I've owned the Epiphone Les Paul ukulele for several years at time... twice.
One in Cherry Sunburst... and another more recently in "Clown" burst (yellow/black).
For an "active" kid - it's a pretty cool, appropriate ukulele.
They're robust, decent quality for their price and I guess they're kinda easily replaceable if you do manage to wreck it somehow.
The setup isn't necessarily perfect straight out of box. I find the setup right away a bit high for my liking, and sand the saddle down a bit and file the nut slots slightly.
However, this is nearly always the case even for a lot of more expensive ukuleles. Spend $30, $100 or even $500+, the setup will rarely be perfect.
Any skilled guitar technician or luthier will do a setup for a small fee if you're not familiar with doing it yourself.
That being said, it's not the worst setup. It is definitely playable with no setup at all - it all depends on whether the player himself/herself feels the need for better setup.
Not much to be said about the acoustic sound, other than it sounds "ok". It's not as loud as some thinner laminate ukes out there, but loud doesn't always mean better. It has a usable sound - a bit on the mellow side. Definitely not an awful sound, especially with good strings like fresh Aquila's on them.
Now, one of my favourite topics - the pickup system.
As previously noted by Booli, the stock undersaddle piezo leaves more to be desired.
They use a rather cheap unit which sounds a bit harsh and often unbalanced.
The good news is, it is extremely easy to replace the stock undersaddle piezo unit with one of these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ARTEC-Piez...U-MADOLIN-PP407M-ARTEC-ORIGINAL/112510228690?
or
http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Artec-Ukulele-Saddle-Piezo-Bridge-Pickup-PP-404U-NEW_p_181.html
(same thing, just alternative seller. They are pretty reliable, I've bought many pickups from them).
This Artec undersaddle piezo is like 100 times better than any stock pickup that comes on inexpensive acoustic-electrics. I know at least one well known ukulele manufacturer that resells these Artec pickups under their own "brand" name and charges a lot more than the listings above. It's a pro quality piezo for low price.
Another great news is, installation is usually quite easy. On an existing acoustic-electric, all the holes are drilled for you and you already have the output jack installed. Sometimes all you need to do is just loosen the strings, undo a few screws and replace the pickup by threading it through and plugging it into the instrument's jack.
Usually, they're just plug and play. The plug is universal across many pickup systems. The Epiphone's output jack unscrews and will take the same plug as the Artec.
I'm sure a guitar technician or luthier will be happy to install it for you if you're not a DIY hands-on kinda person. You may be required to do some minor handywork, like filing the "hole" under the saddle for the wiring (especially the plug) to fit through, and sandpapering down the saddle to accomodate for the new pickup unit's height, etc.
If you do choose to get a professional to do it, ask them if they could also replace the connection with a solder/weld, rather than just using the plug.
Old fashioned soldered/welded connections tend to have less unwanted hum than these newer (and cheaper) plug-in types. Something to do with better grounding, etc.
As for plugging into an amplifier.
With the Artec piezo upgrade, the raw tone is actually surprisingly decent for a passive.
With a bit of fiddling with the tone and gain settings, you should be able to get a usable sound for a bit of fun and amateur performance.
But indeed - for any refined performance, a preamp helps.
However, I would recommend swapping out the pickup to Artec if you are interested in plugging it in at all.
The stock pickup is not good at all.