Epiphone Alex Lifeson Les Paul Custom Axcess Electric Guitar - Ruby Reviews

I'd Have To Say That This Epiphone Is 1 Of The Best That Epiphone Has Put Out Recently, Playability, Feel, Tone,... All Are Just Incredible,.. Well Done Epiphone!.

This is the third time I've tried to submit a review. Every time I try to include a picture of the guitar it takes me to another screen where I cannot submit my review. So in short, excellent guitar. I was not happy with the work that Sweetwater did with their initial setup. After receiving it, sending it back and receiving it again. I decided to take it to a luthier in Albuquerque. He was able to set it up properly, was able to set it up with 9/42s like I wanted originally. I'm very happy with this purchase. Personally, if I ever buy another guitar from Sweetwater I will not have their shop said anything up but I will take it to a local luthier

What am I gonna say about this guitar? If you're like me and have always wanted a Les Paul with a Floyd Rose without paying $, then this is a great alternative. Sure, ESP makes LP style guitars with a FR, but… it's still not a Les Paul. With that said, this guitar feels and plays like a LP. The pickups are quality and deliver tones you would expect in this signature offering. If what I'm describing is what you've been looking for then give this guitar a shot.
On the negative side, the guitar was not set up properly from the Epiphone factory. It's a shame that Sweetwater doesn't do some in house set ups to make sure you're getting what you pay for. I know my way around a FR so it didn't take long to dial it in. The action was way too high for my taste. Once I got all of the things I didn't like corrected….'MAGIC! I don't care about the lack of piezo. This guitar is great. The push/pull coil tap works well and the "out of phase" option makes up for the piezo. Overall solid Les Paul!

Great guitar. Ever greater with a set of Duncan's

For what this guitar is, it's amazing. It's sounds and plays fantastic, the FR tremelo is on point, the PUPS, the finish, litteraly have nothing bad to say. Anyone talking bad on this guitar probably is mad that an 'epiphone' is costing more than $ not realizing that epiphone also sells high end instruments. Thus deffinetly being at the top of the food chain as far as quality. I actually traded my first one because of a great deal I got and immediately bought another from Sweetwater. Can't wait to get it in!

Very good neck. Very good finish. No fret issues and the intonation is pretty accurate straight out of the box. Excellent tone all around. This guitar has a great range. The pickup versatility, body sculpting for reach and the Floyd Rose are the reasons I wanted this and I'm not at all disappointed. Don't limit yourself to thinking you're only going to get Lifeson tones. I put mine in front of my Friedman JJ and it sounded as heavy as I would want. I put it in front of my cleaner amps and it sounds good there too.
What else I like about mine is the maple looks like a Rorschach test around the bridge because of how well the bookmatching was done.
If you want versatility and value, I'd say this is the one.

The Epiphone Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Guitar is the best guitar I ever had. The guitar is a lovely monster of tonal possibilities, and when playing bluesy and clean tones, it amazingly delivers! When playing Blues, I always found that the Fender Stratocaster was the Pinnacle in that aspect, but I do not know what Epiphone did with this gem that it actually delivers in that venue. Now in my live presentations, I no longer need to switch from one guitar to another in order to come close to the tones I'm looking for and be able to achieve the same sounds I'm trying to faithfully replicate that are needed to do justice to the covers I'm performing in my live sets. With the Epiphone Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess, I can do that and more; the instrument is a Swiss Knife of tonal options and possibilities. I have a Gibson Les Paul Studio far more expensive than the Alex Lifeson's guitar, and to be clear and certainly honest, the Epiphone Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess, mops the floor with the Gibson guitar.

Many Thanks to My Awesome Sales Engineer, Mr. Logan Miller. Logan is a Professional that pours his heart and soul towards everything he does that always provides me with the best customer service ever. Logan, Once Again thank you so much for making sure that my gear arrives in perfect shape and according to my specs, everything you do, is truly appreciated.

This guitar is absolutely stunning! It played second fiddle to a 57 Custom Shop Gibson Black Beauty Sweetwater had on hand. My son and I played many guitars on our visit and this Epiphone was 2nd only to that Black Beauty!
The Floyd is practically flawless. EVH Floyd's aren't nearly as reliable. The tonal options are incredible and since I'm a beck pick up kind of player, this thing is a powerhouse with regards to that Epiphone Ceramic Pro! Couldn't be happier!
Now I need to find it's older brother to have the pair!
Thank you everyone at Sweetwater for all the help!
The greatest music equipment providing team on the planet, bar none!!

The Alex Lifeson Ruby Custom Axcess by Epiphone is an outstanding & well crafted guitar. I'm glad I didn't hesitate to order this one and thanks as always to my sales rep David Warham for having it shipped the same day.
It arrived in perfect condition and ready to play after a quick tune up. The action was perfect for me & no string buzz or flaws whatsoever. The neck is smooth and fast it actually feels like it's been plek'd. The cutaway at the neck is a unique & very nice feature to this guitar. The gold plated hardware with a Floyd Rose Trem & high quality pickups make this a visually and sonic guitar at an excellent price point.

