Epiphone Les Paul Muse Wanderlust Green

A well built guitar that sounds and plays great for an excellent price

I bought this guitar because I wanted a lightweight Les Paul with a nice and slim neck and many tonal options. I have not previously owned a Les Paul and normally prefer guitars with 24 frets, but I like the sound of a neck pickup placed where the 24th fret should be so I was willing to compromise this time. I was also intrigued by the fully chambered body.

The frets were a little rough and needed some polishing, but the ends are very well finished and no sprouting whatsoever. It even looks like the edges of the fretboard have been slightly rounded and the neck feels great. The only things that needed further adjustment after normal setup (truss rod, intonation and so on) was a slightly high 10th fret and the nut slots needed to be filed down a little. The nut is otherwise of good quality and had been cut perfectly to align with the neck.

Fit and finish has no obvious flaws and the instrument looks great in my opinion. The sparkle looks a bit different in person than on photos, but no complaints here.

The pickups sounded a little harsh to me at first, but after lowering them further away from the strings and adjusting the individual pole pieces, the become very sweet. The split coil sound is passable and the out of phase option is very welcome. There is also a treble bleed circuit so rolling off the volume retains brightness. The tone pots are not the most dynamic, but the do work.

The guitar is lightweight for a Les Paul as it has a thinner, fully chambered body with a belly cut, but this does result in a slight tendency to neck dive. A grippy strap solved that problem for me.

Overall, I am very happy with the purchase and would recommend this guitar to anyone who wants a Les Paul with the special features I mentioned. Especially for people who often find Les Paul necks too big. This one is just right for me.