The Big One on British Ebay

Nicolai Foss

Here. The seller seems to me to undersell. The guitar looks relatively clean, except for that terrible circular cut. Your chance to land an Emperor for a reasonable amount of money?

Buffalo Bros. and Epiphone

Nicolai Foss

Buffalo Bros. seems on their way to beating Archtop.com as the premier dealer of vintage Epis. Not only do they offer a stunning Emperor, they also offer a beautiful Broadway. Wow!

Too Good To Be True?

Nicolai Foss

Yesterday I spotted an Epiphone Emperor from 1945 on British ebay. It was offered at 600 GBP (including handling and shipping). This is roughly 1/3 - 1/4 of what an Emperor would reasonably sell at in US, and probably between 1/5 and 1/6 at the price that it would sell at in Europe. Well, some people are crazy or ignorant, and you may be lucky, so I immediately mailed the email address that was mentioned. A “S L” replied, confirming the price, and adding: “The deal will be made through an eBay program which will protect both of us. If you are ready for the deal let me know your full name and shipping address and i’ll start the deal with eBay.” I checked the guitar again and noticed that it had been removed from the listing. When I asked the seller about this, he replied that he had “some problems with his credit card.” This morning I noticed that it has been relisted. You can find it here.

Some Nice Epis on Ebay

Nicolai Foss

There haven’t been many Epis on Ebay recently, but this may be changing. Here is a nice natural finish Blackstone (starting bid 795 USD). Although “student models” (to use snob-guitar-connaisseur lingo) these are excellent archtops, often with that huge Epi voice. Here is a 1951 Triumph Regent. And here is what looks like a 1940 Electar. (The seller notes that “I don’t know the model, but I’m relatively sure that it’s a guitar”!!).

Howard Roberts’ Guitars

Nicolai Foss

Howard Roberts’ name will forever be associated with the model he designed for Epiphone and Gibson, The Epiphone Howard Roberts Custom and Standard, and the Gibson Howard Roberts Artist. The model, sort of an updated L4 with Florentine cutaway, was copied by numerous Japanese companese (most famously by Ibanez) but also by German producer Hoyer. Here is a full list of the guitars Roberts designed and owned. The page is part of Mike Evans’ very well-researched Howard Roberts site.

Epi Bonanza on Ebay

Nicolai Foss

It is only very seldom that so many wonderful Epiphone archtops are offered for sale at Ebay. Here is one of the most stunning examples of the Deluxe — often claimed to be the best factory-made archtop ever produced — I have seen. At 6,500 USD a pretty hefty buy-it-now price, but considering that the Deluxe is as good (some claim better) than the Emperor, not entirely unrealistic. Here is another, blonde, Deluxe. Also stunning, but apparently it needs some work. Here is a Spartan with some Hawaiian painting on the back. I know what I would do with it if I purchased this guitar!

However, the best bargain of them all, if “bargain” is to be defined as high value for a small price, is surely this great looking Zephyr with a ridiculously low buy-it-now price of only 890 USD. Too bad I have too many black boxes sitting around the house already…

More Emperor

Nicolai Foss

British ebay has a very strange Epiphone Emperor for sale. It has an added florentine cutaway! Sacrilege!

Estimating the Value of a Tudor

Nicolai Foss

The Tudor was a 1930s Epiphone model. More specifically, according to Vintage Guitars Info, the Tudor was produced from 1931 to 1939. In terms of appointments, finish, etc. it was in between the DeLuxe and the Broadway models. Vintage Guitars Info rates its collectability at a “C”, which is not that impressive (the same as a cutaway Triumph). The Blue Book of Acoustic Guitars estimate its worth in “excellent” condition at 3,000 USD. Few Deluxes would sell for that little and I suppose many Broadways wouldn’t either.

Now, here is what the always reliable archtop.com noted about the Tudor they recently offered:

For years it was just an picture in an old catalog. A simple black and white engraving, with a florid description. “Lending itself to the performer’s mood it will sing in a whisper or shout it from the housetops.” And that was that. As pictured, floating in the clouds, the Epiphone Tudor was an exceptionally handsome instrument, combining the figured maple body of the Masterbilt Deluxe with the graceful peghead vine of the Broadway, and adding a variegated floral fingerboard inlay all its own. Though pictured in the1934 catalog, positioned between the Deluxe and the Broadway models, nobody could seem to find a surviving example. The Epiphone Tudor: the guitar that never was.

That all changed with the publication of the Fisch and Fred book, Epiphone: The House of Stathopoulo, still the finest volume on an American guitar maker. There it was, in the plates on page C-17. In living color, a honest-to-goodness Tudor, serial number 7453, big as life, from the collection of the co-author. And that’s when people started looking. There just didn’t seem to be another one. After all, folks reasoned, Epi made some extremely scarce models, especially during the lean years of the Great Depression. (The Epiphone Windsor mandolin pictured on C-47 was found by us some years ago, and remains the only known example.)

If there are only two Tudors left in the World, which it seems reasonable to assume, and if this is almost as fine a model as a DeLuxe, then how is it possible to rate it a “C” and to estimate its worth at 3,000 USD (I cannot recall the selling price at archtop.com, but it has probably in the neighbourhood of 10k USD)?? I confess that my trust in “guitar experts” was shaken somewhat by this.

Two Epiphone Emperors on Ebay

Nicolai Foss

One doesn’t often come across (real) Epiphone Emperors on Ebay. Right now there are two offers that look rather interesting, one is for an Epi Emperor 1939 (#15747) with a buy now price of 5,000 USD (item # 270094129543) and the other is for a 1945 model with a buy now price of only 4,400 USD (item # 280088562620). The latter price is low for Epi’s topmodel, but is clearly caused by a couple of plugged holes. With Epis selling from vendors at around 6,000 USD both prices are, however, very reasonable. Your chance to earn one of the most stylish and loud archtops ever!