Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Emerson
Steve,
When I saw this posting the first thing that came to mind was that I'd never seen anything like that before.
The second thing was that a FB acquaintance, Mike Thompson, has a staggering collection of Gibson archtops, and somehow may not be aware of this model........silly me.......
Here's his:
Best,
Howard |
Good morning, Howard - a little good news to brighten your (and your friend's) day:
Although it's well-known that Gibson produced Epiphone instruments with original New York parts as late as the end of 1963, the instrument in the photo is most emphatically
not one of them; in fact, not only was it not made by Gibson, but it happens to be the sole documented sunburst example of the Epi Emperor Concert (#58825 dating to 1949) and possibly the only one released to the general public (Johnny Smith's was custom-built to order, and the blonde example above was a gift to an Epiphone employee from the Stathopoulo family) -
in a word, your bud is in possession of one of the all-time Holy Grail guitars for any archtop collector...
If you have personal access to this unique instrument, I think most (if not all) of us would be interested in an OGD (old guitar day) hands-on evaluation/play test along with some additional photos; absent that, if you coud arrange for the owner to do the same for (with his permission) reposting here on the AGF Archtop subforum, I believe it would be greatly appreciated by all...
Let us know how it goes...