brianh Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Been on the lookout for one of these babies ever since Joe Cooper got one last year - or was it '09? Anyway, it's been gigged and has some issues, but nothing too bad and I got the seller down some and it has one of those oddball Epiphone fitted gray cases, a bone nut, Planet Waves locking tuners plus the originals. It's been sitting in the case for three weeks due to time constraints and no bench space, but since I got the Yellow Jr done, finally got it up there to see what I'd actually bought. The pots and wiring are original, although the previous owner had spliced in a cheap replacement 1/4" output jack and didn't even use solder(!), so that came right out and it now has a Switchcraft jack soldered in properly. Still have a minor ground problem to chase down, but that shouldn't take long. Here it is in all it's splendiferous Korean laminated flame maple glory with the pickguard removed: The neck appears to be a 3-piece maple affair with 2 scarf joints at the heel and 3rd fret: The Planet Waves tuners also cut the string to length on the first 1/2 turn: Here are the pickups: All of the P90 covers are the same, but shims of different heights are used to get them closer to the strings: Biggest issue is the headstock needs to be refinished to address the hazing that's underneath the poly. I've seen that on other used Epi's, not sure how it happens: I've played it a few hours, and it's got a very wide variety of tone combinations. The neck pickup sounds like you'd expect, fat, round and jazzy, and the bridge and center pickup seem to be wired out of phase so it can get very strat-ish and jangly. Controls are Master Tone and 3 Volumes (no switch), so any pickup combo is possible. It's definitely a keeper - unless I happen to run across a better example. Cheers, Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 PS, Guitar Dater says: Your guitar was made at the Peerless Plant, Korea June 2000 Production Number: 0700 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweed2 Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Beautiful. I've always felt that natural finish guitars, especially archtops, are what a guitar is supposed to look like. Too bad someone doesn't make gold plated P90 covers. Are these fairly hard to find? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 Are these fairly hard to find? They come up on eBay occasionally, but I've never felt comfortable buying a used archtop from photos - too many potential issues that you can't see unless you have it in your hands. I almost didn't buy this one when I saw the headstock, but at least I could see what I was getting into before forking over the money. But yes, they are pretty scarce - folks who have them don't seem to want to part with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supersonic Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 I love those things, HNGD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Treasure hunter extrordinaire, your ability to unearth these nuggets on a regular basis astounds me, HNGD Brian, beautiful addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearhead Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 NICE! Some beautiful wood there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigneil Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 NICE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vomer Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueEpiphone Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Nice guitar, brianh. Looking forward to seeing more of those high quality progress pics. I learn loads of stuff from these posts. HNGB, brianh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadedbat Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Threw my neck out gawking.. shewey. Triple P90s that just has to sound so cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgrasso Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Great find Brian. One of my favorites. Love the flame laminate. I can see one in my possession in the future. Enjoy. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrw1960 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Great aquisition, Great pics. I have a 3 P90 Dean Palomino. Very nice git. Love those P90's. Congrats to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweed2 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 One of these just came up on eBay. The PUs have been changed out to humbuckers (at least they're gold)so that would have to change. $595 w/case. Hmmmmm.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 Weird that someone would do that, the P90s are the main attraction on the Zephyrs. I see they also added a compensated nut which would indicate they had intonation problems with it. I'd stay away, you can't put P90s back into a guitar routed for humbuckers easily... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweed2 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Understood. I just thought it was a little strange to go from never knowing they existed to seeing two in one week. I'll have to do a little research on the Earvana, I know nothing about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 A while back I installed an Earvana nut on a Dot I was having intonation problems with. I can't remember why I couldn't get that guitar intonated, but I sold it later anyway. I know a lot more about nut carving and slot cutting now than I did then, so perhaps it's a moot point. The sad thing about that eBay ZBD is that despite what the seller says, standard P90s will NOT cover humbucker-sized cutouts. Plus, you'd have to install a whole new wiring harness because they put a 3-position switch at the master tone position, and it's not clear what the old volume controls do. 3 tone controls with no vol control? 3 vol with no tone? Push/pull vol/tone? Buy it and find out? $700 is blue book value for an Epi ZBD in excellent condition, and now that it's jiggered up, it's not worth that. It'll probably sell, but it's not really a ZBD anymore, and it'll take several hunert bucks to turn it back into one. Better off to wait until an unmolested one comes along. The sunburst versions are really nice too, look more like the Gibby ES-5 they are copied from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk19e19lkoc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZQ4Vw0sxis&feature=related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamBooka Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 About the haze on the headstock: My emp reg has the same thing.. I think it is actually the grain of the laminate showing through (holly?) I am talking out my ar$e here but I bet no amount of buffing will get that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 I think it's some kind of moisture leak from the wood, maybe came out when the guitar was exposed to heat or sunlight. It's definitely not going to come out with buffing, would prolly hafta refinish the front of the headstock. But it's no biggie to me - I'm not selling this one anytime soon...it's too cool for school... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianh Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 Went to play the ZBD yesterday and noticed a rattle I'd never heard before on any guitar eminating from the neck. After a bit of head scratching, decided the truss rud must be loose, so off came the TRC and sure enough, it was loose as a glass eye - a half turn clockwise and the rattle was gone. I guess the maple neck on these things don't need much relief, because I didn't notice any bow before it was tightened, and not much difference after. Anyone else ever had this problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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