Epiphone Les Paul Standard Bass 5
Versatile five-string bass offers a vintage look and modern features
by Emile Menasché
September 21, 2000
Summing it Up
Electric basses seem to come in two flavors: utilitarian devices like the Fender Precision and its offspring, and ornate "super basses" from the likes of Pedulla and Warwick. The Epiphone LP 5 five-string takes a little from both camps. Its upscale looks (borrowed from the Gibson Les Paul guitar) and versatile electronics suggest the high end, but the Korean import's price (US $769) and relative simplicity make it a good bet for players who aren't ready to shell out big bucks for big bottom.
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The Epiphone Les Paul Standard Bass 5 (let's call it the LP 5 from now on) is a departure from most solidbody electric basses in that it's a single-cutaway instrument with an arched top. The test instrument's nicely finished sunburst maple top (which lays over a mahogany body) evoked a vintage vibe without stooping to kitschy retro sentimentality.
The set neck joins the body at the 17th fret, and upper-note access is quite good (at least on the first two strings). That accessibility is especially impressive because the LP 5 has 22 frets (two more than many electric basses); combined with the extended lower register offered by the fifth string, the LP 5's range is four and a half octaves.
Stylistic echoes of the Les Paul guitar abound, from the rosewood fingerboard to the trapezoidal inlays and angled headstock. I sometimes find that playing a five-string is like wrestling with a tree trunk, but the Epiphone's relatively narrow neck felt comfortable in my hands and should be especially appealing to guitar players.
The strings pass over a Tune-O-Matic bridge to a stop tailpiece that's mounted very close to the bottom of the body. I'm accustomed to basses with more conventional one-piece bridge/tailpiece assemblies, so I was impressed to note that the LP 5 offered excellent sustain. The tuning machines had that slightly cheap feel found on a lot of imports, but they worked very well, and overall tuning stability was quite good.
Action was low and playable, and the fretwork was very clean -- better than I've seen on some more costly instruments coming out of Nashville. The test bass came strung with light-gauge strings that were a little slinky for my tastes -- I had to exert care to avoid buzzing. Other than that, the out-of-the-box setup was very impressive.
Electronics
The LP 5's looks may say "vintage," but its electronics are up-to-date. Two Epiphone Dual Rail pickups, mounted directly to the body, are mated to a five-position rotary switch. The pickups are versatile: Each can operate in "Single-Rail" mode, or with the rails running in series or parallel. As we'll see in the sonic preview, the rotary switch lets you mix and match these modes, giving the LP 5 an impressive array of available tones.
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Interestingly, both pickups are active for each of the rotary switch's five positions. You can hear the pickups individually by using their respective volume controls to mute one at a time, but the addition of a conventional three-way switch would have made it easier to get the most out of the LP's electronics. The master tone knob offered mixed results. On some settings it did a nice job of sculpting the midrange; on others, I heard very little difference between the top and bottom of its range. The pickups were impressively quiet -- even the Single-Rail mode offers hum canceling.
Next Page: Sonic Preview, Vital Stats....
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