Epiphone Les Paul Special II red 2000

Welcome back to the Crap Factory, where I find mangled guitars and I revive them!

This one found it's way to me via Marketplace and, despite its initially rough shape, I knew right away what this one was and had to get my hands on it. For those of us who know, 90s-00s Korean made Epiphones are really nice quality! This one is no exception. It came to me with a set of dead pickups (bummer), a broken tuner, a broken nut, covered in stickers and carvings, output jack and plate both gone, as well as that it was super dusty and rusty.

After a few days at the spa that one really came back to life! I installed a set of import tuners, made a new bone nut, level/crown/polished all the frets, deep cleaned and oiled the fretboard, installed some neat old Westone humbucker, replaced the seized tone pot, restored the output jack plate, new switchcraft output jack and then added new/old strap buttons.

This guitar was (aesthetically) in pretty rough shape, with lots of stickers and some stuff carved into it. My initial intention was to refine some of my finish work with this one but as I finished removing the stickers it became clear that this guitar earned all of its scars, the messages were largely supportive and encouraging, and I just didn't see the sense in using all that time to do finished repairs on a guitar that wasn't going to be purchased because of the finish repair work.

I like how this one plays very much and the pickups are neat! It is a unique instrument that will serve its next custodian well, whether it be for a beginner or for someone looking for a back up guitar or even one to keep at the practice space in case someone shows up unexpectedly or if your guitar failed and you needed a back up. Honestly, this one is badass enough to become someone's main guitar! I love older Korean made Epiphones and this one is no exception! Thanks for reading this far!