Epiphone Launches Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior in Radiant Red

Epiphone launched the Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior in Radiant Red on July 23, 2026, a limited-edition, $649 electric guitar co-designed with the Green Day frontman and guitarist. It's built around the same no-frills formula that's defined his rhythm tone for two decades: one pickup, two knobs, nothing else to think about.

Epiphone's own copy for the guitar puts it plainly: "One pickup, two knobs, and a whole lot of attitude" (Gibson/Epiphone). That's not marketing exaggeration so much as an accurate parts list. A single Epiphone P-90 PRO pickup sits at the bridge, wired to master volume and tone knobs, full stop.

Gibson already builds a USA-made Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior signature, released in March 2023 as the production version of "Floyd," Armstrong's 1956 Sunburst Les Paul Junior. This new Epiphone shares the same core formula, single P-90, mahogany body, wraparound bridge, but it's an import built to a lower price, and this release comes in the bright Radiant Red finish rather than the finishes Gibson's own USA version ships in.

Think of it as the same idea at a different price point, not a downgrade in concept. The Epiphone costs well below Gibson's USA-built version, which puts a Floyd-spec Junior within reach of a beginner or a backup-guitar budget rather than a main-stage investment. Consequence frames the $649 price the same way: "a fairly reasonable entry point for beginners looking to get into guitar."

Gibson's own spec sheet lists the factory string gauge as .010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046, which lines up exactly with Armstrong's own long-documented set: Ernie Ball Regular Slinky, .010 to .046, the gauge he's run on Blue, Floyd, and his Gibson signature for decades. CYS hasn't independently confirmed the factory strings are Ernie Ball brand specifically, manufacturers frequently spec generic house strings for shipping, but the gauge match means his actual set drops right in without a setup change.

If you're buying this guitar to chase Armstrong's exact tone rather than just the look, start there. Players who want more life out of a string change under heavy strumming can also look at the coated Ernie Ball Paradigm Regular Slinky, same gauge, the set Armstrong himself switches to for touring durability.

This guitar didn't launch in isolation. Ten days earlier, Marshall put out Armstrong's first full signature amp, the 1959BJA Artist Signature, a hand-wired 100-watt head based on the Dookie-era crunch he developed with producer Rob Cavallo. NME covered both announcements together as a single wave of Armstrong signature gear.

The guitar also isn't the first Green Day name Epiphone has put into production. Bassist Mike Dirnt's Epiphone Grabber G-3, modeled on the Gibson Grabber G-3 he's played for years, launched in November 2025 in Silverburst and Natural finishes (Consequence). Dirnt told the outlet what drew him to the original bass in the first place: "It has a way of cutting through big guitars, and still allows me to get all these little creative pops in and out. It walks nice and woolly, and also has this pop that I always look for."

Between the amp, this guitar, and Dirnt's bass, two of Green Day's three members now have namesake production instruments on the market, at price points from a $649 import to a four-figure hand-wired amp head.