NUGD Vintage Epiphone Texan 145

[LakeShow]

My buddy does Fire and Flood restorations, got this out of some old womans house... Im thinking its from the 1970s-80s but Im not sure... Made in Japan Epiphone Texan 145 ... odd bolt on neck.. serial 141991... says Kalamazoo Michigan on the inside label too... He sent me pics and I told him to grab it... for 40$ it looked like a steal... anyone know what kind of woods were used on this Epiphone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this is the guitar actually... 1972-1979 Epiphone Texan http://epiphonewiki.com/index.php/File:FT145NA.jpg

[LakeShow]

Also if I wanted to flip it to play it left handed... besides changing the nut and putting new strings on, do I absolutely HAVE to replace the bridge? or can the bridge stay the same and just change the nut and strings

[dhanners623]

Unless you change the saddle around, you'll always have intonation problems of some sort. It is a matter of removing the mechanism that is there, filling the slot with wood, sanding that down and then routing a new slot. And then, of course, making a new saddle. It is a fairly involved bit of work, but nothing a competent repairman couldn't handle. I'd question going to that expense on this guitar, though. I've a suspicion that once it is strung up, it is not going to have an out-of-this-world sound.

[LakeShow]

thats exactly what I wanted to know, thanks 4 the reply!

[dhanners623]

Here is Steve Carmody's description of the conversion operation: http://www.guitarrepairshop.com/repairlefty.html

 

And here is Frank Ford's description of a left-handed conversion:

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Guitar/Setup/LeftConv/leftconv.html

 

There used to be some company that made left-handed conversion saddles that were allegedly properly compensated so you just slipped it into the existing saddle slot. I did a quick search online, though, and couldn't find anything on it.

[TommyK]

It appears to be a later model blue label, owing to the epsilon on the truss rod cover. The apparent distortion of the sound hole under the fretboard extension leads me to believe the neck block has failed. This is fixable. Somewhere I have a thread here that details the fix.

 

Paul McCartney is a famous left handed Epi player. I've seen a couple pictures of him with HIS FT79 Texan. He lefthandified the saddle without modifying the bridge. Quite simply he, or his luthier, glued a bit a saddle material to the nut side of the existing saddle where the lower two strings crossed it, then added a bit of saddle to the butt side of the saddle under what were the higher two strings. Under the center G, B strings he left the saddle alone thus:

 

E A D G b e (standard RH stringing)

----

-------------------

.............. ----- (ignore the.'s They are there to space out the -'s)

 

Then filed as necessary to effectively reverse the saddle, i.e. reverse where the strings bear across the saddle. At the nut, opening up the higher b, e string slots was necessary to accommodate the thicker bass strings. The E,A strings' slots, he has said he placed bits of match stick under the thinner wires.

 

To fill the bass string slots could be done by sweeping the saddle filings off your bench, then mixing with some sort of glue to make a filler. Super glue, I think, has been done. Fill up the slots, then file to size.

 

A bit unconventional, but if it works for a Beatle......

 

Oh, and "Kalamazoo" is simply the name of a city in Michigan where Epiphones and now Gibsons' were once made. i.e. marketing hype. Note the "Made In Japan" in the lower right corner.

[TommyK]

Here's what to look for in the way of a loose neck block and the fix:

 

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/37812-repairing-a-norlin-era-ft-guitar-with-broken-neck/page__st__20__gopid__1527336#entry1527336