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George Gruhn | Vintage Guitar® magazine

Author: George Gruhn

  • VG Q&A: ’71 Mahogany Precision?

    VG Q&A: ’71 Mahogany Precision?

    Roger Hill’s Precision Bass. Finish wear on the back gives a better look at the mahogany.

    I have a Fender Precision Bass with a 1971 neck date and serial number 296XXX, and I’ve always suspected the body was mahogany rather than the typical ash or alder. My luthier agrees, and noted that the finish is lacquer. I’ve looked, and it seems a few Fenders of that era were indeed mahogany. I’m hoping you can shed some light on how common these are, and if the value differs from a Precision made of alder or ash. – Roger Hill

    The finish wear on your Precision appears to show mahogany, and the overall darkness of the finish (along with the grain pattern) are consistent with mahogany. The nitro finish, however, is a cause for concern, because the neck date of ’71 is two/three years after Fender switched from nitro to polyurethane. That raises three possibilities; the body could be older with original nitro, it could be from ’71 and refinished, or it could be a replacement body from a later date. A closer analysis of the finish might shed some light, and the pots and pickups may provide a clue to originality.

    Regarding value, you have an example where the rarity of the variation may be offset by lower demand. In other words, yes, a mahogany body is rare, but would anyone prefer it over the standard ash? There is certainly a degree of curiosity and speculation that a mahogany body might sound warmer than ash, and a mahogany Precision might fill a hole in someone’s collection, so a dealer might ask a bit more for it. – Walter Carter

    Jack O’Garragh’s Conrad 12-String.

    I just acquired a used and abused Conrad 12-string from the late ’60s. It’s a quality instrument, and after I installed a tailpiece, it plays reasonably well with excellent tone. The top is spruce and the back and sides are, I believe, rosewood. I would appreciate any information you could discover. – Jack O’Garragh

    That’s Conrad’s 12-String Folk Guitar, and you’re right, it’s from the late ’60s. Conrad was the house brand of David Wexler & Company, a distributor in Chicago. Music distributors back then assembled large inventories of all kinds of musical merchandise and sold them to retail stores. David Wexler began as a Victrola parts (springs for wind-up record players) salesman in 1920. According to a Music Trade Review notice in 1930, he also sold musical goods for Targ & Dinner, another large Chicago distributor.

    Whether Wexler sold instruments under his own company name prior to World War II is unknown, but by 1946, David Wexler & Co. was selling American-made Wabash budget acoustic guitars and Whitehall drums. Circa ’58, Wexler was selling Goya guitars made by the Swedish company Levin.

    Just when Wexler & Co. started importing guitars from Japan is uncertain, but they were doing so by ’65. Most Conrad electrics along with a few classicals and ukuleles were made by Kasuga. By ’67, Wexler had a full acoustic “Folk” lineup that included the 12-String, which had laminated-mahogany back and sides. Since your guitar has a two-piece laminated Indian rosewood back, it would most likely have been made after ’67. By ’73, Conrad 12-strings had changed to three-piece rosewood/maple/rosewood backs.

    It’s not possible to date Japanese guitars from this era precisely because they did not have serial numbers. And it’s almost impossible to determine who made this guitar; there were several quality acoustic makers in Japan during this period. Some would ally themselves with a trading company that handled distribution, exporting, and other business matters. American distributors like Wexler would contract for certain numbers of each kind of guitar and the trading company would distribute the order components to appropriate makers within its family network. If the American distributor had a house brand such as Wexler’s Conrad, it would be applied.

    Jim Baker’s ’65 ES-345TD-SV.

    Conrad guitars did not survive the ’70s and the famous “lawsuit” that ended the copying of American guitar designs. Today, David Wexler & Co. and the Conrad brand name are located in Scottsdale, Arizona, and specialize in musical items and accessories for school music programs, not guitars or drums. – Michael Wright

    I recently inherited a ’65 ES-345TD-SV. I would like my kids and grandkids to play it, and I’m curious whether it would be advantageous to convert it to mono or to leave it as is? – Jim Baker

    The only way to ensure the guitar retains its full market value is to leave it as-is; any modification will result in value loss and remove the instrument from consideration by serious collectors. Converting a stereo guitar like yours to mono would mean devaluation by as much as 20 percent, and while some mods are reversible, the work nonetheless remains detectable to the educated observer, so they are essentially permanent.

    There is more than one way to modify a vintage 345. The most-expensive (which would cause the least loss of value) would be to remove the entire set of original electronics (pickups, potentiometers, switch, output jack, etc.) without breaking any solder joints and replacing them with modern components. This could be reversed with the least detectability. The least-expensive method (resulting in greatest loss of value and most detectability) would be to modify the wiring harness by cutting leads, re-soldering joints, and replacing the output jack. In either case, it’s wise to properly store the original parts.
    If you’d prefer to play it mono, all you really need to do is use a stereo Y cord and plug both outputs into the same channel on an amp.

    This article originally appeared in VG’s October 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Fender’s “First-Gen” Stratocaster

    Fender’s “First-Gen” Stratocaster

    (Ed. Note: To further commemorate the 70th Anniversary of Fender introducing the Stratocaster, we offer this examination by George Gruhn, originally printed in the June ’13 issue.)

    The Fender Stratocaster is arguably the most popular electric guitar model in the world. From the time of its introduction in 1954, no other electric has outsold its archetypical design. And unlike its fellow archetype, the Gibson Les Paul and its numerous variants including the Junior, Special, Standard, and Custom, the Stratocaster has always been just one model, available with or without a vibrato tailpiece.

    Upon its debut, the “Strat” was revolutionary, with its two-tone sunburst finish, one-piece maple neck with black dot inlays and walnut back stripe (the only option until late ’59), “no-line” “Pat Appl’d” Kluson Deluxe tuners, three single-coil pickups, three-way pickup selector, white polystyrene thermoplastic (commonly referred to as, but not actually “Bakelite”) Tone and Volume knobs/pickup covers/switch tip, “spaghetti” peghead decal logo, round string tree, serial number stamped on the neck plate, and round-hole back plate. Today, it’s as visually appealing as ever and never needed a redesign to remain current. Its lines flow with an aesthetic appeal undiminished as time goes by.

    Many of the Stratocaster’s features were revolutionary when introduced and have had a lasting influence on electric-guitar design. It was the first guitar to employ an ergonomically friendly contoured body shape Leo devised with input from Freddie Tavares, Bill Carson, and others – its back doesn’t poke into the player’s rib cage, and their strumming arm doesn’t rest on a sharp body edge.

