Epiphone Mo'Baby. A travel sized version of the Gibson Moderne

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've always regarded the Gibson Moderne as an important piece of guitar history and Gibson lore. From it's early days as a Gibson that basically didn't really exist, to the reissues with varying headstock designs, it certainly holds a place in the pantheon of electric guitar. 

But, I don't really like it. 

Here we have another reissue under the Epiphone flag that turns the Moderne into a smaller travel sized offering. This somehow makes more sense to me as a concept even if branding it "Mo'Baby" is a tad ridiculous.

I wonder if there is the option of keeping the built in speaker on while playing through an outboard amp as well. And if it would offer any string response or feedback to do so. Has anyone tried this wit speaker equipped electric guitars?

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11

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1920s Epiphone Inspiration round tenor guitar.

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This seems like a rare bird. When the guitar started to overtake the banjo in jazz some companies took to installing tenor necks on their guitars. This gave us the common tenor guitars by Martin, Gibson, and others. But this Epiphone Inspiration took a different approach, essentially replacing tone ring and head with wood. Maybe they thought that it would be an easier sell to banjo players if the instrument still resembled what they were accustom to. 

Maybe they just liked how it looked. 

I know I do.

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Blake's 12-string solidbody electric Frankenstein

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's an email we received from Blake:

This guitar was created in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The bolt on neck came from a 70s Epiphone acoustic 12 with broken bracing and poor tone. The body originated as an unidentified 60s Japanese Jazzmaster style guitar that was rescued from a dumpster. In order to combine these instruments, the neck pocket was slightly enlarged, the bridge and tailpiece were modified and relocated for proper intonation, and I designed and fashioned a pickguard from a 12" vinyl record. There are no volume or tone controls to weaken the signal output, just a Lace Alumitone wired straight to the output jack. Two barely playable guitars have been combined to form one highly playable electric 12 string. A recording of it can be heard on my bandcamp page: https://secretgeometry.bandcamp.com/

Rock on!
Blake Mandrayk

Nice job, Blake. It looks very cool and sounds great too.

Keep those readers guitars pictures coming in, folks!

G L Wilson

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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What's that guitar that a young Jimi Hendrix is playing?...

guitarz.blogspot.com:

...asks Guitarz reader Raul.

Looks like an Epiphone Wilshire (circa 1960-62) to me.

Unless you know differently!

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Epiphone SC-550 "Scroll" guitar circa 1976-79

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another of my favourite guitar designs; it's an Epiphone SC-550 from the late 1970s, back in the day when Epiphone had their own discrete range of guitars and weren't merely Gibson's equivalant of Fender's Squier brandname. Made in Japan, the scroll-bodied SC-550 is a very cool alternative to Gibson's Les Paul with Black Beauty finish, set-neck construction, ebony fingerboard, 24 fret neck, abalone markers, and - looking at the controls - I'm guessing some kind of coil tap facility. I particularly like the body shape with its German carve which helps accentuate the scroll motif.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $800.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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When Relics Go Bad: Epiphone Dot Studio

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It's the long-awaited return of the occasional Guitarz series, When Relics Go Bad. I personally think that the whole concept of guitars that have been artificially aged is quite ridiculous. Whatever your opinions on the concept, it can't be argued that there are those who excel at the process of creating aged-looking used and abused guitars, and there are those - usually the enthusiastic amateur DIYer - who really should leave well alone.

Take for example this poor unsuspecting Epiphone Dot Studio semi-hollowbody. WHAT was the owner thinking? How would a guitar end up looking like this complete mess even after many years service as a gigged instrument. Unless of course, it is supposed to be the re-creation of a guitar belonging to legendary psychobilly band King Kurt whose live shows were notorious for flour, eggs, paint and all manner of missiles being thrown at the stage.

Thanks to Matt for bringing this abomination to my attention. The eBay seller is asking a Buy It Now price of $375 for this guitar. It might play well, but in this state a price like that is most definitely optimistic. Dreadful

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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An Epiphone neck attached to... What on Earth is THAT supposed to be?

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Do you think someone actually consciously DESIGNED this guitar body?

My guess is that it's the result of randomly cutting out shapes from a piece of wood with a jigsaw. It does have a vague heraldic look to it, but I'm sure that is through accident rather than design.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a quite astonishingly optimistic Buy It Now price of £500.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

1995 Epiphone Sorrento

guitarz.blogspot.com: 

This Epiphone Sorrento is a 1995 re-issue of the 1960s model, now equipped with chrome P-90s - a chance to admire the impeccable classicism of an archtop with a florentine cutaway (the world needs more of these...)  

And I discovered a wiki dedicated to Epiphone instruments that is a very interesting tool for guitar lovers - I've said here before how much I appreciate Epiphone's affordable quality instruments, that are meant for musicians and not lawyers or traders.