Yes I'm an Alex fan and this fact sparked my interest in his latest guitar. Alex and the Epiphone team did a great job with the quality and features. I love all the options, sound, and fit and feel. Great guitar!

Awesome sounding guitar beautiful finish.

I have the prior Epiphone Alex Lifeson guitar as well, this one is every bit as good. Yes, it doesn't come with a piezo, so that's just specs. Complaining about features not offered on a guitar you didn't buy is not only pointless but writing a review shows Sweetwater should maybe only let people that have bought the gear write reviews.

Coil splitting works great. My finish was flawless (whoever setup the guitar forgot they left the whammy bar in the case though so it shipped underneath the guitar, thankfully poly is stronger than nitro, so I didn't see any damage. I like this one better than the prior version, maybe it's just the "Custom" bits (rectangular inlays and the extra first fret one). I like the Grover tuners better too. This one also comes with a hard shell case, where the prior came with the stupid soft shell one, so I had to buy an upgrade with that guitar (which now sells for more than MAP on this guitar, even with the stupid case).

So overall if I had to choose to keep only one (I'm not a fan of gold typically either) this would be it. Plays so smoothly, and doesn't have that stupid notch like the Modern Les Pauls (why I won't buy one of them).

Got mine yesterday and I'm here to tell you it's one very nice Les Paul, very nice! I'm a Gibson guy and have a few very nice Gibsons, purchased the Epiphone Alex Lifeson because they make them in a lefty.

You don't have to take my word for it or the other 2 guy that have commented that don't even own the guitar but are pissed it does not have a feature from the previous version. This is not the same guitar as the previous version, it's a custom and IMHO it's a very fine guitar even without Piezo, especially for the money. Don't takes anybody's word especially if they do not own the guitar, try one for yourself. You won't be disappointed!

First, let me think Nich Magnani and the Sweetwater team. You killed it as usual. Nick has always made my Sweetwater experience exceptional. He gregariously shares his expertise on Sweetwaters products and has even sent me pictures of his own gear with explanations of how he uses them. Me or someone from my family is usually talking to him every few months.
Now the guitar. First of all, it's gorgeous! it arrived ahead of schedule and undamaged. It appears kind of like the Gibson Wine color in ambient light but as soon as bright light or sunlight hits it, the quilting and Ruby color really pop. Set up was good. Fret ends polished nicely and I only made a few personal preference adjustments like gold and black knobs replacing the black ones it arrived with, and some minor pick up adjustments to tailor it to my preference sonically.(Was darker sounding) The neck is more rounded than my other Epi Les Paul custom and my SG which are flat so it feels a bit slower than them to play. I'll probably replace the 10's it came with, with 9's to lighten that up a bit at some point.
I rated it 4 1/2 out of five stars mainly because there were a few hazy over buffed spots in the clearcoat from the factory, which I had to polish and buff out. 99% gone now. Overall it's almost a perfect less Paul for me and it fits in nicely with my other Epi's

The one i received was perfect, fit, finish, action, sound, everything. I know that this is not the norm, but it should be.

I received mine from another source last week. I'd say for the money, $1299, it's a pretty nice guitar.
When you add up all it has, and think about its Gibson equipments, $1299 is inexpensive compared to what it would cost if it had Gibson pickups and Gibson's name.
Would I like to see Gibson's name on it. Sure, absolutely. However, the cost would be $7500 and in no time the resell cherubs would have it at $15,000 or more.
It's quality is that good. A name, pickups, and maple top is the only difference here.
Stick a 496 & 498 on this and a 1/4" maple top and the word Gibson on it, it's right there.
The fretboard is Ebony, the back & body is a very nice quality mahogany. Frets are nicely finished. Strings are Gibson Classics. Floyd Rose is a model 1000, top of the line. I believe there is a nut discrepancy on the R4, but no big deal. Headstock is beautiful. Binding is a triple ply. My guitar has a very nice figured maple veneer. Not as nice as a PRS veneer, but pretty nice. I hand rubbed McGuires car polish over the entire body to a high sheen. Very nice indeed. As far as an acoustic bridge, they're nice til they quit working. And at some point, they'll quit working. If you have a Lifeson, you should think of purchasing an extra. One of these days, you may wish you did. Hope not, but everything electronic eventually quits. Unfortunately.
I've got both Lifeson Axcesses with acoustic bridges, and I'm glad this one is just regular.
The "out of phase" is different, especially in the middle position, with the Bridge split. And I agree with a YouTube review, "Bury the Neck pickup" to keep it from over whelming the Bridge.
Of course there are things that we all would like to see. Who knows , maybe Alex has something else in store for us. He never let us down while hammering away for Rush.
Peace everyone.

