Epiphone Les Paul SL - Heritage Cherry Burst

The Epiphone Les Paul SL is more than just an entry-level model that’s affordable. It’s a solid guitar with playability and pickups that give it larger-than-life swagger

Epiphone have merged the Les Paul Junior and Melody Maker into one seriously kick-ass model called the Les Paul SL, which goes to the head of the class as a new breed of “student model” guitars — and as their most affordable Les Paul.

The SL is incredibly lightweight and easy to play and can be setup for any number of purposes, from slide guitar to a howling blues-rock beast

The most distinguishing feature of the SL is its custom single-ply pickguard that surrounds the two Epiphone 700SCT (bridge) and 650SCR (neck) ceramic single-coil pickups. Outside of that, the SL is very much a typical single-cut Les Paul Junior with no binding, a mahogany neck, a slim-taper D-profile neck shape, 22 medium jumbo frets, an adjustable intonated “wraparound” stopbar tailpiece, “tophat” master volume and tone controls with a three-way toggle switch and premium die-cast 14:1 tuners.

The SL could stand on its own as guitar that is poised for rock and blues, with a distinctive tone that cuts on its own terms. What’s even better is how flawlessly the guitar plays, thanks to Epiphone’s consistent textbook setup on its instruments.

The Epiphone ceramic single-coil pickups sound very muscular and clear, thwarting any notion this is a wimpy “student model” guitar