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

President George Bush (Snr)'s guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:  

Back in 1989 during the inauguration party of President George Bush (the first), the news organizations snapped this picture of the president-elect and political strategist Lee Atwater, "jamming" onstage. Bush was slinging a guitar custom-painted for the occasion and the press ate it up.

The guitar is on exhibit right now at the Newseum in Washington DC, as part of the "Every Four Years" exhibit, looking at media coverage of the presidential elections.  Specifically, it is an inexpensive Epiphone Strat clone from around 1988 - most likely an S-310 - and is pretty much stock, with its laminated alder body, hockeystick neck, ivory finish, low-grade hardware and maple fingerboard. In truth, it probably wouldn't receive two glances on eBay or Craigslist today, except for the fact it was the guitar worn (but not really played) by "The Prez" a little over 20 years ago.

As an aside, the Newseum is a pretty cool place to visit for anyone coming through D.C.  Look it up: www.newseum.com

Alan Peterson

Washington DC USA

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1939 Epiphone Olympic

guitarz.blogspot.com

The good thing with posting about a pre-Gibson Epiphone Olympic archtop is that you hardly have to add anything - everything has been said and contemplation is all that is needed (in my humbleness I don't even consider ever playing on such a beauty). 

I can still point at the floating Kent pickup that was added probably in the 1960s - if I'm not wrong Kent was a Japanese company producing DeArmond-like jazz pickups in the 1960s (note how the pickguard was modified to instal it). 

Bertram D


© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Heavily modified el cheapo Epiphone Special Plus

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've already looked on in horror and dismay when confronted with modifications made to vintage and classic guitars. Time and again, we've said, if you're going to mess around with something choose something cheap and Chinese-made that nobody is going to lament the demise of if it all goes horribly wrong (as it so often does).

Thankfully we have no worries in this instance for here we see what was a vaguely Les Paul-style very basic bolt-on neck Epiphone Special Plus which surely has been enhanced by the modifications performed on it. This is a cheap guitar that has been vastly improved through modification. This is the type of self customization that we like to see on Guitarz.

The eBay seller describes the work carried out on the guitar:

The body was cut in half. The inside was routed to leave roughly 1/2" sides, a 1/4" top and back, and a 4" solid core running from the neck pocket to the end of the stop tail. A sound hole and control access holes were cut in the top. The body was re-glued and then routed for a middle pickup. The finish on the neck is still the factory polyurethane, but the body was stripped and refinished in nitrocellulose. The body finish is thin and a little bit coarse in some areas. An aluminum pickguard was added, along with aluminum truss rod, control cavity and jack plates. The stock pickups were pulled and replaced with a set of three handmade humbucker sized blade single coils built around exposed alnico 5 firebird magnets. One master volume knob, one master tone knob and three individual on/off switches for each of the pickups.

Currently listed on eBay with the auction due to finish later today. Bidding has been keen already, although I doubt it'll sell for big money. Bidding is at $127.50 at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Vintage & Rare Guitar of the Week: John Entwistle's Epiphone Embassy Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This 1964 Epiphone Embassy bass in cherry finish was owned by the late John Entwistle of The Who, and is one of the instruments featured in his book "Bass Culture". The bass is said to be in excellent original condition; it features Thunderbird pickups, and is still in the same condition as when John set it up with Rotosound strings.

You'll notice the design similarities with the Epiphone Newport bass we looked at recently, although with the bridge-biased Thunderbird pickups on the Embassy you could expect a more "rocky" sound.

Having said that, it's highly likely that this bass will be bought as a collector's piece or as an investment, given its provenance. It is currently being offered for sale, via Vintage & Rare, priced at €8000.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1966 USA-made Epiphone Newport bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Please forgive the brevity of today's blog post, but I am experiencing computer problems and have limited time on a borrowed PC.

Here we see an Epiphone Newport bass from 1966 - that is, back in the days when the Epiphone name meant something quite cool and when they weren't just the budget guitar arm of Gibson with their name slapped on a stream of Korean and Chinese-made Les Paul and SG copies.

It's a gorgeous bass and obviously a sibling to the Wilshire guitar series. Judging from the position of the single pickup at the neck, the sound probably wouldn't suit modern playing styles, although personally it's a sound I love. Each to their own.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1953 Epiphone Zephyr Emperor Regent, a sexy grandma

guitarz.blogspot.com

Yes Ma'am, this Epiphone Zephyr Emperor Regent is all this - Zephyr, Emperor and Regent, on top of being an Epiphone - I mean a 1953 Epiphone when the brand was Gibson's most serious concurrent, and actually leading the market of archtop hollow body electric guitars with this very model (at a time when there wasn't other kinds of electric guitars).

