I have been playing for about 7 years now and have a Tak Jasmine Acoustic and a Jay Turser Strat knockoff.  I really love the Les Paul sound but my pocket book is not large enough for the Les Paul price.  I've read just about everything I can on these Epi's and finally went to my local Music store to try one out.  My initial impression was somewhat mixed.  The sound was good but the action seemed "off"  After playing a few scales and a couple easy chords I began to get a feel fro the action on this guitar.  Then I switched from the rear pickup to the front and BANG there was that sound I was looking for.  Classic Gibson Les Paul sound (in all fairness the amp was setup for a strat).  After playing around a bit more I asked to try one in the cherry finish.  They unboxed a new one for me and WOW this guitar looks AMAZING!  I sat down plugged it in and played a bit. Instantly I was in love.  The action was perfect (despite the some what heavier strings than what I'm used to).  The sound off both humbuckers was classic and playability of this guitar has to be tried to be appreciated.  Tuning is a breeze, and is held as well as any other guitar I own (I always retune before every session anyway).  Epiphone really did everything to capture that Les Paul sound in a economy guitar.  Yes I know you puriest will point to the bolt on neck, the cheaper humbuckers, the flat top construction, and the basswood body.  I point to the angled headstock, mahagony neck, rosewood fret board, and Gibson electronics.  I love the simple volume and tone controls (yea a little more knob spinning when switching between pickups) and the tun-o-matic bridge and tail piece is gonna make string changes a breeze (so much better than having the try to thread thru the body).  Even with my somewhat limited practice amp this guitar still sounds amazing, oh and the sustain from it well lets just say I hit a low E last night before I went to bed, and I think it is still reviberating in the amp this morning (lol  If your looking for a Les Paul sound at a discount price- consider this your answer. Oh and my local shop was able to give me this guitar at $20 less than any place else, AND they will do a FREE setup for me after I've played it for a while (so far it's been perfect out of the box).