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Howard Roberts Model


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On the subject of the

 

Epiphone Howard Roberts model.....

 

Has anyone ever seen or have any knowledge of a Acoustic only version of this model?

 

I have searched the Internet high and low and cannot find one without a pickup and at least 2 controls knobs...yet I am looking at such a thing right now....plane spruce top all the right bits and peices but no electrics...

 

I am told it's a 1967 however although the label matches another 1967 Model (With electrics), I know of, its Brown not Black and instead of a printed/typed Serial Begining 08xxxx this one has a hand written/biro serial begining 40xxxx

 

Any comments welcome.

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Yes thats what I had thought originally when I read about the mounting of the pickups...but it does not account for the holes left about the guitar and the jack hook up....this guitar is unmarked and spotless with no signs of any modification of any kind...and no sign it was ever electrified in anyway

 

I also think the variation of the Serial and Label of a similar 67 version maybe telling !!! But what is it saying ????

 

Fake maybe....seems like a lot of work gone into somthing with little relative value....this is not a $10,000 guitar or even a $2,000 guitar with mass appeal. Not real owrth coping IYSWIM!

 

I'm lost

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I just got a copy of Epiphone - The Complete History by Walter Carter, and on page 100 there's a photo of David Berryman holding a 100% acoustic guitar that looks an awful lot like a Howard Roberts model - florentine cutaway, but with a round soundhole (instead of oval), dot fret markers, and no electronics or pickguard. It's was the protoype EA-75, eventually modified to become the Jeff "Skunk" Baxter signature model.

 

There's also a photo of Howard Roberts playing an HR model with the volume control on the pickguard, no holes in the body on Page 67. It has rectangular fret markers including on the first fret, tree-of-life headstock inlay, and a big "E" on the TRC.

 

The photo is very dark, but you can clearly see the cable coming out of the pickguard. The photo title calls it the "Howard Roberts Custom, the deluxe version of his Epiphone endorsement model." It goes on to say: "After Epi moved overseas, the model was reintroduced under the Gibson brand." There's also a photo on the opposite page of Robble Robertson playing one in an early The Band gig photo.

 

So I think you may be looking at an EPI HR Custom, a fairly rare guitar.

 

Snap it up if you can...

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  • 1 year later...

It's possible that the guitar in question was at some point separated from the floating pickup installed at the factory.

 

There's a lot of information about the Gibson HR model (that the Epi version is based on) here:

 

http://www.utstat.utoronto.ca/mikevans/hroberts/guitars/guitars.html

 

HowardRobertsGibson.jpg

 

There's a good article on Howard Roberts in the new issue of Vintage Guitar magazine. The Epiphone versions came first in 1964, followed by the Gibson model in 1969. Then of course came the Asian copies which were later released by Epiphone.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmmm...Its looks like a 60's HR Standard without any electronics. Its definitely not a Korean model. The tailpiece, headstock inlay, sound hole and pickguard look like the American versions of this guitar. There was also a Japanese version, but I dont have any pics or specs to for comparison.

 

406XXX-409XXX would indicate 1966-1968. Yours being 407XXX would probably put it around 1967, the last year they were made.

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