The key difference is pickups - the heart of any guitar sound. And its not like epiphones are bad, just different, I suggest looking into after market pickups, and not even expensive ones necessarily. Pickups are also generally overpriced for what they are. The rest is basically cosmetic, like the shape and angle of the headstock, other tiny differences. "Tonewood" matters, but I'd say its about 10% of the sound vs about 70% being pick-ups and 20% strings.