Epiphone Guitars Stock or Upgrade?

[SylenCommando]

I wanted to start a thread to see what people upgrade their Epiphone guitars. Do you upgrade parts, or leave it stock? If you upgrade you epiphone guitar it would be nice to hear what parts you upgrade to, and if still stock would like to hear as well.
Cheers!

 

[NorthernJack]

Stock - Epiphone Genesis, sweet enough for me

 

[SylenCommando]

Nice man, Thanks for sharing.

 

[Carl Los]

Currently 5 Epis. I'll go from lowest to highest price.

Epi Les Paul 100,
This is basically my workbench, if I have any ideas I use this to test it on. I've hand painted it several times, this is it in its current state.
Mods so far, new Epiphone switch, last one was worn badly..
Neck humbucker would cut out, so since it was "dying" I swapped it out and put a single coil in.
Drew in giant fret markers,
Added metal dials.
Removed cream humbucker rings, gonna swap to black ones.
Future Upgrades: New tuners, new bridge with wider saddles, rail humbuckers, repaint, try to make a better faux binding

Epi Wine Les Paul Special 2,
Got it super cheap cause it needed to be fixed,
Replaced broken switch with generic brand, its a thicker switch it seems more durable.
650r, 700T are perfect, no need to swap pickups.
Changed to Wilkinson black tuners
Painted on fret markers.
Made a tele style pickguard.
Future upgrades: wider saddle

Epi Custom Pro Pelham
Got a good deal on this one, pickups were already swapped out.
Has a gibson in the neck and duncan in the bridge. They duncan feel like a neck pickup though, so I might switch it to something crunchier. Also had to angle the gibson to cut some of the treble.
So I guess it can be said that I left it "stock", but it wasnt stock at all, lol.

Epi Black Back
I can confirm that the back is indeed black.

Almost bought a Traditional Aqua but it had a hairline crack on the neck and didnt want to mess with any neck issues. So I bought the Blackback instead and no mods needed in the foreseeable future, Has Grover and Alnico Classics pups sound nice clean with option to coil tap both of them.

Epi Lee Malia
Nothing will ever have to be done to this guitar it is perfect for me. Gibson p94 is a really really great pickup, Playing with the volume knob and the p94 is great fun. I rarely use the bridge on this guitar. Im sure Ill get around to it but the p94 is where it is at for me with this guitar.

Lets see what other Epi's come my way in 2016. I might get an aqua if I find one somewhere. There lots of mod that I want to do , including that epi strat mod I made a thread about. If I get a cheap model, then I wont mind modding whatever I want on it.

 

[jtcnj]

The SG jr in my avatar had horrible tuners. I put a $10. china ebay set on her, very serviceable and stable. Thanks to BGood for the link to those tuners.
I bought this specifically to put in a HB size P90 and found a used GFS Mean 90. Very pleased with it.

 

[BGood]

OK, my turn.

First one I bought was a LP Special 1. I got lucky and got a TV Yellow. Loved it, still do. First thing I did was get a Tusq nut. Real easy swap and made tuning easier. Then the crap tuners went and replaced them with those Kluson Style Guitar Tuners 14:1 Ratio. Cheap enough at $17.99, they are a world apart from the stock ones.

Then the P90s I heard on You Tube always seem to sound better than mine, so I swapped those babies. Didn't realize a better amp would have helped. Anyways, got some Tyson Tone Wraptails 57's and I think it was a good thing, they sound great.
Then since intonation was sketchy up the neck and the lighning bar produced some weird citar sounds, I got this Badass copy to replace the wraparound. Made a world of difference. I think I bought two for $20 or something. Look at the amount of saddle travel on those.

Some fret end dressing.
Oh yeah, the poker chip always gets lost on my guitars, I hate them.

OK, second one is a black 50th Anniversary '61 reissue SG. That one got the Tusq nut treatment too and the second Badass. Did some fret work on it, it had a few high spots. Everything else is stock.

I got a nice Korean SG then, but that thing weighted like a LP. Didn't keep it long enough to make much changes on it but the bridge which had buzzing problems, so I swapped that. It was friggin gorgeous though.

Last one, this gem G400 SG Vintage is all stock and I don't see any change in its future, but maybe a Tusq nut. And for sure the poker chip disappearence magic trick is to come.

All pots and switches are stock and work fine. Some lubricant spray here and there from time to time and everything's great. The tone knob on the bridge '61 pickup is acting up, but I suspect a cold weld or something. If not, I have in inventory, a bag of CT pots that were never needed.

The 3 I'm left with cost me, with the mods, around a wooping $500

 

[BGood]

The SG jr in my avatar had horrible tuners. I put a $10. china ebay set on her, very serviceable and stable. Thanks to BGood for the link to those tuners.
I bought this specifically to put in a HB size P90 and found a used GFS Mean 90. Very pleased with it.

We need to see that baby closer.

 

[IGRocker]

Oh boy, I'll keep this shorter than it has to be, given I only have one Epi. It started life as a Les Paul Custom Pro, but after a year I decided to rip the guts out and installed a Switchcraft jack(because why not), CTS 500k pots and .022 Orange Drop caps. At the same time, I installed Stewmac Parsons Street humbuckers. Those sounded pretty sweet. Also installed gold top hat knobs at the same time. Some time around here I installed Dunlop Straploks, which was a very good move over the factory strap buttons.

~6 months later, I had some spare change and decided to get a gold toggle switch washer and a gold jack plate, along with some NOS Russian PIO caps just to see the difference (absolutely nothing). I did however change the value on the neck pickup to .015, and I like that on the neck much better. I also changed the tuners for Grover Deluxe's. If you couldn't tell, I was in a vintage mood. The Deluxe's have a faster ratio (14:1) than the standard Grovers on Epi's (18:1)

Of course, after I bought those parts, my guitar decided to slide down a table and break the switch! Thankfully there was no other damage. I was fully expecting to hear splintered wood. After that, in popped a brand new Switchcraft switch.

