Yet another Short List addition, this time a Les Paul

Back when I played the Epiphone Les Paul Studio at Guitar Center that made its way onto the Short List, I noticed another Epiphone Les Paul model I never saw before. It was all black and had EMG pickups and a Floyd Rose. At the time I wasn't looking for a guitar with a locking tremolo, but I kept the image in the back of my mind for future reference.

Since I'm looking at tremolo-equipped shredders again, I decided to look into this mystery Les Paul and figure out if it warrants a place on the Short List. In a word, hell yeah. Wait, that's two words. Anyway, I watched another Rob Chappers video series where he just abuses locking-tremolo-equipped guitars and one of them was an Epiphone, which reminded me of the black Les Paul I saw that day at Guitar Center.

Epiphone sells two versions of this guitar - the Nightfall, which is the one I saw, and the Plustop Pro F/X, which was in the Chappers video. The only difference I can see is the color - the Nightfall is all black (including hardware) whereas the Plustop is a more traditional Les Paul with a sunburst top and chrome hardware. Oh, and there's the price - the Plustop is $200 more for all that woody-chromey goodness. Personally, I don't know if it's worth the extra dough, because the black one looks really cool. But all my guitars are some type of black, so it might be nice to get something different.

I hope they still have the Nightfall Les Paul at Guitar Center because I'd love to play it. On paper, it ticks off a lot of boxes - Les Paul style, dual humbuckers (with coil tap, no less), locking tremolo, thin neck. The only thing it doesn't have is 24 frets, but 22 frets are good for me. It makes it on the Short List, but only in Nightfall guise as it rings in at $499, which blows the budget a little but not enough to be a deal breaker. The $699 Plustop is a little too expensive, even if it does look exactly like the Gibson Les Paul Alex Lifeson used on tour with Rush this year.

Here's the updated list, now in alphabetical order:

Guitars I've played:

Epiphone Les Paul Studio ($349)

Schecter Omen 6 ($299)

Guitars I haven't played:

Dean Cadillac Select ($479)

Dean Vendetta 1000 ($275)

(NEW) Epiphone Les Paul Nightfall ($499)

ESP LTD EC-50 ($249)

Ibanez ART100 ($299)

Ibanez GRGA32T ($299)

Ibanez RG350DX ($400)

Ibanez RG5EX1 ($400)

Ibanez S420 ($499)

Schecter Damien FR ($450)

Sterling JP50 ($499)

Sterling SILO20 ($399)

Guitars I can't play:

Agile AL-2000 with Floyd Rose ($279)

Chapman Guitars ML1 ($490)

Chapman Guitars ML2 ($525)

DWG Contender ($299)