1961 Epiphone Zephyr

Thinline hollowbody electric in sunburst, model E312T. The T stands for thinline in Gibson’s nomenclature (otherwise the 312A is for the Broadway.) There is no Gibson counterpart for these except maybe the ES-225…kinda…sorta. Gibson’s owner CMI (Chicago Musical Instruments) bought rival Epiphone because they made great stand up basses from Orphie Stathopoulo, who wanted out. Gibson do not fully realize that they had bought everything, not just basses and bass tooling. In 1957 they dragged home bodies, necks, and Epi-made “New York” pickups and all sorts of other stuff. They decided to use Epiphone as a second brand to open new markets. Gibson took lemons – guitar bodies and parts – and made lemonade. The guitars of late 1958, 1959, and early 1960 used up these old Epi parts. But in 1960/1961 Gibson made a mini-humbucker that fit in the New York pickup holes. The “bikini” metal plate logo was used up by 1961 and a pearl Epiphone logo replaced it. This particular guitar is an interesting mix. The better mini-hum bucker pickups made by Gibson but has the old-style bikini logo. Pickup output is 7.54k on the neck and 6.77k on the bridge. The mini-hum guitars usually go for more money than the lower-output New York pickups except for the Epiphone Sheratons. This has Gibson knobs, the original Kluson tuners are gone (dang burst guys pirating parts), repro Klusons are installed. This has the Gibson 1961 neck – wide but thin with  Brazilian fretboard featuring Epiphone-style inlays. These are just over 17” wide, wider than any thinline Gibson. They also have a famous “Epiphone dish” – a taller arched top front and back. That means a bigger bass response. The pickups were dead when we acquired this so we had Lindy Fralin rewind these early PAF-era hums. The original pots and wiring have been replaced, but the originals are in the case. The neck pickup mounting screws have been changed. This guitar is golden-era Gibson. The look is cool, the tone is great, with a deeper thump (bigger body.) The frets are in great shape. The guitar is a hollowbody but feeds back less as it is a thinline. Beautiful sunburst finish, lovely yellowed binding. Comes with an original blue-lined hard case. The humbucking pickups on a thinline full hollowbody is unique.