    Leo also designed a new “Tremolo” tailpiece (which he misnamed given that its effect is vibrato, or a change in the pitch of a note, not the volume/intensity of that note) specifically for the Stratocaster that fit more sleekly than previous designs, and is recessed. Earlier vibratos, such as Doc Kauffman’s design from the ’30s were difficult to tune. Though Paul Bigsby’s design worked much better than the Kauffman design and is still popular to this day, Leo’s response to the challenge incorporated the bridge with the vibrato rather than having a separate bridge and tailpiece. This is the first such design and still works well for most playing styles.

    For all but the first year of its history, the Stratocaster has been available in vibrato and non-vibrato versions, but the “hardtail” model has never sold nearly as well as the standard version. Though many players don’t use the vibrato and even block it off to immobilize it, players and collectors will still pay much more for a vibrato-equipped model. Many players prefer the vibrato version because rather than having the bridge fixed to the wooden body, it’s set on a metal block connected to springs within the body, which significantly alters the tone.

    This 1954 Strat carries serial number 0998.

    The Stratocaster peghead shape is very different from the early Telecaster shape and is arguably the most widely recognized Fender peghead, though it is sometimes compared to Bigsby’s design from 1949. Fender was not the first to use six-on-a-side tuners; numerous Viennese makers – most notably Stauffer – were using the arrangement as early as 1814, and Martin employed it on guitars in the 1830s and 40s. The Strat peghead, however, may be the ultimate refinement of the concept.

    Early Stratocasters were also the first Fender instruments to use six adjustable bridge saddles, which were designed in response to customer feedback regarding tuning and intonation on the three-saddle Telecaster bridge. The feature was designed contemporaneously with Gibson’s Tune-O-Matic bridge which first appeared in late 1953 on the Les Paul Custom and in Gibson’s catalog in ’54. Leo may have been unaware that Gibson was working on a comparable new design, but his is radically different. The Stratocaster was also the first Fender guitar with three pickups and a three-position slide pickup selector. The Gibson ES-5, which debuted in June of ’49, had three pickups but didn’t have the four-position pickup selector until ’55, when it was renamed to ES-5 Switchmaster.

    The first Stratocaster prototypes were built in April or May of ’53 and the first production run began in October. Early Strats were loaned to Bill Carson and other musicians, and tweaked following their suggestions. During the first year of development, many small changes were made. As many as 113 of the earliest Strats had the serial number stamped on the vibrato plate, beginning with number 100. By late May of ’54, serial numbers were stamped on the neck plate using four-digit numbers starting with 0001. Fender employees installed these plates in a grab-bag manner such that the instruments were not sequentially numbered upon completion.

    In ’54, three generations of pickup covers, knobs, and switch tips were used; during the first generation (until June/July), the knobs had a short skirt, pickup covers had rounded edges, and the switch tip had a football shape. These had a marbleized, translucent look. During the second generation (July to August), Fender used the same molds, but the components were made of white polystyrene thermoplastic “Bakelite.” By late ’54, Fender was using “Bakelite” with modern-shaped knobs and covers. At the time, they also changed to the modern-shaped switch tip. White Bakelite was used through ’56, at which time Fender switched to more-durable modern plastic after receiving complaints that the Bakelite did not hold up well as players were wearing through pickup covers, and the knobs and switch tips were breaking.

    Stratocasters were put into full production in October, 1954, after which there were far fewer design tweaks, which is why the ’54 Strat looks so similar to those made ever since, though aficionados know (and care passionately about) the subtle alterations over the years. Other key tweaks included:

    • 1954 examples have round holes in the vibrato plate on the back, which made it awkward to re-string. So, in ’55, Fender started making the holes oblong.
    • The earliest Strats have a narrow vibrato cavity with three springs, while production versions have five.
    • Until the fall of ’54, the string holes in the vibrato block were shallow and the edges were very rounded.
    • The Strat did not have a wire route until the summer of ’54, and early examples were hand-chiseled.
    • The instrument had more-rounded peghead edges until ’55.
    • The round string tree was discontinued in ’56.
    • Earliest examples have a single-ply white pickguard with a matte finish on the bottom. Later examples have single-ply white pickguard with a glossy underside. The pickguard style wasn’t changed again until ’59.

    Timeless instrument designs not only have good proportions and are ergonomically comfortable, but also have lines that flow and feel right. And, the most successful instruments are versatile enough to be used for a variety of musical genres and playing styles – the Gibson F-5 mandolin was designed for classical music, not Bill Monroe or David Grisman. Telecasters weren’t intended for Roy Buchanan or Alvin Lee, and the designers of the Martin dreadnought certainly didn’t consider its future with Tony Rice or bluegrass music. Over the years, artists spanning a range of genres have played Stratocasters including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Frusciante, and John Mayer. The Stratocaster has been used to create styles of music Leo Fender could never have imagined when he introduced this revolutionary design.

    This article originally appeared in VG’s August 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Gibson Les Paul Model

    Photo: Robert Parks, courtesy George Gruhn.

    Its official name – Les Paul model – doesn’t do it justice. After all, Gibson has made more than a hundred Les Paul models through the years. But call it by its nickname – “goldtop” – and everyone knows you’re talking about Gibson’s first solidbody electric guitar.

    Like many important guitar stories, the goldtop story was not documented very well, and writers didn’t start tapping the memories of the two primary figures in its development, Gibson president Ted McCarty and Les Paul himself, until more than 30 years after the fact. Ted and Les had been close in the 1950s but not so close from the ’60s onward. Not surprisingly, two stories emerged. Ted said Gibson came up with all the design features then sought Les’ endorsement, which resulted in the finish color and the tailpiece. Les said he and M.H. Berlin (head of Chicago Musical Instrument Company, Gibson’s parent) came up with the design and Ted delivered it. The two stories seem mutually exclusive, but if you allow a margin of error for memories, omissions and egos, both accounts are true.

    Gibson reacted immediately to Leo Fender’s introduction of the Esquire in the summer of 1950, and by the end of the year, Gibson’s Hollywood rep, Clarence Havenga, had a prototype solidbody in hand. In the meantime, McCarty was trying to lure Les away from his arsenal of customized Epiphones. Les had just set himself apart from other guitarists in the world with two multi-tracked instrumental hits, “Brazil” and “Lover.” In 1950, he added his wife, Mary Ford, to his act, and his fortunes increased exponentially; in 1951, their recording of “How High the Moon” spent nine weeks at number one on the pop charts.

    At some point, Les met with M.H. Berlin, and it was Berlin, a violin collector, who specified the carved top (Les preferred a flat top). During the prototype stage, Gibson settled on the maple top cap and mahogany body. McCarty explained that the maple cap was for sustain, the mahogany back for lighter weight. However, since greater sustain was always one of Les’ goals, it would not be surprising if Les had some input into the maple/mahogany body.

