FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

Epiphone grew out of the House of Stathopoulo which was established in New York City by the Greek violin and mandolin maker, Anastasios Stathopoulo. Epiphone gained it's reputation in the banjo and bass viol market during the 1920's. By 1930, the company was competing with Gibson for the new and growing archtop guitar market. Like Gibson, Epiphone made its finest archtops from 1930 to 1941 and had it's mainstay guitars; namely, the Emperor and DeLuxe models. Epiphones were made in New York City until 1952 when production was moved to Philadelphia until the company was purchased by Gibson in 1957. The Zephyr DeLuxe was third in the electric archtop line behind the Emperor Zephyr Regent and the Zephyr DeLuxe Regent. Though Epiphone's acoustic archtops are considered some of the best to be mass produced, the electric archtops were no match for those offered by Gibson and Guild. Unlike Guild and Gibson's mid-line electric archtops, Epiphone's midline guitars were generally more fancy and ornate.

 Body:  Hollow; solid 2-piece spruce top, laminated 1-piece flamed maple and flamed Maple sides; triple bound top and back

 Finish:  Natural, nitrocellulose lacquer

 Neck:  5-piece maple/mahogany, set-in; single bound, maple headstock overlay with pearloid logo and vine inlay

 Fingerboard:  Brazilian rosewood, single bound; mother-of-pearl cloud markers

 Number of Frets:  20

 Pickguard:  Tortoise, celluloid; single bound

 Bridge:  Ebony on ebony base (non-original) with gold Frequensator tailpiece

 Nut:  Plastic

 Tuners:  Epiphone, enclosed, gold

 Pickups:  One, Epiphone Master Pickup single coil

 Controls:  Master tone, master volume

 Scale Length:  25 1/2 inches

 Neck Width at Nut:  1 11/16 inches

 Body Width at Lower Bout:  17 3/8 inches

 Body Depth:  3 3/8 inches

 Weight:  n/a