NY Epiphones

[skykomishone]

Beautiful guitar, creepy description.

I keep all of my guitars in a small, spare bedroom where I can control the humidity and temperature with ease.
It's a large, open house with hydronically heated floors, and very low humidity in most of the place.

Never thought of it as creepy. I know music is very sensual. And I do refer to my guitars as girls. And, I'm not offended by your imagination.

[Chezdeluxe]

This thread inspired me to show her some love today. So I brought her up from her bedroom and warmed her up. It's hard to describe how amazing it is, but here is a picture.
Attachment 129589

A very lovely ‘39 Emperor or Empress if you prefer.

[skykomishone]

A very lovely ‘39 Emperor or Empress if you prefer.

Thank you! She's a 1936.
90 years old!
Hard to imagine.
The carve is quite remarkable.
Clean as a whistle inside, neck and board straight as an arrow!
No cracks. Hardly any checking.
Those luthiers were artists.
I own a few vintage instruments, but this one takes the cake! All original, I think.
Not sure about the pickguard.
The binding is deteriorated in places. But stabilized. I don't feel a need to change anything at this point. Many Old Epiphone's are amazing, and underappreciated.

I'm happy to see them in the forum discussions. Great guitars.

Thanks.

[Chezdeluxe]

Thank you! She's a 1936.
90 years old!
Hard to imagine.
The carve is quite remarkable.
Clean as a whistle inside, neck and board straight as an arrow!
No cracks. Hardly any checking.
Those luthiers were artists.
I own a few vintage instruments, but this one takes the cake! All original, I think.
Not sure about the pickguard.
The binding is deteriorated in places. But stabilized. I don't feel a need to change anything at this point. Many Old Epiphone's are amazing, and underappreciated.

I'm happy to see them in the forum discussions. Great guitars.

Thanks.

Wonderful guitar.

I think you will find it is a ‘39.
That is the year the center dip headstock was introduced to replace the original asymmetrical shape.

A serial number between 14597 and 15774 would confirm it as. ‘39.

All the best
Gerry

[skykomishone]

It's a '36. No question about it. Sorry. 10460.

[wintermoon]

I think I posted before, I've had many vintage Epiphones, the best sounding one was a '36 Emperor w the old short lived flat plate tailpiece.
They were even more fragile than the common Frequensator t.p. Epiphone began using in '37, many pre '37 Epis have had the flat t.p. replaced w a Frequensator as a result.

My ol' '36 which I believe is the 2nd documented Emperor, at least it was.

[skykomishone]

Not many made in '36 And Not sure my tp is original WM. Yours looks like the real deal. I think I tried to get a repro and didn't have much luck. Is Yours in the register?

[wintermoon]

Not many made in '36 And Not sure my tp is original WM. Yours looks like the real deal. I think I tried to get a repro and didn't have much luck. Is Yours in the register?

It was long out of my possession before the database was created, someone else registered it. it's the first '36 listed, I see there's been a few '35s added since.
It was a local guitar I bought from the orig owners daughter but it needed work, the binding was shot of course, the neck joint was loose and had been 'reinforced' through the fingerboard into the neck block w 2 long screws. the finish was orig but had checked so severely in spots on the back of the neck it was flaking off in spots.
I put a lot of money into it but it was worth it, like I said I've had quite a few prewar Epis but that one sounded almost like a D'Angelico, really thick in all registers, especially the top strings which frequently sound harsh on old production archtops.
The only ones I've heard that rivaled it in tone were '33 and '39 Deluxes I had, but that 18 1/2" body made it huge, you know what I mean.

[Chezdeluxe]

It's a '36. No question about it. Sorry. 10460.

My apologies

On closer inspection of your photo the headstock is clearly asymmetrical and not the center dip shape

The 17” guitar headstocks with the asymmetrical shape really stand out.

The big Emperor headstock puts the dip closer to the center but not quite which confused me when looking at the photo of your guitar. I live and learn.

Cheers
Gerry