kdj432 Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 an old girlfriend of mine gave this to me as a gift. I've never been able to identify it on the web. it's a full hollowbody but it's thin. The serial number dates it back to about '41. The two pickup holes look original, I found that a rickenbacker toaster fits nicely over the back hole but what would i put over the front one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 It looks like a Kent or a Century. They were both 1-pickup models. One of those pickup routes is not original. And I would guess that the control knob hole closest to the bottom of the guitar is not original either. It really hard to tell from your pics though. There were no 2-pickup non-cutaway Epiphone models. And the only non-cutaway guitars with pickups were the Century, Kent, Grenada, DeLuxe, Coronet, Zephyr and the Electar Model M. It definitely isnt any of the latter five guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdj432 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 Hm, judging from google images it looks closer to a century than a kent. the kent doesn't look as broad. The funny thing is, none of the images show pickup holes in either of the positions on mine unless the neck pickup hole has been routed larger on mine. both of my pickup holes don't disturb the paint job, of course it could have been repainted but whoever did it did a great job and took the time to paint the neck and headstock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 The neck pickup route looks like it is shaped for an Epiphone Master Pickup, which the early Centurys had. Epiphone moved the pickups around a lot within a short span of time and the mid-40's Centurys were close to the neck. The later, 1950's Centurys had the same knob configuration. The years I have listed in the wiki are approximations, so yours could fall in there somewhere. The middle/bridge pickup route looks like it could have been a NY single-coil route. The Century had those as well, but they were in the neck position. As far as the body shape, it really does look like a Century. Another model that I had overlooked was the Harry Volpe model. Yours looks almost identical except for the pickup route and the headstock logo. The Volpes had a metal logo plate that said "Harry Volpe Model" on it and a DeArmond pickup that also looks like it could fit in the bridge route on your guitar. I think the Volpes had a deeper body though. What is the body depth and lower bout width on your guitar? That may help to narrow it down a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdj432 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 body depth is 1 5/8, lower bout is 15 3/4. the neck rout does look like it could fit a master pickup but there are no screw holes on the body, I wonder how those pickups were attached. Also, the three holes on the lower part of the body are for volume, tone and 1/4 jack, where was the 1/4 usually placed on these guitars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Well, I'm afraid that I am going to have to add another layer of confusion to identifying this guitar. I just noticed that the logo on the headstock is a 1960's version. Considering that the headstock is the open-book style, I would say early 1960's. Epiphone change the headstocks to the elongated style around 1964. They started using this particular logo sometime after 1958, when Gibson Corp. bought Epiphone. From what I can tell, they initially started using it on the ES style archtops and solid body guitars. By 1964 almost all of their guitars used this logo except for the higher-end archtops. Also, around this time, the only non-cutaway archtops in production were the Century, Granada and Zenith. Since the Century had a NY pickup in it since 1950 and a P90 after 1961, you may have an older Century with a 1960's replacement neck. Just a guess, but its all I've got at this point. And if the guitar has been refinished, then you might not even be able to tell if the neck was replaced at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdj432 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 The serial # looks like 56847 or S6847. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Serial numbers 42441 through 61180 = 1962 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdj432 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 Interesting. Master pickups look impossible to find, I wonder what would be a decent substitute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I have no idea. Yeah, I'm sure that they are extremely hard to find. And probably expensive as well. You may have to locate and contact some vintage guitar dealers to find one...or ay least something suitable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdj432 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 No problem. I wish that I could have given you a positive ID on this guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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