My "New" Epiphone Zephyr Regent

Rich Cohen

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A recently acquired 1954 Epiphone Zephyr Regent in fantastic shape. The "Deluxe" model came with two "New York" single pole pups. This model has one. Everything is original. Handles all kinds of music genres.

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Notice the Epiphone logo on the tuners.

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walrus

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Ah, you answered my question about the tuners from the other "new Epiphone guitar for Rich" thread. I did not think to look at them "sideways"!

Another beauty, Rich! Selling your house soon? :laughing:

walrus
 

Rich Cohen

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Ha! Ha! Actually we might be selling our house soon. My wife is traveling to Toronto next week to give a talk at the U of T. She's a candidate for a position there. To afford these wonderful arch tops, I sold all but one of my flat tops. Most of them were high enders fortunately.
 

swiveltung

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Wow, pretty cool. I've been considering one of the newer Korean models. I like the long scale.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Rich, how do you like the New York pickup? To my ears it has a fuzzy sound, not like a fuzz pedal but like all the frequencies are kinda blurred. No obvious peaks or dips in response. Sounded best to me with the tone rolled off a bit and the bass on my amp turned up.

-Dave-
 

Rich Cohen

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Rich, how do you like the New York pickup? To my ears it has a fuzzy sound, not like a fuzz pedal but like all the frequencies are kinda blurred. No obvious peaks or dips in response. Sounded best to me with the tone rolled off a bit and the bass on my amp turned up.

-Dave-

Dave,
I tend to agree with you. It sort of resembles a DeArmond Rhythm Chief. Tweeking the tone setting, plus the amplifier addresses the "fuzz" sound of the pickup. I suppose we need to give Epiphone a break in critiquing the "New York"pup, as it was designed at a time when pups were getting introduced or having makeover.
 

X-170AB

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Very nice! This era of Epiphone archtop really shows the common lineage with early Guild archtops in the body shape, IMO.
 

Rich Cohen

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Very nice! This era of Epiphone archtop really shows the common lineage with early Guild archtops in the body shape, IMO.

X-179AB
Absolutely. It's copiously obvious that Dronge who set up his factory not far from the Epiphone factory in NYC, basically copied Epiphones' designs for the arch tops, right down to the finger board inlays. I wonder why Epiphone didn't sue Guild for its copies.
 
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Cougar

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A recently acquired 1954 Epiphone Zephyr Regent in fantastic shape....

The condition of your new acquisitions is simply amazing. You done good! My dad played a 1939 Epiphone Zenith for decades before I got him a Gibson Les Paul Studio. The Zenith was beat to crap, action was hard, and the tone was awful. I absconded with it, had some nominal work done on it, it still sounded lousy. The top was arched, but wavy. I read somewhere it had a collectible value of D-. I eventually sold it and was lucky and happy to get between $800-900. It was probably only worth $200-300....

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Jeff Haddad

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That's a pretty Epiphone! What is the headstock overlay made from? That's unusual grain. I have a '51 Zephyr Regent that's been repainted black with hot rod flames and a P90. Yours looks beautifully original!
 

Neal

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On that note, Rich and I play at the same open mic every Monday. Last night, he brought the ‘57 X-350. It is in absolutely stunning condition, and he tore it up on one of his original blues tunes!
 

Rich Cohen

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That's a pretty Epiphone! What is the headstock overlay made from? That's unusual grain. I have a '51 Zephyr Regent that's been repainted black with hot rod flames and a P90. Yours looks beautifully original!

Jeff,
The headstock overlay looks like rosewood, but I could be mistaken. The "tiger stripes" are also stock, as I have seen other similarly dated Zephyr Regents with it.

Rich
 
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