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What is it?
Every guitar company and its dog is making a baritone guitar at the moment, and now it’s the time for one of the biggest players in the guitar game to make their mark. The Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Baritone is very much a baritone aimed at metal guitar players, with its all-black-everything aesthetic, Fishman Fluence active pickups, and hefty string gauge.
Despite feeling like a bit of a rarity for the Gibson/Epiphone stable, the company has form for extended-range guitars. The Epiphone Les Paul Standard Baritone released in the mid ’00s is the obvious one, with a similar model being launched for Gibson around the same time. There’s also the Buckethead Signature Les Paul, which featured a baritone scale, and more recently the SG Baritone and Gibson Victory Baritone.
While this isn’t the first Epiphone baritone, it is the first one for the Prophecy line and its range of guitars aimed at players of heavy riffs. It’s got an ultra-modern, weight-relieved mahogany body with a maple top and figured veneer in an Obsidian Storm Satin finish. The classic LP shape is here with the single cut and multi-ply body binding, a belly carve, and a modern contoured neck heel.
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The glued-in, set neck is composed of a thermally-aged, one-piece maple neck and is also finished in satin. It features the HyperGlide profile and a single-ply bound ebony fingerboard, with 24 stainless steel frets and a compound radius that moves from 10 to 14 inches as you get higher up the fretboard. It’s a 27-inch scale, so not as long as some baritones, but a clear step away from the typical Gibson 24.75-inch we’re used to.
Six Grover Rotomatic locking tuners sit upon the headstock, with a Graph Tech nut and a LockTone Modern bridge. The bass strings go through the body at a much sharper angle than the treble side to balance the string feel a baritone needs in the low end with a more slinky feel in the treble end.
Finally, the electronics feature two Fishman Fluence humbuckers developed exclusively for the Prophecy series. Each pickup delivers three voices, with a modern high-output tone, a PAF-type sound, and a single-coil tone. These are accessible via push-pull pots, which feature on both volume and tone controls. The volume controls handle the coil split, while the tone controls change the voices. A three-way toggle selector enables you to switch between bridge pickup, neck pickup, and both at the same time.
Specs
- Launch price: $1,499 | £1,249 | €1,449
- Made: China
- Type: Six-string baritone electric guitar
- Body: Mahogany with maple top and figured maple veneer, multi-ply binding, satin finish
- Neck: Thermally-aged one-piece maple, satin finish, glued-in set neck, HyperGlide profile
- Fingerboard: Ebony, single-ply bound, 10-inch to 14-inch compound radius, block inlays
- Scale length: 27 in / 685.8 mm
- Nut/width: Graph Tech nut, 42mm
- Frets: 24, stainless steel
- Hardware: Black nickel, Grover Rotomatic locking tuners
- String spacing at bridge: 49.3mm
- Electrics: Fishman Fluence pickups (neck and bridge), push/pull controls give three voices (modern high-output active humbucker, vintage-style humbucker, single-coil-style), 3-way toggle, two volume, two tone controls
- Weight: 4 kg, 8.8 lbs
- Options: N/A
- Left-handed options: N/A
- Finishes: Obsidian Storm Satin
- Case: Protector Ultralite gig bag included
- Contact: Epiphone
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★★½
There’s no denying it, this Epiphone Prophecy Baritone is squarely aimed at heavy-playing guitarists. Pulling it out of the sturdy-feeling Protector Ultralite semi-rigid gig bag, the aesthetic is unmistakable. Satin black with a hint of the figured maple veneer peering through on the body, the hardware is black, the pickups are black, the fretboard is black, and so on…
Even the block inlays haven’t been spared, with a dark and stormy look that’s less reflective than those you’d see on a typical Epiphone Les Paul. They’re all very nicely applied, and running my hand up and down the neck, it feels very smooth, with no fret ends sticking out anywhere. The binding is a different color on the front-facing part than it is on the portion where the side dots reside. It’s a small detail, but it would be even nicer looking if these were the same.
It’s quite a heavy guitar, weighing in at a full 4kg (8.8lbs) on my scales despite the weight-relieved body construction. I dread to think what it would’ve been like sans the modern weight relief. The body binding has a little rough bit near the cutaway where it isn’t entirely smooth, but honestly this is a detail you’d only notice really close up and doesn’t spoil the overall image of the guitar.
The back of the guitar features a belly carve and a sculpted neck heel for better upper fret access. The panel for the 9V battery is part of the cover for the volume and tone controls, and the way it folds out is very slick compared to other active pickup-equipped guitars I’ve tried.
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★☆
I immediately notice the neck profile is different from most Epiphones I’ve played
Sitting down to play it for the first time, I immediately notice the neck profile is different from most Epiphones I’ve played. It feels like a ‘D’ profile in my hand, with an almost flat part in the middle of the neck I can rest my thumb on. It’s more like something you’d find on a high-performance shred guitar than typical LP fare, although it’s not quite as slim as a pure shredder guitar.
The satin finish on the back of the neck takes some breaking in. After one session with a few hours of playing, I can already feel it gunk-ing-up, with little bits of organic detritus from my hands sticking to the back of the neck. This will get better over time, but it’s distracting initially, and a bit of a chore having to wipe it down every time I play.