For full disclosure, I had to get mine elsewhere because SW was already sold out when I went to buy and I knew I had to act fast. The one I received is impeccable! I've been through so many guitars in my life that I don't go through a "honeymoon phase" anymore. I know pretty much within an hour how I feel about the guitar. Now after a week, I can say this one is absolutely no joke and is a pro grade instrument. Beautiful to look at, solid as can be, but more importantly comfortable to play, and I'm not usually a Floyd Rose user. The pickups sound really good, but I suppose if I had one gripe, it would be that at this price point, I feel there should have been some Gibson, or Duncan, etc., pickups in the guitar. With that said though, these pickups are completely musical and usable. I may not even swap them out. Anyway, the rating here that gave one star because of the lack of piezo, and the person most likely doesn't even own the guitar, are pointless and tell you nothing you don't already know, so pay no attention. I personally top it off at 4 1/2 stars. Not much in this world is 5 star perfect. But man, if there were "higher end" pickups in this guitar, this would be pretty close!

I have a bunch of guitars, but always missed having a trem on my Les Paul models. When I saw ads for this Epiphone Alex Lifeson LP Custom Axcess, I was drawn to it by the color and the Floyd Rose. A the price point, a modest fraction of what a similar Gibson labelled model would cost, I decided I had to try it out. Admittedly, I had some trepidation about Epiphone. Would it be a good quality instrument, or impress me more as a knock-off of an American classic. When the instrument arrived, well packaged and protected (my first time ordering a guitar online), I was impressed with the quality of the fit and finish. The playing experience was very good, with all the frets well finished...no rough spots, no nicks or burrs. The sound is Gibson-like, maybe not the best sounding guitar I ever played, but I'm not looking at replacing pickups anytime soon, either. All in all, a great purchase which I plan to use often. My only complaint is that the instrument arrived with heavier gauge strings than Floyd Rose recommends for the trem. They felt like 10's or even 11's, and Floyd Rose says their trem is designed for 9's max. Adjusting the trem according to instruction resulted in way too much string tension. I changed out to 9's and all is good. I would not hesitate to purchase another higher end Epiphone guitar in the future.

Awesome guitar! I love how the guitar sounds, feel and play. The only reason I gave it a 4 star is because I don't like the gold color Floyd Rose tremolo, gold pick-up covers and the gold tuners. It would be nice if Epiphone mimic the Alex Lifeson (AL) Gibson version with the chrome Floyd Rose. Luckily, I have a spare chrome Floyd Rose laying around that I can use to replace the gold one. With under $, I replaced all the hardware in the Epiphone to mimic the Gibson AL. IMO, I don't think that gold goes well with red. That's just me though. Maybe the gold hardware suits well for others, but definitely not for me. Other than that, the Epiphone AL LP is an awesome guitar and is definitely a keeper!

Ok. Being a bit critical here, and here it comes. Only dropping 4 stars here due to the overall cost of this guitar. It's a nice deal for those of us willing to pay a little extra. I personally feel these could be priced in an 800 range and they'd still make money. The pickups sound ok to me. Not great, but you do get that with a lot of Epiphone PAFs. The neck is the best feature of the guitar. It's thin, but not Ibanez thin. Still feels like a Les Paul. I like it, but can't really say it blows me away. Red Zone or no Zone. Crank it up.

I was really excited when the guitar arrived. It is stunning it looks amazing. Played it for a while and it plays nice and sounds great. Lots of great options for tones with the different push pull settings from single coil to humbucker to out of phase. The Tremelo is very stable and stays in tune with serious dives. I only gave four stars because the fret ends were a bit sharp and need work and the frets are a little scratchy. One of the push pull pots is noisy when pulled. All easy fixes if you know how to do it. For the cost it should have been done at the factory. If you are not like me and go over a new guitar with a fine-toothed comb you probably would never have noticed. But it is an excellent and beautiful guitar well worth the cost. I believe it is worth more than the actual sale price.

I was excited to learn about this guitar prior to its rather secretive release. I contacted Sweetwater and got one reserved. It arrived quickly and upon first visual inspection it was stunning. After sitting down with it for a while and doing some exploring and giving it a proper setup, I found some issues:

1. The locking nut was too high causing intonation issues. I filed down the nut bed about 1/32".

2. The fret bevels needed some extra fret dressing and polishing. After filing smooth, I used polishing paper from 1500 grit through 12000 grit.

3. They did a real bad job of scraping the clear lacquer off the top edge of the neck binding. I made a scraper from a single edge razor blade and spent about an hour rectifying that.

4. The pots are cheap offshore junk and everything is connected with those ridiculous quick disconnects. I'll be building a new harness with CTS pots, Mallory caps and a PureTone Jack. This guitar deserves a quality harness.

