EPIPHONE SPECIAL II

  • Epiphone Les Paul Special II

Overview

Brand name: 

Product: 

  • electric guitars

Series name: 

Dates of manufacture: 

1996

The Epiphone Les Paul Special II is a no-frills Les Paul style electric introduced in 1996. It has two exposed coil humbucking pickups controlled by one volume knob, one tone knob and a three-way pickup selector switch. The pickups were originally Epiphone Alnico Classics but more recently this model has Epiphone 650R and 700T pickups. The bridge is a Tune-O-Matic with a stop-bar tailpiece. They typically have a basswood or mahogany body with a bolt-on mahogany neck and a rosewood fretboard (with plastic dot inlays. There is no binding or carved top on this guitar. Finish is black, white, red, cherry sunburst or vintage sunburst. Hardware is either nickel plated, chrome or black finished.

Epiphone sometimes refers to the Special II as their most popular Les Paul model - it is a good no-frills Les Paul style instrument at a budget price. Although the design has gone mostly unchanged over the years, Special IIs have been made in various locations, most recently in China. Some older models had a "Gibson" labeled truss cover and some players prefer these models.

A left handed version is available. A Special II plus model was available in the late 1990s, with coil tapping OBL pickups and die-cast machine heads.

Specifications (23)

Body

Body materialbasswood body, mahogany body
Body shape featuressingle cutaway
Body styleLes Paul-style body

Hardware

Bridgetune-o-matic bridge
Hardware colornickel hardware
Tailpiecestop tailpiece

Fretboard

Fingerboard materialrosewood fingerboard
Fingerboard position markersdot fingerboard position markers

General

Finish colorsebony finish, red finish, white finish
Finish effectssunburst finish
Made inChina, Korea
Number of strings6 strings
Scale length24.75 inches scale-length

Neck

Neck jointbolt on neck
Neck materialmahogany neck
Neck profileslim D neck profile
Neck width1.68 inches wide at nut
Tuner layoutthree-each-side

Controls

Pickup selector controls3-way selector switch
Tone controls1 tone control
Volume controls1 volume control

Electronics

Pickups brand and modelEpiphone 650R pickup(s), Epiphone 700T pickup(s), Epiphone alnico classic pickup(s)
Pickups configuration2 humbucker pickups

Prices (5)

DatePriceConditionNameComments
1996$300good
2005$200excellent
2017$400new
2018kr900good
1996$50excellentSunnyIt was cheap due to the repairs that were required (jack, wiring, neck). She is a beauty now!

Reviews (1)

EPIPHONE SPECIAL II reviewed by Special II owner

4
Average: 4 (1 vote)
Bought mine second hand. Frets were fine. Plays well. Able to get good action. Bridge pickup was already upgraded to a SD59, neck pickup was original. I have this guitar setup for slide, open E tuning so I tend to stay on the neck pickup. Sounded good and greasy. I only replaced it because I was given a gift of an epiphone 57 neck pickup. Tuners needed replacing. I like mine; like I said, plays good.

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Players (1)

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