TONE:-I have bought the black color body of this guitar. Previously I had a squier guitar. Squier is also good, but personally I don't like the 'twing' like bell sound of the squier guitars. The epiphone les Paul has more warm,rich tone. But, it depends on personal choice, you can check videos in YouTube to get the idea about the tone.PICKUPS:-In this guitar, you can get from mellow tone to bright tone using the pickup selector. Pickups in this guitar are very good considering the quality. They are alnico classic humm as you can find in the description. If you are looking for active pickups, you may consider CORT guitars. But, trust me the beautiful tone of les Paul is just out of the world.BUILT:-The guitar is bit heavy, so be prepared for that, it may cause problem to some users. The fretboard is very smooth, very much comfortable and easy to play in this guitar.FINAL:-It is awesome in distorted as well as clean tone. If you buy this, you surely will not regret.