Mark Phillips

Yes, it had the dot inlays, it started out as a Coronet promo guitar with a full body shaped Plexiglas pick guard, a bolt on neck, 1 pickup and the wrap around lightning bridge.

Yes, it had the dot inlays, it started out as a Coronet promo guitar with a full body shaped Plexiglas pick guard, a bolt on neck, 1 pickup and the wrap around lightning bridge.

Here are few pics of the project in different stages. I will add a few mor in a day or two.

Wow, I could write a book on the steps involved in making this guitar, but I will try to keep is as short as possible. It started out as an 80s or 90s Coronet promo guitar with the full Plexiglas pickguard and bolt on neck. First, I had to fill the pickup and controls cavity with a plug of Mahogony and level the top surface. Even though the neck was a bolt on it was made with all of the wood for a glue in neck joint with some rework of the neck pocket. Once the neck was ready to go, I glued it in and got my veneer book matched and precut. I laminated some 3/4 plywood and made a veneer press. I radiused the edges of the body so I needed some high-density construction foam to place on top of the veneer. when everything was glued up the veneer was put in place on a centerline and put in my press with the foam used to compress and conform the veneer to the body contour. When the veneer was dry, I trimmed the edges back and sanded them into the radius of the body. After finish sanding and making all of my holes and routings I stained the veneer with Keda alcohol-based wood stain and clear coated just the veneer top with 2-part automotive clear coat. It took many coats to fill the pours of the grain and seal the edge of the veneer to the body. I then taped off the front and sprayed the back of the neck and body with primer, sanded them and they were then painted black. At this time, I applied the headstock logo Epiphone MP-1 and taped off the fretboard and clear coated the entire guitar with several coats of 2 part clear. After curing I wet sanded from 500 grit up to 2000 grit and buffed it with 2 stages of compound then a finishing glaze with an orbital buffer. As for the block inlays they are vinyl fret markers purchased from eBay. Time consuming to apply but look very close to mother of pearl and you can't feal the edge when playing they are extremely thin. I have a bunch of photos of the project, but each photo has a larger file size than is allowed. I will see if I can resize them and add some of the veneer and finishing steps.

That's an awesome collection of Epiphones. How do the Duesenberg, Stets Bar and Les Trems hold tune with dive bombs and extreme use? I will post a couple pictures of Some of the other Epis in my collection.

I have always loved the Epiphone Wilshire and Coronet guitars, the way they sound, play and feel. In my opinion they are Epiphones version of the SG and the Stratocaster combined. After seeing how Epiphone has put beautiful maple tops on SGs and Les Paul's, I thought to my self what would I like to see Epiphone do to a Coronet so that it would have everything that I wanted in it? So I came up with this idea, take a Coronet and modify it so that it has a veneer top, no pick guard, controls mounted through the rear, Floyd Rose locking tremolo, MOP block inlays, corner input jack and a selector switch located in the lower front horn like a Wilshire. It has a DiMarzio X2N pickup in the bridge position and a DiMarzio Fast track II humbucker in the neck position. It is set up for 1 volume 1 tone with push pull pots for coil splitting and out of phase. The micro switch puts both pickups in series and there is a kill switch. I built this to play 80s metal but with the variety of tones that it gets you could play anything. How would you build yours????

I also like the low frets, the 14" radius, and slim taper of the original necks. I would like to see the Coronet with a 24 fret neck, but definitely the Gibson scale length. My thinking is that these guitars should always have the glued in neck joints. These are just my opinions, I can envision a Prophecy version of the USA made Coronet with all of these specs. That would be something that I would consider the ultimate guitar.

I always prefer the Batwing headstock. I had one of The originals and the mahogany made the guitar very light you could feel the vibration when playing it which was very cool. I am currently trying to find a '90s USA reissue with the Floyd Rose. I wish they would redo those with fancy Maple tops and routed from behind with no pick guards, and with Floyd Rose or Kahler tremolo's.