Terry - my MIJ Epiphone Elitist is HANDS DOWN a better guitar than any of the lower end Gibsons - to include the one that I sold. I'd argue that the only Gibsons that are better than it is are from the Custom Shop.

There is supposed to be a new (non custom shop) Gibson Slash model coming out - with the long neck tenon (like on my Elitist) - which will be a heck of a guitar for $2,500 or so. Those historics above are between $3-5.5k depending on the top on them (they're Custom Shop w/ vintage long neck tenon).

The long tenon is the "vintage" method for attaching the neck - it has a deeper set neck w/ the "longer tenon" - in 1969, Gibson went with a shorter cheaper tenon, which really kills your resonance and sustain. Right now, only Epiphone Elitists and Gibson Custom Shop guitars still use them. Although, the new Slash models will all have the long tenon as well (in the regular Epiphone and regular Gibson lineup!)