Epiphone Les Paul Concert Ukulele, Vintage Sunburst with Gig Bag

* SHIPPING. The Epiphone comes wrapped in protective foam, inside a gig bag, which is inside a sturdy standard tri-shaped box, which is itself shipped inside a HUGE box twice its size and totally surrounded by sturdy bubble plastic. That huge box is then inside yet ANOTHER huge box. Honestly, to protect this better they'd have had to contact Tony Stark. It would take real skill and intent to damage this thing in shipping. EXCELLENT job. 5 stars on that alone.* SIZE. Overall length 24". Fretboard 10". Nut to bridge 15". So good overall medium-size. I like that it's a bit larger than a 20-21" soprano uke. It is "concert" size (which I greatly prefer over soprano. Frankly, I'd like to see a baritone version). The 24" length is an excellent size for both adult and youth / child fingers.* QUALITY. From stern to port, this instrument shines. Beautifully lacquered flawless finish, protective edging, plastic finger-guard (which itself was guarded in adhesive plastic), solid neck screw-joined to heavy-wood body. The whole unit is heavy-wood and very durable. Nevertheless the sound is quite good. The tuners are acceptable quality (nothing amazing, but they work well). The frets are actual metal and not molded into the fingerboard like cheap ukes. The amp-jack is chrome-metal back-plated to the body; it's NOT coming loose. Strap holders are already mounted, saving users the hassle. And of course, the impressive EPIPHONE and LES PAUL signature stamps on the head for sheer class.* SOUND. I found this to sound as good as most ukes right out of the box, despite the fact it's pretty solid-wood electric (I expected it to sound dull. It doesn't.) But I still bought a set of d'Addario strings (a brand I've loved for years) and according to other reviews here expect the sound to improve significantly once those are added.* ACTION. I've rarely seen a purchased instrument that has perfect action off the shelf and this is no exception. The action is fairly high (not uncommon with off-the-shelf instruments). One will need to remove the strings (keep them for emergency spares), file down the bridge bottom (easily done with a flat surface and sandpaper) and add a new set of quality strings. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to action (as are most players I know), so this will be tweaked.* DURABILITY. It's very durable. That counts for the gig bag too. No cheap "tent nylon" there-- but thick nylon that will really resist tearing. As others mentioned I'd still look for a decent hard case; they average under $40. A good instrument is worth protecting. But I'd say this could take some real punishment and still play well-- not that I'd go bashing it against a stage floor. That would be goofy.* WEIRD SUGGESTION: Hang on to the box it comes in. It makes a great temporary "hard shell" case. It's made of rather sturdy cardboard and does a pretty good job of protecting the uke. Great for hauling around in your car if you can't shell out for a shell. Seriously... that is some stiff cardboard. Protects well. : )* ELECTRONICS. The sound is clear. Sadly there is no volume/tone control, no battery to preamp, and thus the signal to the amp was quite low. They could have done better on that end. But wow, at this price how can one gripe?Two solutions to this:1) Open up the end plate and totally replace the electronics with something better (including a tone and volume knob somewhere accessible). That's the tricky way.2) Put a preamp on this. You can buy one here on Amazon for about 15 bucks. If you have a mini-mixer you can do the same thing with that. Even with that little extra expense you'll come out ahead.Aside from the passive electronics... this is a PRIME instrument.Considering what you get for the price... I don't think this can be beat. Unfortunately, my extra-long fingers find this size somewhat difficult to play... something I didn't consider when ordering a uke. But that's a physical difficulty and no fault of the instrument. The product itself is excellent.

I'll echo what others have said: this is a superbly built instrument for the price, and I don't know how Epiphone can make them to sell so inexpensively. It looks, feels and plays like an instrument that cost at least twice as much.A few notes: what looks in the product photos like a black finish around the edges and on the back and sides of the "Vintage" model is actually a super-rich deep, deep mahogany/maroon color, and it's unbelievably beautiful.As others have said, the factory-supplied strings are crap; if you judge the instrument by them, you'll be disappointed. Include a set of Aqila Nylgut strings when you order this ukulele, and restring it as soon as you get it.I was a little surprised that the sound was quieter than my $60 Kala soprano uke--normally, one expects a concert ukulele to have a louder, fuller sound. But the Les Paul has a relatively small soundbox compared to an all-acoustic ukulele, and that probably accounts for the quieter tone. I think it's a *better* tone, and I'm more interested in delicacy than in loudness, so I'm happy with it. If I wanted stadium-filling volume, I could always plug this into a stack of Marshall amps.Oh, I almost forgot one important note to all owners: IT IS POSSIBLE TO REMOVE THE STUPID, UGLY PICK GUARD! Since ukulele players rarely use picks, and when we do, we use soft rubber or felt ones, there's no need to protect the finish from scratching, and that white pick guard really detracts from the instrument's looks.I applied gentle heat from a hair dryer on its low power setting for about ten minutes, and very slowly and gently pried up the edges of the pick guard with my fingernails--no sharp tools! It came off pretty cleanly, leaving only a few small spots of adhesive residue. I was able to get rid of those with small amounts of rubbing alcohol on cotton, without any damage to the luscious ultra-glossy lacquer finish. And the ukulele looks SO much better now! If you feel as I do, feel free to do likewise. Just remember the key words: SLOW and GENTLE. Don't force anything, and you should be fine.

Let me start with what little gripes I have:The uke came in two boxes -- kind of a Russian doll situation where you open one box only to find a slightly smaller box. The one on the inside said "fragile" while the one on the outside was mostly blank. The uke was thankfully not damaged in the shipping process, but this struck me as a bit nonsensical and created some anxiety during the unboxing process.As others have noted, the factory strings are complete garbage. They were satisfying to play at first, simply because I was so excited to start playing, but I quickly replaced them with some nylgut Aquila Concert strings and the sound quality jumped tremendously.Other than that, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this product. This is my first uke, but I'm no stranger to stringed instruments and I can tell that it's very finely crafted. It feels great, sounds amazing, and with the plethora of tutorials available on Youtube, I can already jam all day with various chord progressions and strumming patterns after just a few short hours of practice. Despite a different tuning, guitar skills translate nicely as many chord shapes and scale patterns are quite similar. I imagine this would make the perfect instrument for a beginner.If you're thinking about buying this, just do it. Trust me.Also, I've yet to plug it in to my amp just yet. I will update this review eventually.