1961 Epiphone E452T Sorrento Electric Guitar




While this is basically a Gibson ES-125TC with a mini-humbucker rather than a P-90, it's also got a slightly different finish and Epi decorative appointments. Here's a site with the details in full. I'm all about these guitars and have long had a thing for thinline ES-125s and the like. They're jazzy enough for jazz, country enough for old country, and rocky enough to get a good thick blues or rock sound. Plus... they have that old 16" Gibson archtop guitar profile which is simply classic.

This one is a customer's guitar and it got a neck reset, fret level/dress, cleaning and electronics cleaning, and setup. The neck joint was very dicey and in the end this received a bolt-reinforced repair to get it going again. I'm glad the owner and I went with that as it feels sturdy, stable, and happy to be playing again.

The soundclip above is direct-in to my recording interface and you can hear how much better these old mini-hums sound compared to the garden-variety modern min-hums which I tend to find icky and muddy. This one's sweet and thick with good clarity.



The "bikini" metal nameplate is great.


The neck is, of course, ultra-thin and fast... but sports a fresh set of electric 11s quite easily.




The ABR-1 bridge is still serving.


...and aren't those chrome-topped knobs cool?




The finish has certainly yellowed over the years and the "walnut" stain to the back is now "disturbing green" instead. I love it.


This has a one-piece mahogany neck.







An original hard case, too!

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