I now live 800 miles away from the luthier I used for decades before, so I wouldn't know what to do now. But on a matter as personal as guitar set up, I like to have a local and personal relationship with the guy doing the work. If it didn't turn out right, I could go back to him and have it fixed. Honestly, if I had a good luthier in town, I'd rather go to him for a fret level than order the guitar pleked by Sweetwater. IMO, Epis should be pleked at the factory. Otherwise, the cost of a "gigable" Epi may be higher than they think.
#Sweetwater epiphone les paul free#
And when they test play an Epi, they should bring their set up tools along to see if they can get "their action" out of it, and to see if it is free of other problems. But those considering an Epi purchase would be well advised to play (on their own gear) before they pay. So I just paid for the fret level and the mods, and now I have a great P 90 LP - but at a total cost of over $700 instead of the $479 price of the guitar new at the time. (To be fair, so do a lot of P 90 equipped guitars.) But back then, I wanted a P 90 LP and didn't want to pay $3K-$4K for it. The P 90 pups buzzed like hell with even a small amount of gain dialed in. Now the factory fret level allowed for an action within Epis warranty, and the cost of a Gotoh bridge and aluminum TP wasn't enough for me to make an issue over it. The thin chrome plating on the bridge and TP wore through in 3 months (never had that problem, even on "budget guitars"). On my Epi, not only did the fret level suck, but the bridge saddles didn't fit in their slots and were out of radius. To be totally fair, I bought my Epi (actually a 56 GT) new about 4 years ago, and I have heard than newer MIC Epis are improved since then. IMO, if Epi would pay more attention at the factory, we wouldn't need to worry about a plek or fret level job. Can't recall what the luthier charged me for a fret level, but I don't think it was much different than Sweetwater's plek job.īTW (though it may be off-topic) I must say that since I bought my Epi new, I have bought three other guitars in the EPI price range (or lower) that did not need a fret level to achieve my desired action - A Durango Guitar Works Contender, an Ernie Ball Sterling SUB AX3, and a PRS SE Orianthi. Problem is (IMO) Epi warrants an action that isn't very low - more like for a slide player. He even let me see the application of the gauge to my guitar, so I could see buzz free string height was within Epi limits. Thus I believed him when he said the strings could be lowered within EPI warranty limits without buzzing. I had worked with him for 30 years, and he was more loyal to me than Epi. But it was within EPI's very generous (to them) warranted string height level without buzzing - but not within mine! At that time, my local luthier was also the Epi warranty service center. The only Epi I own needed a fret level when I bought it. I don't know - will have to check out this Sweetwater deal.