Can anybody help me differentiate epiphone/gibson guitar models please?

Question

what is a les paul studio/jr/standard/custom/special2/ultra/plus?

while you are at it... do you know the difference between the humbuckers, the burstbuckers and duckf...?

Answer 1

Epiphone as originally a competitor of Gibson. Gibson bought them in the '50s. Epihpones were once made in Japan and the Korea, but are now made in China. The Epiphone Gibson models are made usually of different woods than the Gibsons. The tones are different. Usually different pick-ups. The quality is not as good as a Gibson, but they are pretty good guitars. Some pretty big name play them. Epiphone also makes some of their own models like the Casino. These are a little higher quality.
As far as the Burstbuckers.....The old humbucker pick-ups were made on machines that were not as accurate as today's. The windings would vary from pick-up to pick-up. That gave the sound a little more edge. The newer humbuckers were made to exact winding numbers. When you mach 2 or 3 of those you get a smoother sound. The Burstbuckers are made more like the old Humbuckers. Somewhere around 5000 windings. They have a more edgy tone.
Hop that helps.

Answer 2

Price, really. Epiphones are cheaper than Gibsons. This comes from an article I read about humbuckers and burstbuckers....

"The engineers at Gibson feel that the Burstbucker Humbuckers are actually closer in sound and tonal qualities to the original Humbucking pickups of the late 1950’s than the new Gibson 1957 Classic PAF Humbuckers. As such, that is why the 1957 Les Paul Custom Reissue is outfitted with Burstbucker Pickups and not 1957 Classic PAF Pickups.'

Answer 3

check it out at a guitar center for help.