Epi acoustic bolt on necks

[bluesstringer]

I had an Epi acoustic in the early 80s that had a bolt on neck. It was a dreadnought with the Gibson truss rod cover, plain black pickguard, nat finish. i think it was a MIJ.

 

Anyone here know anything about these ? They weren't great or expensive guitars but I absolutely loved the neck on that thing. It actually had unusually good tone as well although a little thin. I would pick another one up for an everyday house guitar but I can't remember the model #. Mine got stolen many years ago out of my car.

 

Thanks for any info.

[bluesstringer]

I never really looked very hard but I think I answered my own question. They were made in the 70's in Japan during the Norlin era, and there were several models. I forgot, they also had bridges with an adjustable saddle.

[Digger]

G'day Bluesstringer,

 

I was asking the same sort of questions for a mate of mine 6 to 8 weeks ago and got some helpful answers (which I have forgotten). Why don't you use the search facility up top and try to see if the answers I got are of any help. One of the members, Uncle Al is very knowledgeable, you might be able to look for his reply to me??

 

Hope that helps and have a good'n

 

Dig

[TommyK]

Norlin in deed. My avatar is of my FT-145SB. The dread of the bunch. There's a thread

here titled SB145 and one with a 6732 model number. These are Aria copies labeled as

Epiphones. Most early bolt-ons were prone to having their neck blocks break loose due

to poor design, as mine was. Most of these were long ago relegated to land fills. Mine

like some were saved. I had to re-set my neck block and if you're interested I've left a

thread here that details the fix.

 

 

 

At the following linked site, click on Epiphone Catalogs and you can see what Epiphone

offered back in '74. Maybe you'll see yours. All the flat tops' model numbers were

prefixed with "FT"

 

http://www.matsumoku.org/models/models.html

 

Tone to die for and worth fixing.

 

FTs show up on ebay with regular frequency. Unless there is a close up shot of the end

of the neck, just above the sound hole, assume it has neck issues. The short fret board

'extension' presses down on the sound board, either deforming it or crushing it. Bid

accordingly.

 

Fender had this same issue with bolt-on necks, but used a sort of screw jack between

the neck block and tail block to hold the strings at bay. I don't know if Aria built these

as well for Fender.