A lot of appealing features on this axe. I'm so happy with it that I'd consider purchasing more of the Prophecy series just to check them out. An awesome guitar at a fairly decent price!

Sound
Well, they're EMG pickups so if you don't know what to expect you're getting ACTIVE pickups that are the closest thing to making your guitar into a flamethrower that you can get and still be legal! There's a reason that so many metalheads choose EMG's. They have a very tight focused mid-range and a pristine clear sound. When you add the gain it makes the sound very tight and articulate with plenty of upper harmonics coming through. Some folks claim that you can't get a good clean sound from them. Well, you can IF you roll off the volume a bit. It may not be a glassy rich Strat sound but it's more than adequate for those occassional clean passages. The HEAVY body weight of this guitar (all mahogany wit a maple top) certainly adds to the sustain. The maple top and ebony fretboard (both very dense tone woods)add to the crispness of the sound.

Features
Features? Let's see...EMG's, hand stained quilted maple top, ebony fretboard, graphite nut, strap locks, speed taper neck with satin finish, and binding on EVERYTHING! Some people lament the single volume and tone pots, but that's no biggie for me. It's been my experience that 90% of players just dime everything anyways, so what's the point of having two extra knobs to… read more get in the way of things? Unless, of course, you suffer from knob envy.

Ease of Use
It's pretty easy to get a good sound out of this guitar. Of course an awful lot depends on your amp and pedals too. Don't expect to plug this into a five watt no-name amp with a six inch speaker and hear the gates of doom. The graphite nut and Grover tuners keep tuning incredibly stable. Access to the full 24 frets is somewhat limited due to the inherent Les Paul body design. The speed taper neck is a thing of beauty. Not quite as thin as an Ibanez Wizard II neck, but certainly thinner than any other Les Paul neck. And the satin finish on the back makes getting around very easy.

Quality
It's not a Gibson! A Gibson LP is all hand made and finished in lacquer, a process that takes up to two weeks (thus the very high price tag). So making that comparison is like comparing apples and oranges. This one's made in China in Epiphone's new state-of-the-art facility. Probably CNC'ed for the most part. That's not a bad thing! Consistency in quality is worth it. At one time Epiphone was contracting out their guitars to over thirty different manufacturers in Korea and it showed. Quality ran from above average to pitiful. Now it's well above average. Mine had no flaws whatsoever.

Value
As far as value goes there are other guitars out there with similar specs for less money (Schecter, ESP, Ibanez), but none have ALL of the features that this one does for this price. After all this is a fairly unique guitar. It's closer to a Zakk Wylde LP than the actual EPI Zakk Wylde LP, and for the same price!

Manufacturer Support
I've emailed Epiphone on several occassions with questions about cases ans such and they've always responded within 24 hours.

The Wow Factor
While this guitar certainly doesn't break any new ground with it's traditional Les Paul shape it's the features that make this guitar so appealing to me. It certainly is a looker with it's ominous dark finish offset by the white binding. And the inlays on the fretboard and headstock say "This ain't your Grandpa's Les Paul". The pickups are outstanding. The 24 fret ebony fretboard with the slim neck make it a dream to play.

Musical Background:
Hobbyist

Musical Style:
Metal read less