We don’t always get a lot of time to evaluate an instrument for our review pages. There are deadlines to be met, photography to be done, maybe a video to create, before we’re on to the next one.
Quite often there are minor issues with the instrument, the sort of thing us modders can easily fix but can’t always address during a review. Even simple things such as a different string brand and gauge can noticeably change our engagement with the guitar, not to mention a tweak to pickup heights or a slight setup adjustment. While the guitar itself doesn’t change, what we feel about it after some minor modding certainly can.
Case in point is the recent launch of the Epiphone Jeff Beck Oxblood 1954 Les Paul, which I initially reviewed for Guitar World and then wrote an extended feature on for Guitarist.
In order to get to know the Oxblood, there were quite a lot of playtime hours involved, along with reference-listening with other Les Pauls, and a couple of band rehearsals.
Wedged between those two reviews, our editor-in-chief, Jamie Dickson, and our long-time guitar hotshot Richard Barrett put the Oxblood through its paces in a video appraisal for the Guitarist YouTube channel.
In other words, our single sample has been through a few very experienced hands. Not everyone will agree with what we collectively had to say, but at least we put in the hours.
After getting the guitar shipped back from Jamie and Richard, I swear it was playing and sounding better than when it had left me.
New guitars need playing to settle them in and to make everything work together in the same direction, if you like. If we could bottle and simulate the effects of what Richard’s tasty, bendy licks have on the feel of the frets and fingerboard, then we’d have a best-selling product on our hands!
The fret tops honestly feel smoother, the neck back even more glossed. But before a necessary string change, I wondered if I could make it better still? Let’s take a look.
Details Matter
One particular off-spec aspect of our Epiphone Oxblood (and some others we’ve seen in the wild), is that, as reported, the tuners are Grover Rotomatics, not Schaller M6 series like the original, albeit with those more Schaller-like buttons. An obvious mod, then, would be to fit some Schallers!
Today, you can buy direct from Schaller in Germany. A set of M6 90s – which have the rear screw on a lug directly under housing and not angled to the side – look like the best fit. Schaller offers a choice of post heights: the closest, from the back of the headstock to the hole in the string post, are Schaller’s 21.7mm height.
With basic DHL shipping Schaller quoted me €109. Do you need to change tuners? If you want to get as close to Jeff’s guitar as possible, why not? But with such good tuning stability as we’d reported, it wouldn’t be a necessity for any functional reason.
The Graph Tech nut is nicely cut. I did just lightly file a couple of slots to improve tuning during my review time and, again, functionally there was nothing wrong, although reshaping the nut (which can be done in situ) to look a little more like a Gibson from the ’50s, and lose a couple of sharp edges, is too tempting not to do.
As we reported, although the fretting (a medium and not over-high gauge) is pretty good, the actual fret ends haven’t been rounded and feel a little sharp to the touch. It really doesn’t affect the playing experience, although it’s the sort of minor niggle that, frankly, people like me notice.
Likewise, although you wouldn’t expect a bound-fingerboard edge on an old Gibson to have heavily rolled or over-worn edges, I’d be tempted just to round the top edge of the binding here in order to feel more like my old ’50s (unbound) Les Paul Junior.
That ‘no sharp edges’ mantra continues to the pickguard. Its edges are square to the face, not angled, but the top edge is left a little sharp – something that’s easily fixed. While they look great, those speed knobs also have quite sharp top edges and feel a little cheap. Again, easy to fix.
The rather archaic knob pointers aren’t over-sharp and, although I certainly don’t use them to gauge the control positions, they don’t bother me. If they bother you, then they can be easily removed, and actually the pots (and therefore the knobs) could sit lower to the guitar’s face.
Bridge Concerns
The final bit of real estate is of course the Oxblood’s pre-tune-o-matic wrapover bridge/tailpiece. For some, this seems like a real throwback design from the early ’50s, which, of course, it is, and some seven decades later is surely obsolete.
As Jamie and Richard observed in their video, it does alter the appearance compared with the tune-o-matic and stud tailpiece setup. It’s very comfortable to palm-mute with, too, and really pretty much bang on in tune. There’s a very slight ‘sitar-y’ effect on the high E, but in the heat of battle, not least if you’re playing some gutsy rock ’n’ roll like Jeff did on the original, I don’t think either is an issue.
There’s a very slight ‘sitar-y’ effect on the high E, but in the heat of battle, not least if you’re playing some gutsy rock ’n’ roll like Jeff did on the original, I don’t think either is an issue
That said, there are plenty of potential upgrades out there from the likes of Faber, Music City, Pigtail and plenty of designs with pre-set intonation ridges or fully adjustable saddles. A future upgrade then, but, like the tuners, not essential.
Typically on an ‘import’ guitar such as this you’d expect to add a new wiring loom, perhaps with vintage-style capacitors, to your upgrade list, but while there’s nothing stopping you from doing that, again, I’m going to live with the guitar a little more. The CTS pot tapers feel good and the vintage-wiring, with Mallory caps, really does open up the sound potential.
Finally…
One thing you might like to try is setting the pickups a little like Jeff did – at least according to the final pictures of the Oxblood before its Christie’s sale. You can clearly see the screw poles are screwed out from the bobbin on the bridge pickup, the high E, B and D being the tallest; the G is screwed down a little from those.
The A string pole is flat to the bobbin top and the low E very slightly, if anything, raised. And, overall, the pickup is screwed down a little more into the body on the treble side, which would, in theory, give a little more single coil-y attack, not least that the pickup is closely placed next to the bridge anyway. That’s easy to do. If you don’t like it, then it’s completely reversible.
It may be a raft of subtle tweaks and a little bit of fettling, but, as ever, what really is a rather good Les Paul, with its relatively light weight and that big neck, now feels finished. It’s a very tempting proposition.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
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