[jagusafr]

Almost glad all I could afford was an Epiphone...

[dayglored]

Epiphone is a fine guitar. Their acoustics are really quite excellent and are well reputed. No excuses required. :)

But it's potentially just as subject to having "forbidden wood" as any Gibson...

[MikeSteelBe]

I had a ‘77 black standard Les paul, and a ‘73 Deluxe that was routed out in the bridge pickup to accept a standard humbucker. I took the mini-bucker out of the neck position and installed an original P-90.

That was way back when you could get a used Les Paul for $500.

I think the Alnico Classic humbuckers in my new Epi Les Paul sound far better than the 490T and 490R pickups than come in a lot of Gibson Les Pauls. I had a used Epi Paul that came with Gibson ‘57 Classic pickups, and they sounded flat.