Epiphone Review: Les Paul Pee Wee

History:

Purchase: Saw it in a shop window, just had to have one. AUS$349 - discounted 30%.

What I Like About This Epiphone Les Paul Pee Wee: Novelty and overall build quality/presentation.

What I Do NOT Like About The Epiphone Les Paul Pee Wee: Still reading/learning how to tune it for the best results - includes perhaps putting on much heavier gauge strings...

Epiphone Les Paul Pee Wee Quality Rating: Construction and build quality are excellent. Comes with a stap, chord, 'gig case', and even a 9-volt battery. Yes - "batteries are included". Ready to go out of the box (nice touch).

Review Summary: I saw this thing in a shop and I just had to buy one. I think the concept and build quality are excellent. As for playability - well let's just say it's a steep learning curve. I guess the hardest thing so far is to get the lil b*stard of a thing to stay in tune. I just assumed you tune it like a normal guitar, but from what I'm reading around the traps it sounds like you need to tune it up several semi-tones/tones. Kinda makes sense when you think about it really - the whole thing is about half-scale, so to use 'normal' guitar strings it seems quite logical that the overall string tension is going to be relatively low. And considering the overall small build style of guitar, any stress you put on the fretboard/strings/neck is going to be amplified a lot more than on a standard full-sized electric axe. Pitch bends are achieved by quite minimal bending of the strings - I'd say down to about a third as much as what you'd use on a Strat for example. It takes a whole new feel to get this lil baby to sound right. The secret is to appreciate it for what it is and use a really light touch. Don't expect to be able to play full or fancy chords. In general, two-string power chords work ok, and light-touch lead riffs come up ok too. Just remember that it's a small instrument - probably more suited to a child's touch and hand-span than that of a chord-hammering adult. I've just come off belting the daylights out of a full-sized bass guitar, so I can immediately hear/feel that this thing requires a much more delicate style. I'm interested to see what effect of tuning it up from E-A-D-G-B-E sounds like. That of course means frying my brain trying to work out the various chord inversions to use in place of 'normal' chords. If you've ever used a capo to play harmonies against a 'standard' chord structure you'll get my drift. From what I've read so far, I guess I've been lucky enough to score one that has a fully adjustable bridge - string height and harmonics are totally adjustable. Neck action is also adjustable. But I'm not going to play with any of that just yet. I reckon that trying different tuning combinations and experimenting with playing style might just pay off. It's not rocket-science when you think about it. Mandolins and Ukele's are small instruments that can produce phenomenal sounds in the right hands. I'm sure the Pee Wee has got something to offer there as well. It's too early for me to really give constructive criticism yet - and I don't want to unnecessarily bag it until I've exhausted a few possibilities. I think the Pee Wee is one of those kinds of instruments that you have to learn to play from scratch all over again. And I'm sure there's going to be someone turn up on, say, YouTube, that sets this thing on fire. I'm positive that there's some great sounds to come out of it - only we have to find the key to unlock it's potential. It's a pretty bold and brave move to try and produce a workable guitar on this 'bonsai' scale. I don't think a 300-buck mini-guitar can be expected to do what it's 10-grand cousins can. It might flop, but then again it might just take off if someone like Clapton or Sambora et al play something definitive on it. Along the same lines as the child's piano in Neil Diamond's 'Shilo'. Wouldn't it be great to see a 'Hendrix' figure grab hold of one of these things and ring it's neck until it screamed pure colour...?

Rating of this Epiphone product: 3

This Epiphone Les Paul Pee Wee Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Quokka

Review Date: 2007-11-16