I also notice it’s quite unbalanced and neck-heavy in my lap. If I take my left hand off the neck, it wants to dive downwards straight away. It exhibits the same behavior on a guitar strap, with the headstock plummeting to the earth as soon as I stand up.
The factory string gauge of 12-60 is quite light for a baritone. This means it feels really slinky and easy to play, but when I go to tune it down to drop A, I can feel straight away that the strings are pretty much already getting too loose. If you’re the sort that likes to tune G# and beyond, you’re gonna need a bigger string. Luckily, that’s a small, affordable adjustment.
As it is, though, it’s surprisingly easy to bend the strings versus my normal baritone, which has a 13-72 set of strings on it. I can even muster some Gilmour-style two-tone bends on it with a couple of supporting fingers, something I’ve not really been able to do on other baritones I’ve tested. It plays much more like a normal guitar than a baritone at the treble end of the neck.
At the other end, it’s more what I’m used to, with a big stretch from 1st to 5th fret. The action measures just past 1mm at the 12th fret of the low string with my finger on the 1st fret. This low action from the factory definitely assists in the overall slinky feel of the guitar. If you’re a little skeptical about how well you’ll adjust from a regular scale electric guitar, the Prophecy Les Paul Baritone makes the change feel a lot more seamless than others I’ve tested.
As I play the guitar for longer, I start to experience issues with the tuning stability. At first, I figure this is just the guitar bedding-in, but after playing fairly regularly for a week, I still find that it goes out of tune rather frequently. It being a hardtail with locking tuners, I’d expect it to be much more stable. It could be a setup issue with the nut, or it wasn’t strung correctly at the factory. Either way, it’s something I’d want to address before recording or gigging with it.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★☆
With it plugged into my audio interface and the Neural DSP plugin Nolly X loaded up, I’m straight into chugging territory with the voicing of the humbuckers. It’s that classic, high-output, modern active tone that’s compressed and aggressive, with bags of midrange gut punch and a controlled low end. Digging in with the pick and some hulking power chords in the neck position, it’s straight into that modern metal sound.
It’s not totally lifeless, though. These aren’t extremely surgical like an EMG can be, so there’s a bit of play here when I adjust my picking dynamics. You can get a great rock tone out of them if you want to get onto the more bluesy end of the heavy guitar spectrum. The sustain on the pickups is absolutely fantastic, too. I strike a low A, and it rings out for days, great for sludgy doom riffing.
Using the voice switch on the tone control, I’m not convinced about the claims of Patent Applied For-like tone. The sound changes, but it feels more like the same voice turned down rather than moving from an active humbucker to a vintage humbucker. It’s the same with the single-coil voice. I don’t feel like it gets more spanky and brighter; it’s more like a light shroud has been placed over the original tone that makes it quieter. In fairness, this is a common theme with split-humbuckers.
The clean tones are surprisingly organic-sounding, particularly on the neck pickup
The push-pull pots work well if I want to tone it down a bit in the verse and then bring it back up for the chorus quickly, but it’s not such a drastic tone change that you couldn’t achieve using the volume control. This feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, because the overall sound of the pickups is really quite good, and having a couple more distinctive voices would make it even more versatile.
As they are, and despite the look of the guitar, it can cover a decent amount of ground. Switching to the newly released Tone King MkII X plugin, the clean tones are surprisingly organic-sounding, particularly on the neck pickup. Playing gently plucked triads further up the neck, it’s hard to believe I’m playing a baritone guitar with active pickups installed. That said, these tones are still in the realm of rock, and it’s not able to deliver the more dynamic tones of a true low-output humbucker or single coil.
Verdict
The Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Baritone is overall a really great guitar. The Fishman Fluence humbuckers deliver superb tones for all kinds of heavy music, and are versatile enough to handle rock, punk, and blues, too. It’s got an incredibly playable neck, and doesn’t feel like a massive jump from a regular scale electric guitar.
It’s let down by a few things
It’s let down by a few things, the most major of which is the lack of tuning stability on my review model. Despite being a hardtail bridge with locking tuners, I had to retune the guitar fairly consistently over my time with it. It’s also really neck-heavy, so it wants to tip itself out of your lap when sitting. Finally, I wanted a bit more from the different voices of the Fishman humbuckers.
Guitar World verdict: The Epiphone Prophecy Les Paul Baritone is really close to being one of the best metal-oriented baritones on the market. If it wasn’t for a couple of issues with tuning stability and the lack of depth from the pickup voicing, it could truly stake a claim as being the best of the bunch. Superb playability and a great core tone for heavy music make it a good metal guitar that falls just shy of greatness.
|
Test |
Results |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Build quality |
A well-put-together instrument with some tiny imperfections |
★★★★½ |
|
Playability |
A super slinky neck feel, but the tuning stability lets it down |
★★★★☆ |
|
Sounds |
Great for heavier stuff, but the vintage and single-coil modes are quite similar |
★★★★☆ |
|
Overall |
A good baritone for metal with the potential to be a lot better |
★★★★☆ |
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