Can't be the best because that would be a gibson les paul, due to the wood and electronics put into them. But bang for the buck, and future upgrades this wood be way up there.

Sound
After 6 months of playing the worn cherry the tone was just not their. Thought maybe some seymours would do the job, but a little more forum surfing led me to change the pots to cts audio taper 500k, PIO russian caps .015 in the neck and .022 in the bridge, and vintage wire throughout with vintage wiring diagram.BAM nailed it 9.9 on the les paul tone.So the stock pickups are not that bad, its the cheap electronics.So having some soldering skills picked up from utube vids I managed to only spend fifty bucks more on this axe,and what a difference.

Features
construction is way better then what I remenmber of epiphone in the 80's,needless to say I was empressed with the construction. Other then the electronics this peice is ready to upgrade and not waste your money when your done.

Ease of Use
Very playable with the satin nitro neck finish. I like.

Quality
Fit, feel, finish, wood, constrution all good. Pots, caps, wire,not great. Pickups o.k., switch good no issues, jack o.k. no issues.

Value
Different mahogany but strong, alder instead of maple but still hard, finish is awesome for these woods combined. Components like bridge, tail peice and tuners… read more as good as the others,NUT not so good its plastic, but a $9.00 graphite nut solved that and keeping it in tune. Actualy thats the first thing I did when I brought it home was change the Nut to graphite, and I have had no tuning problems.

Manufacturer Support
I rated an 8 because I have not used support yet, but I here good things about gibson's response to other customers.

The Wow Factor
Well I don't no how sexy it is, its a studio. The name says alot, but still very nice finish.I'm a player not a showman.

Musical Background:
studio musician

Musical Style:
write it i'll play it read less