A few years later Epiphone started to wane - it had never really recovered from its founder's passing away in 1943 - and was sold to Gibson in 1957, and became what it is nowadays, this bizarre mix of budget and historical instruments maker...

Anyway, Zephyr stands for electric, Emperor for the characteristic big archtop hollow body that made Epiphone rule the market back in the day, and Regent for cutaway. This model shows also the first serious pickup selector in history, the six switches allowing to reach quickly several combinations of the three pickups, at the exception strangely of the three together...

A sexy grandma, isn't it?

Bertram

PS. You'll find a fine review here.

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1962 Epiphone Riviera with tremolo, reverb and tone expressor

guitarz.blogspot.com

It's strange, I have the feeling that I already saw this kind of guitar on the web but for now I cannot find any information about this 1962 Epiphone Riviera with its large Jolana-style pickguard and its strangely placed effects - tremolo, reverb and tone expressor as you can see on the close-up below... Is it a one-off mod, a forgotten limited edition or is it so stuffy in Berlin today that I'm not able to use Google anymore?  Anybody who can tell me more is welcome!

Edit: it' actually the 'Professional' model - a short lived series, some having also a trem bar like on this demo video, on which you can see that the knobs and switches are not so awkwardly placed has it would appear at first sight to a tight-ass 21st century guitar lover! Thanks to our sharp readers...

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Jolana

1930s Epiphone Electar 7-string lap steel featuring stunning Art Deco design

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's an early Epiphone from way before the company had any links with Gibson. We've seen guitars before with an Art Deco design to them; none seem to pull it off more successfully than lap steel guitars such as this Epiphone Electar 7-string lap steel, which the seller claims is from the late 1930s. This would partly be because being a lap steel instrument it's not subject to the same ergonomic constraints as a guitar played "Spanish" style, if I may borrow that antiquated term. Also, if it's from the 1930s then it's the correct period for this style of design so it's the real thing and not just a latter-day homage. I particularly like the ocatagonal control knobs which look as if they might be made from bakelite, although I can't imagine why there would be two tone controls for just a single pickup.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Epiphone Bich copy

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I lose count of the number of times I've seen eBay sellers trying to shift what they insist on calling a "RARE Gibson Epiphone STRAT". They always emphasize the RARE and the fact that it is a Strat but Gibson-made (which it isn't, it was made in Korea). The words "rare" and "mint" have little currency on eBay these days as they are bandied about with wild abandon and without any basis in truth or the seller having done a little basic research.
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
The Epiphone "Strats" and "Teles" were quite a common sight in music shops in the late 1980s. They offered a fairly decent S or T-type guitar for the price in those days (they were budget-line instruments). Personally I always felt that the Explorer-like banana headstock looked slightly incongruous on those body shapes, but I guess Epiphone wanted to reference their parent company somewhere in the design.
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
Now this Epiphone copy of a B.C. Rich Bich (shown above) is a new one on me, but I'm guessing it would have come from the same period. It's probably rarer than the Fender-derived designs but I doubt it's particularly rare or of any great value. It's an interesting one, and certainly should be of consistent workmanship for an Epi of that period.
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
But as ever, if you know differently then please leave a comment!

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1967 Epiphone Riviera 12-string

guitarz.blogspot.com

I'm also a 12-string guitars lover and this Epiphone Riviera is an extremely lovable one! This is not the first ES-335 12-string we've seen here - there was a Gibson, a Kapa, an Ovation... - but this one in dark natural finish is quite something. 

It's been produced in Gibson's factory in Kalamazoo in 1967, at the same time Gibson was selling a similar model, but actually at a cheaper price!

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Epiphone USA map guitar reissue

guitarz.blogspot.com

This 2005 limited edition 'guitar-of-the-month' Epiphone USA map is a reissue of an early 1980s even more limited model. 

I wonder if this one was made in People's Republic of China, like all the fake GDR memorabilia they sell here in Berlin...

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1966 Epiphone Olympic SB 722

guitarz.blogspot.com

There are those who consider Epiphone no more than a budget company selling cheap Gibson copies, and those who are thankful for the affordable quality instruments they provide, but you can also focus on their original models, of course the ones released before they where bought by Gibson in 1957, but also some that were released later (up to nowadays) like the 1966 Epiphone Olympic SB 722 you can see here.

It's part of the Kalamazoo (Gibson's original factory in Michigan) built solid bodies line produced between 1958 and 1969 - this one sharing its asymmetrical body shape with the Crestwood and the Wilshire, also the batwing 6-in-line headstock. This Olympic SB 722 has a single single-coil pick-up in bridge position and the optional trem. I personally don't like its design but it seems to be well sought after - this has been Epiphone's most successful model ever...

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!