    A maple-top prototype guitar does exist, but its most interesting feature is its neck joint. The neckset angle is relatively flat, like that of the first production models, but the entire neck is set higher above the body, so the strings would be high enough to pass over a bar bridge like the one on Les’ trapeze-style combination bridge/tailpiece (a later prototype of the Les Paul Junior also has this high-set neck). Gibson was familiar with Les’ tailpiece, as there is one installed on the modified Epiphone Mary Ford is playing on the sheet music of their 1950 hit “Mockin’ Bird Hill.”

    There was a misconnection between the maple-top prototype and the final version, however. Gibson set the neck deeper into the body, for better stability, but inexplicably failed to compensate for the lowered string height. When McCarty presented the guitar to Les at the Delaware Water Gap, a resort where he and Mary were performing, it had Les’ tailpiece but was virtually unplayable.

    The crossbar that served as a bridge on Les’ tailpiece was about 1/2″ thick and it sat on height adjustment nuts. The neckset angle of the prototype (assuming it was the same as subsequent production examples) only allowed for a bridge height of 3/8″. Even with the bar laying flat on the top of the guitar, the action was probably a full 1/16″ higher at the 12th fret than Les was accustomed to.

    Les, unfazed by the lack of woodworking tools, heated up the blade of a screwdriver over the burner of a stove and gouged out the top of the guitar so the crossbar of the tailpiece could be lowered. Now, with a playable instrument, Les signed what would become the most lucrative endorsement deal in the history of musical instruments.

    In addition to the tailpiece design, Les asked for the point of the cutaway to be rounded off a bit, and he thought the gold would look good on the new model after seeing the finish on an ES-175 he’d ordered for a friend in 1951.

    When the new Les Paul model shipped in March, 1952, the neckset angle hadn’t changed. Gibson’s solution was simply to flip the tailpiece over so the strings wrapped under the bar. The high bar forced most players to alter their right-hand motion, and made muting the strings with the heel of the right hand awkward, if not impossible.

    Les was bound by the terms of his contract to play a Gibson, but it would appear he didn’t like much of anything about his own model. He replaced the tailpiece with a standard Gibson unit and a presumably homemade bar bridge. He also installed DeArmond pickups and repurposed one of the control knob holes for a jack. When the Les Paul Custom was introduced in 1954, he had several made for his own personal use with a flat top.

    In the meantime, Gibson implemented its own changes. The earliest examples had an unbound fingerboard, which was consistent with other Gibsons that had only single-ply binding on the top; however, the gold finish gave the Les Paul model an expensive look, so Gibson quickly gave it fingerboard binding.

    Inexplicably, Gibson waited well over a year to fix the neckset/tailpiece issue. In 1954, the company changed the neckset angle to introduce a new bridge/tailpiece that was essentially a bar anchored on studs mounted directly into the top of the guitar. It wasn’t perfect (for intonation adjustment, it wasn’t even as good as the three-saddle system that Fender had been using since 1950), but the strings now wrapped over the bar, and the stud-mounted bridge provided better sustain than the trapeze.

    When Gibson expanded the line to include the lower-priced Junior and fancier Custom in ’54, the Custom sported a new “Tune-O-Matic” bridge designed by Ted McCarty and had adjustments for each individual string length. Again in an inexplicable delay, it was late ’55 before the goldtop received the upgrade.

    The next change was the last and most important: double-coil humbucking pickups, whichreplaced the original “soapbar” covered P-90s in mid 1957. In ’58, with sales falling, Gibson changed the finish to Cherry Sunburst and the name to Les Paul Standard. With that, the goldtop era ended.

    The goldtop’s importance – like Les Paul’s – is tricky to assess. The guitar was a moderate commercial success, but not in the way anyone would have predicted. The first guitarists who embraced it were bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and John Lee Hooker – stylistic opposites of Les. Then, as now, virtually no guitarist bought a Les Paul because he wanted to play like Les. In fact, Les’ popularity waned faster in the mid ’50s than sales of the goldtop.

    The historic importance of the goldtop as Gibson’s first electric solidbody is obvious. Often overlooked in the cosmetic dazzle of the “’bursts” is the fact that the culmination of electric soldibody guitar design, signaled by the arrival of humbucking pickups, occurred with the ’57 goldtop. The goldtop may not be the most highly sought vintage Gibson electric, but as the vehicle for the introduction and development of the Gibson solidbody as we know it today, it remains Gibson’s most important electric model.

    This feature originally appeared in the March ’09 issue.

    This article originally appeared in VG’s January 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Gibson’s Crest Models

    Gibson’s Crest Models

    Photos: William Ritter. Instruments courtesy of George Gruhn.

    Gibson has produced two guitars bearing the “Crest” name. While both designs date to the 1960s, they’re very different instruments.

    The first incarnation was a single-cutaway with design ties to the L-5CT, while the second looked more like a fancy ES-335 with a shortened neck.

    In almost every way – size, construction materials, appointments, and finish – these two guitars are 180 degrees apart.

    The first Crest was the brainchild of guitarist Andy Nelson, a salesman/clinician who toured the country for Gibson from 1955 to ’65. Nelson’s connection with Gibson likely began in the late ’30s, when he purchased an L-4 for his mother to replace a guitar she’d owned and he destroyed as a child!

    As an employee, Nelson gained disfavor with the Gibson bureaucracy because of his tendency to return to the factory after a sales trip laden with custom orders and new “ideas.” It’s interesting to note that the large-scale production environment at Gibson made custom orders problematic. A 1940 letter from customer service rep Julius Bellson to a potential customer explained that the factory had “discontinued the practice of making any special instruments other than those listed in our catalog.” Bellson then goes on to explain in some detail how custom instruments were a money-losing proposition. But the evidence of other custom instruments constructed after the date of the letter show that in practice, this embargo was easier to impose than sustain, and Gibson continued to produce a small number of one-off instruments, many, likely, at the urging of Nelson.

    (LEFT) The first-version Crest had a peghead inlay with a “coat of arms” motif in engraved mother of pearl. The symbols on the shield are Moorish crescents. (RIGHT) This Crest has a custom-engraved shield on its tailpiece, inscribed with the name of the original owner.

    Very few first-version Crest models were produced – perhaps as few as three, but probably no more than six. Because Nelson was such an advocate of custom orders, their specs may have varied, but the best-known example had a thinline single-cut/Florentine body that resembled the L-5CT. The instrument had a carved spruce top with maple back and sides, its body was top-bound in multiple plies of white/black and a triple-bound back. The elevated pickguard was unusual in that it was constructed of alternating dark and light plies of maple. The finish is Cherry Red like the 335 of the period, and both sound holes are single-white bound. The guitar has two pickups – a full-size humbucker in the neck position and a single-coil at the bridge. Each has Volume and Tone controls with a selector toggle on the lower treble bout, along with a Switchmaster tone control. The input jack is located on top of the guitar rather than the side. The guitar is wired for stereo output, and its two-footed rosewood bridge is removable and has a Tune-O-Matic top as well as decorative mother-of-pearl inlays. The trapeze-style tailpiece has a raised diamond on the cross-bar and a metal centerpiece that displays a “coat of arms” motif.

    The neck has the larger open-book peghead of the type seen on L-5 models of the period and an intricate MOP inlay depicting a coat of arms with three Moorish crescents on the shield. The tuners are nickel-plated Grover Imperials. The ebony fingerboard is top-bound in multiple plies of white/black and triple-bound on the side. The fingerboard inlay pattern is the split block borrowed from the Super 400. The truss-rod cover is a trapezoidal art-deco design in white and black, engraved with the word “Stereo.”

    It’s difficult to be precise more than 50 years after the fact, but Gibson records indicate the first Crest was built in December of ’59, the last in August of ’61. In ’62, Nelson was moved to the Epiphone lines, and it appears no more of the original Crests were made.

    1960 Crest

    In ’69, Gibson revived the name with a guitar that bears little resemblance to Nelson’s creation. A double-cut thinline similar in appearance to an ES-355 but constructed from figured Brazilian rosewood veneer, it had no solid block in the body, leaving it fully hollow like the ES-330. The body also had a center back strip of decorative wood marquetry and was top-bound with multiple plies of white/black and the back is triple-bound. The elevated pickguard was matching Brazilian rosewood veneer bound in multiple plies of white/black like the body. The guitar had two f-shaped sound holes, each triple-bound.

    The electronics included two “floating” mini-humbucking pickups with individual Volume and Tone controls and a pickup selector toggle on the lower treble bout. The pickups were mounted using L-brackets and there were no body routs or cutouts. The bridge was removable with a two-footed rosewood base and a Tune-O-Matic top. The trapeze-style tailpiece had three raised parallelograms on the cross bar and a Brazilian rosewood centerpiece with inlaid MOP trapezoid and etched with “Crest” in script.

    The three-piece maple neck was a combination of the familiar and unusual. While the peghead was a standard Gibson “open-book” shape with multi-ply binding and sealed Kluson tuners, the single-bound Brazilian rosewood fingerboard joined the body at the 15th fret (rather than the 19th). This had the unfortunate effect of making the higher frets inaccessible. The inlay pattern was identical to a Les Paul Custom or 335 of the period with rectangular mother-of-pearl blocks in the fingerboard and the five piece split-diamond in the peghead. The truss-rod cover was engraved with the model name in script and the heel had a decorative cap in white/black/white veneer.

    1969 Crest

    The hardware was available in gold-plate (1969-’71) or silver-plate (’69-’72). This distinction gave rise to the colloquialisms “Crest Gold” or “Crest Silver” now generally used when referring to these guitars.

    Unfortunately, the second Crest had a number of design flaws that made it difficult to use. Beyond the inaccessible upper frets, the lack of a center block caused it to easily feed back. The removable bridge also tended to move if the guitar was given light-gauge strings, thus making it note incorrectly. The mini-humbuckers were a dubious addition, not favored by many.

    To the best of our knowledge, 172 of the second-generation Crest were produced before the model was discontinued in ’72. At a list price of $895, it was expensive, but sold reasonably well. Today, it is valued by collectors for its beauty and relative rarity, but is not a player favorite.

    The first Crest is a rare bird, indeed, and both stand as examples of Gibson’s ability to create variations on a theme, a characteristic which has come to define the company.

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    To learn more about Andy Nelson and his career, visit grinnellfamily.org/images/andybook.pdf.

    This article originally appeared in VG June 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Gibson’s Experimental Archtop

    Gibson’s Experimental Archtop

    Photos: Eric C. Newell.

    Orville Gibson invented the carved-top guitar in the 1890s, and his company refined the design with f-shaped sound holes in 1922, then brought the concept to full potential with larger-bodied archtops in the mid ’30s.

    While Gibson inarguably blazed the trail in the industry when it came to archtop design, that trail had at least one wrong turn, exemplified by this guitar – essentially an f-hole version of the company’s 133/4″ round-hole archtop L-3.

    From a historical perspective – someone in 1930 looking back at earlier Gibsons – this guitar would seem a great idea. In the company’s first catalog, published shortly after it was formed in October, 1902, all seven guitar models were offered in several body widths – 121/2″, 131/2″ and (except for the L-1) 16″. The surviving models quickly settled into standard sizes of 131/2″ for the round-hole L-1 and L-3, and 16″ for the round-hole L-4 and the oval-hole Style O.

    In the early 1900s, a 131/2″ guitar was not considered small. Martin’s size 0, for example, was 131/2″ wide and was in the middle of the range. An L-1 or L-3 was adequate for the way Gibson marketed guitars – as accompaniment instruments in mandolin groups – while professional guitarists gravitated to the larger and louder L-4 or Style O. Nonetheless, the L-1 and L-3 were still mainstays of Gibson’s archtop line at the beginning of the ’20s. Somewhere along the way, the L-3 grew slightly, to a catalog spec of 139/16″ and to an actual size of 133/4″.

    With the guitar growing in popularity, Gibson discontinued the L-1 in 1925, replacing it in ’26 with a pair of flat-tops – the L-1 and the L-0 – which used the same body size and shape with a circular lower bout. The L-3 continued through the ’20s. Gibson tried to elevate its status by changing the round soundhole to an oval hole circa ’27, but by the end of the decade it was clearly a model from a bygone era.

    In the meantime, Gibson acoustic engineer Lloyd Loar designed a new archtop that used violin-style f-shaped sound holes. The “star” of the new Style 5 line was the F-5 mandolin, but Loar extended the f-hole concept across the mandolin family, which in Gibson’s view included the guitar. The L-5, a 16″ archtop with f holes, made its debut in ’22.

    The f-hole archtop was not an instant success, but by the late ’20s, guitarists began to discover the cutting rhythmic power of the f-hole design. For many, the only problem with the L-5 was its price – at $275, it was almost double the price of the roundhole L-4 at $150. In ’29, a new model appeared, called the L-10 and sporting the same 16″ body and f holes as the L-5, but with a black finish that made it more affordable. When it finally appeared on a price list in November of ’31, it was $175. At the same time, as evidence of changing preferences among guitarists, Gibson dropped the L-4 to $100.

    In order to extend the f-hole archtop line downward to an even less-expensive (and, hopefully, better-selling) model, Gibson would have to make a smaller guitar. The next size down was 133/4″, which Gibson was still producing in the form of the L-3. In a last-ditch attempt to maintain interest in the model, Gibson fitted it with the fretboard extension found on the L-5 and L-10.

    Curiously, Gibson was well along in moving its flat-top line upward in size, from 131/2″ to 143/4″. In addition, Gibson introduced an even larger flat-top – the oddball 16″ HG-24 with a round hole, four f holes in the top, and an inner baffle. Though Gibson wouldn’t “advance” the size of its archtops until ’35, the movement toward larger, louder guitars was clearly recognized by Gibson and underway by 1930.

    In addition to the sound holes, this guitar is distinguished from almost all L-3s by its fretboard extension; the L-3’s fretboard was flush with the top except in its last year of production (1932).

    Whether this guitar was a custom order or a factory experiment is immaterial. In the context of growing demand for louder guitars, a smaller f-hole archtop was a step in the wrong direction, and Gibson apparently recognized it as such, as its next archtop was another 16″ f-hole model, the L-12.

    In ’32, Gibson finally introduced a smaller, more-economical archtop. Ironically, its L-50 model designation might have suggested a higher-quality guitar than existing models, but it ushered in an era of Gibson names that corresponded to list prices. It had an odd body shape with a width of 143/4″ and a length of 171/2″ – almost two inches shorter than the 143/4″ flat-tops – which gave it a squat look. The standard specification called for a round soundhole, though a few were made with f holes. Within two years, Gibson lengthened the body, at which point f holes became standard. In ’35, when all Gibson archtops “advanced” a step, the L-50 went to 16″.

    Gibson filled the vacated spot with the cheaper 143/4″ f-hole L-30 and L-37, priced at $30 and $37.50 respectively. Though Gibson’s primary competitor in the archtop market, Epiphone, was moderately successful in the early ’30s with its 13″ Olympic model, Gibson never again ventured below 143/4″ when it came to f-hole archtops.

    This article originally appeared in the October ’11 issue.

    This article originally appeared in VG’s June 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Rickenbacker 345

    Rickenbacker 345

    Photos: William Ritter. Instrument courtesy of George Gruhn.

    Rickenbacker guitars have a look, feel, and sound that is remarkably distinct from those made by any other manufacturers. In fact, artists often find that nothing else works as well for certain applications.

    While not as versatile as models made by Gibson and Fender, the sound of a Rickenbacker is so different that it’s difficult to play certain well-known songs featuring the Rickenbacker sound and get an equally good result on any other guitar; many tunes by The Beatles and The Byrds, for example, are instantly recognizable for their instrumentation.

    Adolph Rickenbacker entered the guitar business as a subcontractor for National and produced bodies for the company’s early Tricone and other metal-body guitars. He eventually partnered with George Beauchamp, who designed and patented the horseshoe-magnet pickup, and the two introduced the “frying pan” metal-body lap steel under the Rickenbacker brand. While Rickenbacker’s name went on the instruments, Beauchamp was the genius behind the scenes.

    Though Rickenbacker had produced Spanish-neck electric guitars in the 1930s, they were very late entering that segment of the market in the years after World War II. Until Roger Rossmeisl’s solidbody and hollowbody designs were introduced in 1958, the company focused on lap steels and a handful of stand-up/non-pedal steels. It also distributed Rickenbacker amplifiers.

    Prior to working with Rickenbacker, Rossmeisl worked with Mosrite, and the carving patterns on Mosrite guitars like The Ventures model show clear Rossmeisl influence. The Rickenbacker guitars designed by Rossmeisl also exhibit his concepts, as do the neck shapes, which are very Germanic and rather rectangular in cross-section and dimensions. They are quite different in feel from Martin, Fender, or Gibson necks, and very much like many German instruments.

    1960 Rickenbacker 345

    Though popularized in the mid/late ’60s by British Invasion artists like The Beatles and Pete Townshend of The Who, Rickenbacker guitars of the ’50s and ’60s were produced in much smaller quantities than those by many other manufacturers. For example, this Rickenbacker 345 is one of only 44 of the model made in 1960, and one of only 25 in Fireglo finish.

    The 345 was introduced in ’58 as part of Rossmeisl’s Capri hollowbody series. Its body is 151/4” wide and 2″ deep. In ’61, body depth was reduced to 11/2“. It has a semi-hollow body of laminated maple, unbound top and back, slash sound hole, unbound rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays, large gold-backed truss rod with Rickenbacker logo, three chrome bar “toaster top” pickups, four “kitchen oven” or “TV- style” knobs (black plastic knobs with elongated gold-colored/diamond-shaped design on top), gold-backed Lucite split pickguard, and the Kauffman vibrola used until the introduction of the Ac’cent vibrola in early 1961. The 345 was discontinued in 1975.

    Rick’s 300 Series models were available in both Standard and Deluxe versions. Deluxe models included body bindings and a bound fingerboard with triangular inlays. However, many other specs were inconsistent through the years as a result of the small-scale production of these instruments. Unlike larger manufacturers, Rickenbackers made prior to the ’70s were often affected not only by the availability (or lack thereof) of different component parts, but by the style of hand work done by individual employees. In addition, as specs evolved, the company would use supplies of parts that did not match the latest specs while simultaneously shipping new – and previous – versions of the same model. While these changes can cause confusion when attempting to identify and date an instrument, Rick enthusiasts find these quirks endearing and appreciate how the company worked through the challenges of smaller-scale production.

    While Fender and Gibson have not been successful protecting their body shapes and pickups from being copied by numerous other manufacturers, Rickenbacker has; its lap steels, and especially the horseshoe-magnet pickups, were influential in the design of some of the Epiphone and Vega pickups, but virtually no other manufacturer has ever copied – or appears to have been highly influenced by post-war Rickenbacker designs – with the exception of a few Japanese-made instruments of the ’70s which are no longer in production. To get the Rickenbacker look, feel, and sound, there are few options beyond the real thing.

    This article originally appeared in VG February 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Roy Smeck’s Gibson L-5

    Roy Smeck’s Gibson L-5

    Photos: William Ritter. Instrument courtesy of George Gruhn.

    Player endorsements are part of the tradition of guitarmaking going back to its earliest use for public performance. LeRoy G.A. Schmeck, a.k.a. Roy Smeck, may be history’s most-prolific endorser of fretted instruments.

    The Grover DeLuxe tailpiece is not catalog-spec for an L-5, but was seen on Stromberg and archtop Martins of the period.

    The list includes Washburn (Lyon & Healy) in 1924, the Harmony Vita-Uke and Vita-Guitar in ’27, the Bacon & Day Roy Smeck Silver Bell banjo line in ’28, and (after World War II) his return to Harmony.

    Smeck (1900-1997) rose to fame as “The Wizard of the Strings,” assisted by his 1926 appearance in the Warner Brothers short film His Pastimes, for which he used the new Vitaphone sound-on-disc system to synchronize sound with the film (the following year, it was used for segments of The Jazz Singer).

    The guitar you see here is one of only 63 Gibson L-5s documented in 1933, an extremely difficult year for the company given its poor sales and layoffs due to the Depression. In fact, records show production that year was mostly confined to wooden toys, student-grade/entry-level instruments, and the first Kalamazoo models. Gibson was obviously seeking opportunity.

    The details of the earliest Gibsons endorsed by Smeck are not known, but this L-5 may have been part of the deal. In ’34, Gibson debuted the S-1 Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe and S-2 Roy Smeck Radio Grande Hawaiian guitars.

    The Smeck L-5’s engraved tuner buttons were likely done in Kalamazoo, at Ihling Brothers Everard.

    The ink-stamped factory order number (FON) indicates this guitar was produced in mid May of ’33 while the serial number tells us it was likely delivered in early June. A close look reveals it’s a standard production model with a few easily altered details including a Grover De-Luxe trapeze tailpiece of the type usually seen on Martin and Stromberg guitars of the period, a truss cover engraved with his name, and metal tuner buttons ornamentally engraved with the letter S. Any could be later additions, but the tailpiece appears to be similar in age to the guitar and is die-stamped with his name. Also, there’s no indication any other tailpiece has ever been installed. The truss-cover engraving is rendered in a manner consistent with Gibson work of the period and the tuner buttons could have been engraved by Ihling Brothers Everard, a local subcontractor used regularly by Gibson.

    In other aspects, the Smeck L-5 meets catalog specs, with a 16″ body, carved spruce top with f-shaped soundholes, figured-maple back and sides, elevated tortoiseshell-grain pickguard, removable/height-adjustable Brazilian rosewood bridge (some others that year were ebony), two-piece maple neck with dark wood center strip and adjustable truss rod, “snakehead” peghead, mother-of-pearl “The Gibson” script logo and flowerpot peghead inlay, Grover G-98 tuners, 19-fret ebony fingerboard (14 clear of the body) with pearloid block inlays starting at the third fret and single-ply white binding, multi-ply binding on the top and back edges, as well as the pickguard,  and gold-plated hardware.

    This L-5 may have been a recruiting inducement for the “Wizard of the Strings.” Though Gibson focused on student-grade instruments when this was made in 1933, the figured-maple back proves its stock of fine hardwood was not diminished.

    The L-5 was a strong recruiting inducement – at $275, the most expensive guitar in the Gibson catalog. By comparison, in ’33 one could have bought Martin’s 000-45 for $170, added a 12-fret slope-shouldered D-28 herringbone for $100, and still had $5 left. This is also an excellent example of how the original price does not translate to current market value; today, the two Martins are valued at more than 10 times the typical ’33 L-5!

    Throughout his life, Smeck taught music at his Upper West Side apartment in New York City. This guitar was purchased from Smeck in the late ’30s and today remains in the family of the second owner.

    This article originally appeared in VG February 2018 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • Martin Style 000-28K

    Martin Style 000-28K

    Martin Style OOO-28K. Photo: Kelsey Vaughn, courtesy of Gruhn Guitars.

    During the 1920s and ’30s, Martin made a considerable number of guitars with bodies constructed of Hawaiian Koa wood. The Hawaiian music craze was in full swing and the demand was strong for ukuleles and Hawaiian-style guitars played with a steel bar, as well as standard-style guitars constructed of Hawaiian Koa wood.

    The vast majority of Koa instruments built by Martin were ukuleles, though quite a few Koa wood guitars were made, particularly styles 0-18K and 0-28K and a very few 00-18K and 00-28K models. The pre-World War II Martin literature did not show any 000-sized Koa wood instruments offered as standard catalog models.

    Mike Longworth’s book on Martin guitars features very detailed production totals which show only one 000-28K ever having been made. In 2002 we acquired 000-28K (serial number 16347), made in 1921. We assumed this was the one and only 000-28K to have ever been made, and listed it as such in our catalog. But shortly thereafter we heard from the owner of 000-28K serial number 16253. When we called Martin to check on this, we found number 16253 was the one listed in Longworth’s book appearing in Martin’s records as a 000-28K, whereas number 16347 was listed in the records simply as a 000-28 with no reference to any special features. It appears that while Martin’s records are meticulous and far more complete than those of any other manufacturer of guitars, they are less than perfect. To this day, however, we have not heard of any other Koa-wood 000-size pre-World War II Martins, so it’s reasonable to assume that in all probability, these two are the only ones to have been made.

    With the exception of having Hawaiian Koa wood top, back, and sides, the structural and ornamental features of these two guitars are otherwise typical of a 000-28 of the period. Serial number 16347 has a pickguard that appears to have been installed by Martin, though we are unable to determine if it originally left the factory with this guard or if it may have been installed later. It was not uncommon for owners to send instruments back to the factory for reconditioning, repairs, or customizing. As is typical of a 000-28 of this period, both guitars feature a 15″ wide body, 12-fret slot-head mahogany neck, unbound ebony fingerboard with slotted diamond inlays at positions 5, 7, and 9 (inlays beginning at third fret and extending to the 15th fret became standard in 1931), pyramid-end ebony bridge, herringbone top trim, “zipper” zig-zag back stripe, and white ivoroid binding on the top and back edge of the body. The typical style 28 of this period would feature an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides. Koa gives a brighter sound with more sustain while the typical spruce and rosewood construction gives greater depth and more “punch.” Both give excellent-quality sound. The differences in tone are a matter of personal judgment and musical preferences rather than good versus bad.

    It’s a tribute to Martin craftsmanship that both of these 000-28s have survived and are today in fine playing order. Perhaps even more significantly, however, it is a great tribute to the high esteem Martin owners have for their instruments. While most consumer products, even those considered “durable goods,” have a limited lifespan after which they are usually discarded, guitars in general and Martin guitars in particular tend to be cherished by their owners and handed down through generations. Needless to say, dealers and collectors frequently encounter instruments which have been horribly abused, neglected, or severely damaged or even destroyed by amateur repairs or customizing, but an amazingly high percentage of older guitars have survived. This is particularly true in the case of the higher-end, more expensive models. While owners frequently neglected lower-priced instruments, they were more inspired by and had more of an incentive to care for the ones that were sufficiently expensive that they had to work hard to acquire them. Aside from any financial considerations, owners establish an emotional bond with a good instrument, and often treat it very much as though it were alive.

    Forty years ago, prices of vintage instruments were extremely low by today’s standards, and most were hidden in closets and attics if they were not being actively used. Today, with market prices having risen very dramatically, there is far more incentive for owners to offer these instruments for sale. As a direct result, while prices may be less affordable, there are far more good instruments being offered on the market and certainly far more that are well-documented in collections. There is no doubt that there are still more “sleepers” out there to be found, but after so many years of efforts by collectors and dealers to uncover these instruments, there are far fewer in the hands of owners who have no idea what they have. In the case of pre-World War II Martin D-45s, for example, the records show that 91 were made, including three with 12-fret necks and extended-length body.

    The vast majority of the 91 D-45s have been accounted for, and I have seen all three of the 12-fret D-45s made in the ’30s. The fact remains, however, that there are a large number of undiscovered gems still in the field. Collectors and dealers are by no means reduced to just recirculating previously known guitars. Based on my experience I believe the majority of the collectible instruments shown in company records, but not yet accounted for, are still out there waiting to be found.

    Photo: Kelsey Vaughn, courtesy of Gruhn Guitars.

    This article originally appeared in VG‘s January 2005 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • National Style 3 Hawaiian

    National Style 3 Hawaiian

    Metal-bodied guitars built by the National String Instrument Company before World War II represent a giant leap in guitar design and technology. When they debuted in 1926, they were startling in both appearance and sound; there was simply nothing else like them.

    Throughout the ’20s, the guitar gained popularity with rising prominence of radio artists like Nick Lucas and Eddie Lang. However, most guitars were not loud enough for solo work and were often relegated to rhythm work. In an effort to overcome the lack of volume, two lines of thought gradually emerged regarding amplification through mechanical devices or by electrical means.

    The invention of the vacuum tube in 1906 and the first amplifier circuit in 1913 were important steps for the electrical camp, but the progress of the electric guitar was stalled in the early ’20s by the lack of a workable pickup and loudspeaker. Bell Laboratories would demonstrate a working paper-cone speaker in ’25, but the invention of the practical, commercial single-coil pickup was still a few years in the future. This left the field open for men like George Beauchamp and John Dopyera, both proponents of mechanical amplification, and principles of the National String Instrument Company.

    Located in Los Angeles, the company was incorporated on January 26, 1928, by Beauchamp, Dopyera, Ted Kleinmeyer, Paul Barth, and Murray Ferguson. The mechanical advance represented by the National guitars was based around three spun-aluminum speaker cones, each driven simultaneously by a multi-armed “spider,” which in turn supported the bridge of the instrument. The assembly was set into the top of the metal body and became known as a “tri-cone” model.

    The origin of the idea to use a speaker cone to amplify the sound is unclear. Years later, George Beauchamp and John Dopyera would both claim the invention, though Dopyera’s name alone appears on the 1927 tri-cone patent. Personality differences and professional rivalry would lead Dopyera leaving National then forming a separate company in 1929 with his brother, Rudy. The Dobro Manufacturing Company would go on to build another successful and iconic American guitar based around a single-cone design.

    Click to enlarge. Photos: William Ritter. Instrument courtesy of George Gruhn.

    Beginning with a few hand-built prototypes in ’26, the new National guitars quickly made an impressive entrance into the market. With art-deco styling, polished metal bodies, and high-quality decorative engraving, the visual appeal, for performers, was incredible. With orders increasing exponentially, in 1927, National turned to the Rickenbacker Manufacturing Company to create the metal bodies. Adolph Rickenbacker had one of the largest deep-drawing metal presses on the West Coast and could produce 50 bodies per day.

    Fueled by the widespread popularity of Hawaiian music and given immediate visibility through musicians like Sol Hoopi, Tampa Red, and Son House, by 1928, the National factory could hardly keep up with orders. Company executives and major stockholders partied with movie stars and went on weekend-long gambling cruises around Catalina Island. The stock market crash of 1929 brought an end to the festivities, but for a short while, life was very good at National.

    Metal-bodied pre-war National guitars were constructed such that the parts which form the neck and body are soldered together, making them effectively an integral unit. This made them unlike most other instruments of the time, but not unique. Prior to National’s emergence, another Los-Angeles-based company, Weissenborn, was using an almost identical design to construct acoustic Hawaiian guitars. Weissenborn guitars are today held in high regard for acoustic playing, and have an integrated hollow neck that is open to the body. National used a similar design with hollow metal necks. What Hermann Weissenborn thought about this infringement is unknown. It could be argued that instruments with hollow necks were not a new idea. The original mandolins constructed by Orville Gibson also used hollow necks which were integral to the body.

    The guitar featured in this month’s article is a tri-cone Style 3 or De Luxe model, produced early in 1928 and formerly owned by country music legend Little Jimmy Dickens. The Style 3 sold for $165 with a hard case priced at $25 extra. This made the National guitar an expensive choice. By comparison, a Gibson Nick Lucas signature model from ’28 was priced at $125 and a top-of-the line Martin 000-45 was only $170. The Style 3 was produced from 1927 through ’34, but the retail price never changed, remaining steady at $165, seemingly unaffected by the economic disaster of the early ’30s.

    This particular example is a square-neck model, with high string action, meant to create Hawaiian music using a steel bar. “Round-neck” models set up for regular playing were also available in all models at the same prices. Unfortunately for today’s collectors, more square-necks were produced than round-neck instruments due to the popularity of Hawaiian music at that time. In today’s market, the rarer round-neck version is more valuable because of its popularity in playing acoustic blues. Because the necks are integral to the body, they cannot be converted from Hawaiian to Spanish styles.

    The Style 3 body is constructed from German Silver, a nickel alloy which was used on tri-cone models. The exterior is nickel-plated and features intricate floral engraving; this particular pattern is known as Lilies of the Valley and was designed by Dopyera and his wife. The engraving was done in a building behind the main plant at the National factory. The metal neck has a mahogany peghead and a 19-fret fingerboard (Spanish versions had 12 frets clear of the body). The serial number (390) is die-stamped on the back of neck in what would be the volute or hand-stop. Instruments produced after serial number 380 are considered superior because they have arched backs and an integral metal platform for the cones to sit on. This modification delivers more sound from the cones.

    Like many early National instruments, this guitar has a number of custom options and upgrades. The standard engraving pattern has been enhanced with dragonflies, birds, and butterflies. An upper-case letter E is engraved on the treble and bass sides, presumably representing the name of the original owner. The pearl fingerboard inlay we typically see on a Style 3 is a diamond pattern, but this example has simple dots. Similarly, the peghead is similar to what is seen on cheaper (and later) single-cone models with a black painted face and “shield” decal. Most Style 3 guitars had an ebony peghead veneer with an inlaid pearl logo. A few have even been seen with a pearloid veneer and an etched logo. It may be that this particular instrument was returned to the factory for repairs.

    In December of 1933, the Dobro Manufacturing Company gained control of National and the two companies merged on July 1, 1935. George Beauchamp had left the board of directors at National and sold his stock as soon as the Dopyera brothers gained control in ’33. Ironically, his focus thereafter was on the development of electrically amplified instruments. In a foresighted move back in ’31, Rickenbacker and Beauchamp formed the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (later Electro-String) to manufacture aluminum-bodied electric lap steel guitars. The “horseshoe” pickup used in these instruments was designed by Beauchamp and is considered one of the first commercially viable units because it eliminated a majority of feedback problems. These Electro-String (Rickenbacker) lap-steel guitars have come to be known as “frying pans” given their resemblance. The strings on the “frying pan” passed through two large horseshoe-shaped magnets and over a wound coil. While it worked well enough on a lap steel, the size, weight, and appearance did not lend themselves well to installation in the acoustic guitars of the time. Yet, successful enough for Beauchamp to claim revenge on the Dopyera brothers.

    While the deteriorating economic climate of the early ’30s contributed to shrinking sales of all resonator guitars, other developments spelled the end of the era. By the mid ’30s, Gibson was offering viable electric instruments. Gibson’s larger production capacity and efficient marketing department created an untenable situation for the much smaller National-Dobro and Electro-String (Rickenbacker) companies. Rickenbacker lost market share because its products were not as versatile as Gibson’s acoustic/electrics. Band leaders valued the ability of guitarists to play acoustically or electrically with the same instrument. In the end, very few professional musicians held on to the sound of a National tri-cone after they heard a viable electric guitar. Today, acoustic Hawaiian players consider early National square-neck tri-cones the best ever made, and acoustic-blues players pay a premium for the few pre-war round-neck tri-cones that have survived.

    This article originally appeared in VG April 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

  • 1965 Epiphone Emperor

    1965 Epiphone Emperor

    1965 Epiphone Emperor, serial number 347083. Photo courtesy of George Gruhn.

    The Epiphone Emperor has a long, convoluted history. It first appeared in Epiphone’s catalog in late 1935 as a response to Gibson’s Super 400, which was introduced in late 1934.

    Epiphone went one better on Gibson’s 18″-wide Super 400 by making the Emperor 18 1/2″ wide. This was the top model in the Epiphone line. By 1937, the elaborate trapeze tailpiece was replaced by the classic Epiphone Frequensator, with separate sections for the three bass strings and three treble strings. The original inlay pattern on the fingerboard of the Emperor consisted of three separate pieces of pearl. The abalone wedge in the center of pearl block inlays was introduced in the 1940s.

    Although Gibson introduced its Premier model cutaway guitars in ’39, Epiphone did not follow with the cutaway until about 1948, when it designated cutaways as Regent variants. The Zephyr designation in the Epiphone line indicated an electric guitar. The Zephyr Emperor Regent was introduced in 1950 featuring a full-depth 181?2″ body, three pickups, and a six-pushbutton switching system for pickup selection. This system proved less than ideal, since it was quite noisy such that when the player switched it would send a loud pop through the amp.

    In the ’50s, the Epiphone company encountered financial difficulties. In 1957, the company was sold to Chicago Musical Instrument, owner of Gibson, and production was moved to Gibson’s facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. New Epiphone models made by Gibson were introduced at the annual trade show in 1958, but few instruments actually shipped until ’59.

    The Gibson-made Epiphone Emperor electric was quite a different beast from the earlier New York-made Epiphones. The Gibson-made model still featured an 181?2″ single-cutaway body, but it was shallow, similar to an ES-335. Those made from 1958 through 1960 used original New York-made Epiphone pickups, but by ’61 the model featured mini-humbucking pickups. The inlay on the peghead featured the vine of the same style used on the New York Epiphones, and the fingerboard inlays with pearl blocks and an abalone-V center wedge are the same style used on the New York-made Emperors. The pickup switching system, however, is quite different.

    These guitars feature two volume knobs and two tone knobs, as is typical of a Gibson, whereas early Epiphones had only one volume knob and one tone knob. Rather than the awkward six-pushbutton system, the typical Gibson-made Emperor electric features one three-position toggle such that the wiring is like a Les Paul Custom or SG Custom with three pickups. In that system, the three-position switch gives a normal lead sound and normal rhythm sound, but the middle position gives the middle pickup and bridge-position lead pickup out-of-phase, for a super twangy sound – there is no normal “middle” sound.

    This particular guitar is a custom-order instrument featuring a Bigsby and three on/off switches. We’ve never encountered another Gibson-made Epiphone with three such switches, but it gives great versatility of sound. With three on-off switches, a player can get any combination of pickups, and the versatility is vastly greater than what can be achieved with one three-position toggle. But it certainly isn’t perfect, and one could also argue that three volume controls and three tone controls would have been better. Still, as it is, this is an amazingly versatile and fine-sounding guitar, as well as being an extraordinarily rare and high-quality collectible.

    The Gibson-made Emperor never sold in large quantities. By 1963, the model was available only on special order, but Gibson continued to make it through ’69. Since 1970 (when Gibson was acquired by Norlin) Epiphone has been an import line. In the ’70s, Epiphone Emperors were altered to use a full-depth 17″ body similar in size to a Gibson L-5, and were given two full-size humbucking pickups. These guitars were made in Japan under the Epiphone name for distribution by Gibson. From the ’80s onward, Epiphones have been made in Korea, and the Emperor model of this period, though it features the vine peghead inlay and abalone wedge fingerboard inlay, features a much smaller body size and differs in shape from any of the Gibson models such that it is distinctly different from both the Japanese-made Emperor and the Kalamazoo-made Gibson, as well as the earlier New York-made Epiphone models.

    While the original pre-World War II Epiphone Emperor acoustic may be the ultimate expression of the model, this Gibson-made electric Emperor is perhaps the ultimate evolution – and best-sounding version – of the electric Emperor ever made. It looks sharp, plays extremely well, and is one of the most versatile-sounding hollowbody electrics imaginable.

    This article originally appeared in VG‘s May ’05 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.