1940 Epiphone Zenith Carved-Top Archtop Guitar

Man, I've had a lot of pretty old New York Epiphones in this year! This is the most "traditional-looking" one in my book -- it's what I think of when I think of old Epiphone carved-tops. The sunburst is generous and fades quickly to black, it has a "voluptuous" body, and a super-fast, modern-feeling neck and long scale. It's also the typical spruce-over-ply-walnut that I'm used to seeing.

This gorgeous plank is a local customer's guitar and sounds tops. It didn't need much to get it going -- a fret level/dress, adjustments to the bridge, hanger solution for the tailpiece, and setup. It's now all done, plays on-the-dot, has a functional truss rod, and has both crunch and zip to its sound. It had some old work done to it -- a good repair job to a long top on the crack and a little overpsray -- but was otherwise original when it came in.

Epiphone bodies tend to be just a little wider than their Gibson competitors. This one is 16 3/8" at the lower bout rather than a straight 16" width.

The pearl in the headstock is nice and tidy. The nut is 1 5/8" and bone and the neck profile is a modern, fast, soft C/V hybrid shape. It handles a lot like a late '50s guitar.

The board and bridge are both rosewood and the board has a steep-ish radius that feels around 10" or so.

I love the firestripe pickguard and the cute metal bracket it sits-on at the neck.

The bridge base got a mild shave to allow more action-adjustment room and the bridge topper got some extra compensation.

The tailpiece's hanger-portion for the trapeze was damaged in two places. I initially tried to attach a rosewood block to replace it but the bent part of the tail had a break in it, too. My quick solution is inelegant but not obvious at first glance -- just a piece cut off an old hinge from the upstairs furniture-workshop hardware bin.

The Grover tuners work just fine but a couple are a bit bent.

The two-piece mahogany neck is perfectly stable despite many years, a long 25 1/2" scale length, and 54w-12 strings.

The serial number on the label corresponds to 1940 via the NY Epi Registry.