Super rare Epi, can you identify?

[Simon Croft]

Hello, first post here, although I've been a member of TDPRI and Strat-Talk for years. I have a Joe Pass Epiphone Emperor, but it's someone else's Epi I'm hoping some of you experts can help me with.

This guitar came into a repair shop in the US run by Matthew Desormeaux, and he posted it on Facebook to ask if anyone knew what it was. So far, no one knows, there is no image like it on all of Google and Bing's 'Epiphone guitar' images, and I can't find any reference to it on the Epiphonewiki site.

All of that tells me I should have come here first!

 

[Paruwi]

Hi and Welcome here @ €piTalk


Sorry, this is not an €piphone,
Epi never ever mad such a model

the headsockshape looks kind of Ibanez-like to me,
the huge f-hole too

 

[Simon Croft]

Hi and Welcome here @ €piTalk


Sorry, this is not an €piphone,
Epi never ever mad such a model

the headsockshape looks kind of Ibanez-like to me,
the huge f-hole too

Thank you for the reply. It's a strange one, isn't it? I wondered if it might have been a one-off sample for a trade show, like NAMM. But, I agree, that headstock is not Api-like at all.

 

[Cozmik Cowboy]

I have never seen one like this; tried to go through the Epi wiki to be sure, but it seems to be mostly non-functional these days.
Like Pete, I find the headstock un-Epi-like, but to me the body looks much lower-line than I would expect from Ibanez. And the was the the truss rod cover is so close to the E tuners looks like it's not factory.

But I also don't see going to the effort to put such a convincing logo on a Teisco or some such.

I will go so far as to say, if it is an Epiphone, it's from the dark days of 1970-1979;

Is the neck bolt-on? More pix might help (but I doubt it).

 

[Simon Croft]

Thank you for the reply. I'm pretty certain Matthew would have mentioned if it was a bolt-on neck. 'Dark days' indeed! The Epiphone logo did not deserve to end up on those 1970s guitars. I'm 64-years-old and I played enough of those guitars back in the day. (Actually one would have been enough...)

As you say, if it's a fake, it's a totally pointless one. After all, if you're faking a guitar for profit, you go for a big selling model.

 

[Norton]

looks way more current than 1970s.

 

[Simon Croft]

looks way more current than 1970s.

Book-matched flame top, nod-to-PRS cutaway bevel. I'd agree!

 

[TheKat]

Very interesting and peculiar.

It looks a bit weird with its low waist (positioned like in a 335, but with a smaller body) and the big f hole crammed in between pickup and the edge, the upper pickup ring so close to the beveled cutaway and the clipped ears headstock.

I assume this IS a prototype, just not one that would be acknowlegded by Epiphone. If it was born this way or somebody had a go at it clipping the headstock ears and spraypainting the Epi logo with a mask? Who knows....

The trussrod cover looks like one from the Epiphone Korean era, only these said "Gibson". Perhaps an accessories market item or even home made.

 

[TheKat]

headsockshape

Typo of the month!

 

[Davis Sharp]

After all, if you're faking a guitar for profit, you go for a big selling model.

Not really. We often mention here that it's easier to pass a counterfeit $20 bill than a $100 bill. People pay less attention to the more common denominations or lower priced guitars. Also, with Reverb, Craigslist, etc., people can make up all kinds of s**t and call things "rare," or "factory prototype," and there will be uninformed buyers who fall for it.

 

[Cozmik Cowboy]

Thank you for the reply. I'm pretty certain Matthew would have mentioned if it was a bolt-on neck. 'Dark days' indeed! The Epiphone logo did not deserve to end up on those 1970s guitars. I'm 64-years-old and I played enough of those guitars back in the day. (Actually one would have been enough...)

As you say, if it's a fake, it's a totally pointless one. After all, if you're faking a guitar for profit, you go for a big selling model.

I am also 64 - and I will confess that early in my playing days (c. 1979) I briefly had care of an Epi MIJ EA-250 "Riviera" (full-hollow double-Venetian-cut thinline bolt-on, 2 HBs) and was, at the time, quite fond of it; it is, in fact, what started me on the road to Epi fandom. But no - I wouldn't trade my Sheraton for one......

Given how many of Paul's ideas are original, I'd think the bevel was more likely to be inspiration than tribute. And BTC flame is not a recent phenomenon.

The more I look at it the more that over-sized ƒ-hole puts me to mind of Eko - but, like Epi, no model I have come across. I would not be surprised to learn it is of late '60s-early '70s Italian origins. But if so, again - why the fake logo?

I'm baffled and confused.