On a side note, I didn't care for some of the guitar's aesthetics. I didn't like the black knobs, black PU rings and poker chip. I changed the knobs to gold and the rings and poker chip to white. I'll also be swapping all the gold hardware to chrome so the guitar will look more like the Royal Crimson Red Gibson Alex Lifeson and because my sweat eats through gold plated hardware.

All this aside,I really like this guitar as much as the first Epi Alex Lifeson which I also have. It had similar production issues that I resolved.

The first Alex Lifeson Axcess had a lot of issues, quality control being one. The latest one is much better, but that comes at a cost, about $ and no piezo. Some will say the price increase is because it's a Custom model over a Standard and of course Inflation. The real reason is simple, the price is based on what they think they can sell it for. So what about the guitar itself? It is well made, the fit and finish are near perfect and it plays and sounds great. Just like the first one, Epiphone / Gibson did not make enough despite having over a year to prepare for the release. Why?

The low E string keeps slipping off the frets,the high E slipped off the frats and got caught underneath the fret? how they didn't notice this. If you play the guitar aggressive and not paying attention to the low E string it keeps on slipping off.
I've never seen binding not meet up with the neck of the guitar, the binding looks crooked. It's supposed to go against the neck of the guitar, not where it is. The neck looks like it's set in the wrong. I'm surprised specially for this price. It may go back?

I REALLY want to love this guitar, but I'm close to sending it back. |

Pros:
It's BEAUTIFUL, sports an awesome variety of tones, I like the pickups, sweet ebony fretboard, classy Gibson Custom badging, the Floyd Rose on a Les Paul brings guitar nerds out from their mom's basement and into the sunshine, and the NUMBER 1 PRO FEATURE -Alex Lifeson had something to do with it!

Cons:
1. Fret ends were filed so shallow that the E strings often slip off the ends of the fretboard.
2. They put an R4 locking nut on it which exacerbates the problem. I'm testing an R3 which is a direct replacement and helps.
3. The push pull knobs don't have set screws, so the knobs have a tendency to pop off during normal coil splitting operations
4. The tremolo arm had a lot of slack in it and was clanking. Had to fix it with a spring from a pen and some plumbers tape.

Courses of Action:
I can send it back and risk having it damaged in the shipping process, spend another $ to have it properly fretted locally, or return it and move on with life. Still thinking about it.

Caveat that I'm a lifelong Rush and Alex Lifeson fan. I own one of the Gibson Custom shop Lifeson's in Black which is a phenomenal guitar. This Epiphone is a very nice guitar. Great build quality and components. The color seems more Crimson like the R40 guitar than Ruby. and the gold trim is elegant. Tone is big, warm and classic Les Paul. Aggressive in humbucking mode and more mellow and thin in single coil too for variety to match music styles. I do really miss the Ghost Piezo though which was amazing on the Gibson and really wish they would've included it again as it was amazing to blend up both acoustic and electric tones. I would've given it a higher rating if the Ghost piezo was in her. I previously owned an an Epiphone 1959 and Gibson is really putting out nice guitars at 1/2 the price with an Epi LP if you can't afford to go with a full-bore Gibson LP. Mine is solid feeling 9.75 lbs. Ebony neck plays real smooth and nice with quality looking inlays in neck and headstock. Like playing my other Lifeson guitars or just throwing on a Rush album on the turntable. I just like feeling close to the music and band that I've loved since 1977. That alone makes it worth holding on to her.

I'm a big fan of Alex and was hoping Epiphone would release a red version, but where is the Piezo?????

First, I LOVE Alex Lifeson. The guitar was beautiful when I opened the case. The feel in your hands is just like a Gibson Les Paul (I own a 1980 Gibson LP Standard). The playability is excellent, fantastic sound. However, there were two deal breakers for me...one of which I have learned is common to any of these you will pick up, and the other might have just been bad luck. As for the problem which all of these will have...the high e string is just way too close to the edge of the fretboard. You might not mind that if your technique doesn't pull down towards the high e edge of the neck when you play. Mine does, and I continually pull the high e off the fretboard (it doesn't take much to do it). Other people have commented that this is a nag for them also, as I researched post-purchase. Now, the other problem with mine was the tuning stability was poor, even after stretching the strings for hours, quadruple-checking the locking nut, tightening the tremolo springs...you name it I did it. I also own an Ibanez JEM, floral blue (Steve Vai) and have no such problem. No tremolo system is going to be perfect with high use, but this to me was unacceptable. So, I sent it back. But the guitar, aside from those points, is amazing. It broke my heart to send it back. Sweetwater was great though, and refunded my money. I have purchased many things from Sweetwater and this is the 1st I have returned. I am glad that I bought it from them, though, because you always have the peace of mind of knowing you will be satisfied.

No Piezo and $ more than the Better, Previous model.