass Blackline 250 going through a Markbass NY604 cabinet. I was also liking the sounds going through an Eden World Tour preamp. Im looking forward to rehearsal tomorrow using the Eden directly into an EV ZLX 12 powered cabinet. The bass came professionally packed and really appeared to be new. Love the padded Hofner gig bad with the logo on it. All in all a great small, inexpensive (but not cheap) bass for practice, performance and especially travel.Miguel404

First of all, this bass is just what I wanted for practicing when traveling. Compact, 24 frets, decent electronics and comes with a gig bag. Intonation was pretty good too. I did adjust the intonation, but that's really only because I'm kind of fussy about intonation. One thing I will say is I had never experienced "neck dive" until I owned this bass like. in the resting position, the bass headstock will point right down to 5 o'clock. Since this is a practice instrument, I made some modifications. I put weight in the body cavity, but the body cavity is not huge, so with extra weight, I could get the neck to hang in the resting position at about 3 o'clock. I next removed the front strap pin and drilled a 3/8" in diameter hole 2" into the body at the same angle as the strap pin screw. I purchased 3/8" aluminum round stock and cut it to 7.5". 2" would insert into the body and 5.5" would remain outside to mount the strap button while extending out to nearly the 12th fret. I painted the round stock black (primer and paint). I mounted (drilled and epoxied) the strap button on the end of the round stock. I think epoxied the extender into the body. It looks pretty darned good and now the bass balances perfectly.Kevin1014