I've been playing for over 40 years. I currently own 60 or so guitars. My problem with LP's is they feel like a boat anchor around your neck, I've bought and sold quite a few. Another problem with real LP's, you only get one chance to drop one, just see how many used ones have head-stock repairs. They ARE beautiful guitars but not comfy for me to play. I deal in used guitars, picked up an Epi Special ll along with several other guitars at a resale shop for very cheap. I didn't mess with it until I was ready to set it up for resale. I fully expect to do a fret level on most guitars, even a lot of higher end guitars need it. I found on the Special ll the frets were actually very well done (Chinese version from 2011) and only needed a slight leveling (would have played fine without it but I am very picky). It didn't take much to get it set up, small truss rod adjustment, new set of 10's for strings. little bit of adjustment to the bridge, cut the nut a bit....note it played well the way I got it, just like my stuff perfect. Got it set-up and plugged it in to check the electronics and that's when I started to really become impressed with this guitar. Cheap pickups are supposed to sound muddy with no character, these sounded pretty good, actually very good, nice and bright with a nice tight bottom end. I check sound also by cranking up a backing track to stage level and playing a few tracks. It cut through really well. I noticed while doing this test that the volume had a very nice sweep to it and didn't lose any highs when turned down. The tone knob was also very usable with a good sweep, very nice. I popped off the back cover to check what was in there, full sized pots, maybe not the best quality but much better than expected. I normally upgrade electronics on my personal guitars to get the controls to operate the way I like but no need to fix what's not broken. Yup, I said "on my personal guitars" because I am keeping this one for myself. The neck is very fast and comfy, it's NOT a boat anchor so my shoulder will thank me. The tuners are the lower end trapezoid type but turn smoothly with no backlash and keep the guitar in tune fine, once again if it ain't broke don't fix it. Please note that most tuning problems are from a binding improperly cut nut. I've set-up hundreds of guitars and almost all of them need nut work, doesn't matter what price point you are at. This also has a bolt on neck. A lot of players say you have to have a set (glued) neck. I feel glue actually deadens the sound a bit, I prefer a good solid bolt on to transfer sound, IMO. I have found that the quality level of the low end foreign guitars has become very good. I know that corners have to be cut to get to the price point of these budget guitars but all in all the Special ll is good to go right out of the box with just a little tweaking. My advice is to go try one, my taste may not be the same as yours. There are a lot of good value well made guitars now-a-days, I just found at this price vs quality ratio the Epiphone Special ll really is special. Get one, get it set up for a few bucks if you can't do it yourself, and you will have a good instrument. Oh did I mention this is a very good looking guitar?