Epiphone’s long friendship with innovator Les Paul dates back to the late ’30s and early ’40s when Les, working at night at the Epiphone factory on 14th St. in New York City, created one of the world’s first solidbody electric guitars, “The Log.” Over the years, Les continued to work closely with Epiphone luthiers reviewing new product ideas and offering suggestions. Now, the Epiphone Les Paul “Tribute” Plus honors our friendship with Les by combining his classic design features with legendary Epiphone quality and value with the added feature of Gibson USA ’57 classic humbuckers.The Epiphone Tribute Les Paul features a solid Mahogany back with a solid, carved hard Maple cap to create the ultimate combination of warmth and bite. The solid mahogany neck with a hand-fitted, glued-in joint extends well into the neck pickup cavity, creating maximum neck-to-body contact and acting almost like one continuous piece of wood. Combined with the Mahogany/Maple body, the result is a tribute to Les’ timeless guitar design with the sound that you can only get from a Les Paul.Capturing all the power and nuances of the “Tribute’s” tonewoods is a pair of authentic Gibson USA ’57 Classic humbucker pickups. With their “Patent Applied For” decal on the base plate, the ’57 Classic and ’57 Classic Plus are faithful replicas of the famous PAF Gibson humbuckers created by Seth Lover that helped define the “Les Paul” sound. The ’57 Classic gives you a tone that is warm and subtle with full, even response that doesn’t hold back when you need that classic Gibson humbucker crunch! The ’57 Classic Plus is the perfect bridge pickup and mimics humbuckers from the late ’50s that often received a few extra turns of wire. This treatment gives the pickup a slightly higher output without sacrificing its rich, vintage tone. When combined, these humbuckers overdrive tube preamps to a smooth level of saturation without becoming overpowering. Both ’57s Classic humbuckers feature Gibson’s special Alnico II magnets, vintage enamel coated wire, nickel plated pole pieces, nickel slugs, maple spacers and vintage-style braided wiring. But this Les Paul is not just about recreating the “old”, it’s also about looking ahead, just as Les himself continued to do throughout his lifetime. Using 4-conductor pickup wiring, Epiphone has added two push/pull tone pots to allow for series/parallel pickup switching. The result gives you a Les Paul with all the legendary sounds plus a huge palette of tonal possibilities at your fingertips.Other upgrades include a USA Switchcraft 3-way toggle, Mallory-150 tone capacitors, Epiphone StrapLocks, 18:1 ratio premium Grover 106 Series Locking Rotomatic machine heads, and a premium hard case.Features: