1951 Epiphone Zephyr Regent

[posternutbag]

I played one of these in a local brick and mortar this afternoon. It seemed like a nice, versatile jazz box for the gigging pro. I know that they don't have much value to collectors, but where would the guitar stand in terms of serving as a solid, working class jazz box?

[Steve DeRosa]

Some of them are worth a few bucks:

http://www.archtop.com/ac_53zdr.html

As long as everything's solid (watch that Freqensator tailpiece, they have a tendency to crack at the bend) you've got yourself a well-built vintage jazzbox by any standard. Forget what you may know about Kalamazoo Epis - they often got short schrift at Gibson (although some of them were amazingly good instruments, often with unusual features) - these guitars were designed to compete head-on with their G-brand counterparts, and model-for-model were comparable in quality. If there are no construction issues (IME they tend to be more solidly-constructed than their contemporaries), all the electronics are functional, and the price is right, it's hard to go wrong with a nice old New York Epiphone...