In class, and a feeling kinda Randy Rhoads-ish, I decided that it would be cool to laser engrave my signature into my pickguard. Ta-da! It's done. Every once in a while I take a gold paint marker to it.

Finally! My second to last mod was a set of Wizz Premium Clone PAF replicas. They were totally worth the money IMO. The bridge pickup sounds incredible, with a ton of bite and honk. The best way to describe the neck is that it's crystal clear, no mud anywhere, even with distortion and gain! Almost like an acoustic. At long last, my last mod was the nut, but it was because I was stupid and bought the wrong strings. Just an FYI, the stock Epiphone nut DOES NOT like 10-56 strings!! The low E side popped off. 10-46 strings are ok though (what I normally use).

Yeesh, that's a ton of crap. I've put waaayyy too much money into this guitar, but I don't see it going anywhere any time soon! It's my #1!

 

[BGood]

...(because why not)...
... I had some spare change ...
... just to see the difference (absolutely nothing)...
... I decided that it would be cool to ...
Yeesh, that's a ton of crap. I've put waaayyy too much money into this guitar...

See ? A lot is "because why not".

Cool thing about the laser engraved pickguard though.

Look at what's in my signature. Instead of tweaking things for the sake of tweaking, I searched and got all that for less than $1500.

 

[DPaulCustom]

Currently, I only have 1 Epi, my SG jr.
I've changed the tuners to grover sta-tite, the plastic nut was replaced with a tusq nut, the pickup was replaced with an old dimarzio SD, & I replaced the pots with cts 500k audio tapers, & added an orange drop .022 cap.
There was a bit of 'wobble' at the bridge studs, so I did a lil 'shim' work. The intonation is fine all the way up the neck, so the bridge stayed stock.
After the new tuners.

I added a black plastic cover to the Dimarzio SD

Pretty much done with this one...FOR NOW

 

[IGRocker]

See ? A lot is "because why not".

Cool thing about the laser engraved pickguard though.

Look at what's in my signature. Instead of tweaking things for the sake of tweaking, I searched and got all that for less than $1500.

Haha, yeah I'm a natural born tinkerer. I can't help myself

In the end it's all worth it to me though. The pickups and tuners made the biggest difference I think. With the rest of the electronics, it was mostly for peace of mind and quality (and not liking push/pulls). Ratings on the pots are supposed to be the same.

 

[Caddy]

Epi Special 1. - Graphtech nut.

Epi ES-339 Pro (HB) - Graphtech nut, Gotoh bridge.

Epi Traditional Pro LP - Graphtech nut, Gotoh bridge.

 

[Paruwi]

the ones I've sold (Nighthawk, LP Special DC, LP Ultra-II)
and the ones I still have (Lucille)
didn't get modded except straplocks...
didn't feel the need to do it

the newest one got modded by the previous owner,
he changed the creme plastics to black

 

[pomaranc]

Mine come with upgraded electronics and I am 100% satisfied with the sound so only visual mods for me so far, I am really temped to change from chrome to nickel but I am scared of changing pickup covers

 

[Bradley D. Lyons]

Dot Studio - Strap locks; frets leveled, crowned and dressed; Tusq nut; installed Bigsby B700; moved ground from tailpiece socket to bridge socket.

Casino - Strap locks; bone nut.

LP Standard - Strap locks; Tusq nut; new Gibson switch.

WildKat - Strap locks; bone nut.

Sheraton II - Strap locks.

ES - 335 Pro - Strap locks; Fret level, crown and dress.

SG Special - Strap locks.

LP Special - Strap locks; Tusq nut; fret level, crown and dress.

LP Junior - Strap locks; Tusq nut; fret level, crown and dress.

 

[jtcnj]

We need to see that baby closer.

I lightly went over the nut slots for .010-.046 width and a little height, and the nut is fine with a little scratch of pencil graphite. I would have done the nut if needed. I did them on both SX guitars for a world of difference.

Same with my G-400. I have a Graphtec Tusq XL for it, but its still in the package. I have a set of Giovanni FVH-1s for it but I'm playing it stock for a while.

I will straighten out the tuners when I get time. Here's the Mean 90 and much better (not Grovers, but better) tuners.

Sorry, I have a hard time with blurry or not sharp pictures on Iphone.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I only fix things that are broken. I have 5 Epiphone guitars, a Sheraton II, a Riviera P93 Royale, a Les Paul Slash Plus Top, a SG-G400, and Les Paul jr P90. The only mod I've done was new pickups in the SG. The stock pickups were OK but they weren't very versatile. I put in a set of Sigil pickups that are worth more than I paid for the guitar. It is now my go to guitar for jams. Looks like a beat up old Epi SG but sounds like a million dollars. Plays pretty good too. No worries about it disappearing if I step out for a break. Everyone thinks the tone is coming from my fingers LOL

These are what I installed. Awesome pickups.

http://www.sigilpickups.com/product/steve-lips-kudlow-signature-set/

 

[BGood]

I will straighten out the tuners when I get time.

Thank you thank you thank you !

Didn't say anything, but that image there of the back of the headstock, just hurt my eyes.

 

[RTH]

I upgrade the strings.

 

[SylenCommando]

Wow. Thanks everyone who posted. I still don't know if I should upgrade my SG G-400. With pots,jack,switch and caps,wiring it would be close to $150 for that stuff, not sure about investing that much cash on upgrades.