EpiphoneLes Paul Player Pack, Vintage Sunburst

This guitar set is the PERFECT set up for the beginner. The guitar itself costs $169 on Amazon. This set comes with a small practice amp, cable to attach guitar to amp, nylon guitar strap, a few pics, a guitar tuner, and a gig bag, which by itself sells for $19. The great thing about this is it is specificlly aimed at the beginner, and comes with everything you need to start playing right away, without having to do homework and figure out the accessories you want/need when as a beginner you don't really know and aren't that interested in, you just want to start playing! Well not only is the guitar in this set a really good quality guitar, you get the periphery items that will definitely work for you as you're just starting out, that you will very much most likely upgrade after you figure out what you want. The amp is a really nice amp. It is small and louder than you'd imagine. It has bass and treble settings, a headphone out jack, and an input that you can plug a standard ipod headphone cable into so you can play your ipod out the amp speaker and "jam" along. The cable that attaches to the guitar and to the amp is about ten feet long, one end is right angled. The amp runs off regular US 120V power. The guitar is much more beautiful in person than you can tell from the picture. It is very well made. Mine had a couple of very very small cosmetic blemishes that are hardly noticible. The sound of the guitar is good as well. It does indeed sound different than my Fender Squire Stratocaster, but not in a bad way at all. It has a "warm" tone to it. It has some heft to it, but is not what I would consider "heavy." Epiphone is owned by Gibson, and the Epiphone line is much like the Squire line of Fender products; a beginner and cost friendly alternitive while having similar apperance to their much much more expensive brethern. The included tuner didn't have instructions, and took me messing with it for quite some time to figure out what it wanted, and is quite finnicky. It includes battery. It works fine. The nylon strap that connects to the guitar that you wear over your shoulder is highly adjustable, and could probably be adjusted down or up to fit a small child or a very large adult. The "gig bag" guitar case has a big pocket that you can use to store a couple song books or whatever. It too has a sling strap you can tote over your shoulder, or you can use its handle. The pics it comes with are just as good as any other pics. Mine was shipped in the box shown with a plain brown box with padding surrounding it, so you can order this as a gift and not worry about it being not wrapped.So why order this set for $30 more than just the guitar? Well, as a beginner you don't really know what you want yet. It's better to start out with decent, cheaper items and go up from there. Here you have a base to build upon. Since purchasing this set, I've upgraded the case to a hard case for travel, bought some new pics, and bought a Snark tuner,(<$15) and bought a nicer, stylish and more comfortable guitar strap. So for $30, I figured out what works and what doesn't. The amp and cable and guitar are great, and in no way are needing upgrades for the beginner. The bag, guitar strap, and tuner work, and are fine, but I quickly grew out of them. All in all, this is very much worth $199!!!-As a side note for any future players interested in self paced guitar instruction, the set I chose after hours of research and is VERY highly reguarded as being excellent for beginners, is called "Learn and Master Guitar." by Gibson. They have a website and the more complete set which I got is right around $200. They also have it here on Amazon, but I'm not sure if you get all the extra "bonus dics." Anyway, the instruction is terrific and I never thought I'd be able to play guitar!-As far as the included online instruction that is included with this set, I never used it so I can't comment on that.Have a great time learning guitar!! :-)-Shane****-UPDATE-**** July 29, 2014Well, since purchasing this as my first guitar, I've since bought a few other guitars, most recently a Epiphone Les Paul Plustop PRO, $499. Well, build wise, the Plustop PRO is much fancier and stylish, heavier, and just way nicer to look at. Aesthetically terrific. HOWEVER, even tho the Plustop PRO has different pickups, different tone selectors, has a glued on neck, better workmanship, quite honestly the sound of this budget Epiphone LP guitar is really not worth the extra $330. For the looks, yes, but actual SOUND, not too much of a discernible difference. I wish it were a huge difference in sound, but in all reality, not so much. I get a few more sounds from the Plustop due to the coil tapping feature and the slightly better pickups, but, again, not a crazy noticeable difference. I notice after messing around for a bit with the Plustop, I grab this one,(its WAY lighter) and rip on it. Just as easy to play. I contend this Epiphone is still a GREAT buy! Also, if you want a little bit more fancier looking guitar, the next step up from this one is the Epiphone LP-100,($249), which has a some better color options and also has second set of tone and volume knobs, and is a bit beefier physically than this model. The pickups however are EXACTLY the same, so most likely you'll get the same sound as this one. So spending the extra $80 may be worth it to you if you want a bit better looking guitar.***UPDATE FEB.2015*** Well, I've since progressed quite a bit in my playing, and I've acquired many more guitars. This one has now been assigned duty as my primary Slide Guitar, as I use an open tuning on it. So, if you're thinking about buying this and wondering about progressing, you can still find a use for it! Still sounds great, and I think this is one outstanding purchase for a first guitar!*********UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2015***********I recently took a break from playin' the blues and picked up my AC/DC guitar play along book. "Dirty Deeds" looked fairly "easy" to learn the first few measures, so I went about trying to get the sound of Angus Young on my Fender Stratocaster and Mustang III amp. I just could NOT get that thick, whole, bass'y sound I was looking for, no matter how much I messed about with the knobs. This Epiphone Les Paul Special II, my first 'baby', was sitting right in my closet, and I remembered how nice and full she sounded, so I plugged her in and found a good setting on my amp and bingo, PERFECT MATCH!! This guitar, while kinda plain looking, produces a really full, thick sound. Great guitar. Still!

Great guitar, I'm still learning, and its perfect. The amp is a bit cheaply made, but it gets the job done.

Excelente producto

I live all the way in Central America, in Belize and it was no easy task for me to finally receive my package but this was expected since I live so far away. But in regards to amazon and the shipping company FedEx I am truly grateful for the care and resources available for me to know exactly where my package was and whenever it was moving I knew. I had to ask a relative in America to do the final shipping and despite all the moving around the guitar went thru it was so well packaged and handled that it had no signs of damage whatsoever.In fact it is one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever seen, if i had enough money at the time I would have gone with the sunburst finish, but the full black looks so damn sexy I am cool with my choice. It fells indestructible in my hands and all the parts or accessories came along in the box. Everything more or less works as it should the Amp is small and cute and is loud enough for me, the tuner works, the guitar picks suit my playing style and the action is absolutely magic it's the lowest i have ever felt.The only things that seem a bit off are the guitar strings which seem to be worn out and don't sound the way they should or stay in tune but its an easy fix to buy some new ones. Plus the switch that allows you to change between which pickups are used also gives a little trouble, almost like it shorts out when i tried to switch to rhythm, i hope it's something I can look at myself because we don't have any qualified guitar techs in this country and I don't trust anyone to touch it.It is working for now but all in all it's one of the best investments I have ever made. I am already trying to learn Foxey Lady from Jimi Hendrix and I love that dirty sound you get when you put the Amp in over drive and you do the vibrato with the string as you turn the volume all out. My wife thinks I look sexy with it in my hands, what more could I ask for.