Epiphone Emperor Regent - As Good As a Gibson?

[jaymen]

If you want to try something different and explore some of the hidden capabilities of your EEP, try putting on a set of TI Swing Series JS 111 ( .011) and swap the high E string (.011) for a .013 . It will give your chords and lead runs a richer tone. Of course, bends on the E string will not be as easy, but for Jazz this is not a big issue.



I tried the George Benson TI strings and found them to have great tone, but they add alot of tension and are harder to play due to the larger (medium) gauges. The trick above is sort of compromise and I liked it.

Still loving on my EER, it never gets put away into the case and gets played daily. Even though they are discontinued, you will be hard pressed to find another archtop in this category ( 17 inch, floating pickup) that is it's equal, especially when it comes to the performance versus price. The fact that Epiphone, and Gibson have abandoned the acoustic archtop market only makes me treasure this gem all the more.

[jaymen]

Please explain to me why my MIK 1996 Epiphone Emperor Regent has a book matched seam down the middle of the spruce top that is visible inside and out, and has a graduated top. The top is much thicker in the middle under the bridge, almost 1/4 inch, while the edges of the F-hole near the sides tapers to about 1/8 inch thick. If the top was made from laminated veneers, would it not be the same thickness everywhere? My Gibson ES175 has the same thickness top everywhere, it is laminated and that can be seen on the edges of the unbound f-holes. If the top was pressed formed from a single sheet of spruce, as found in some Harmony and Martin archtops, it too would be of the same thickness everywhere. BTW, mine has an end block for the neck joint made from about 10 layers of wood. This is more durable and crack proof than a solid one for sure, much stronger, more stable and can take more abuse.

It is apparent to me that there was several variants over the years that the Epi ER was made, and there was more than one manufacturer. This makes it hard to say they are all the same, which is apparent that they are not.

There was a post about 8 years ago on the Gibson/Epiphone forum where a guy cut a hole in the top of his Epiphone Emperor Regent (MIK) to mount a PAF humbucker, and you could clearly see where he routed the top, it was a solid piece of spruce and much thicker there than at the F-holes.

Epiphone literature and the owners manual, say the back and sides are maple laminates, and then also go on to clearly state that the top is select spruce. Why would they intentionally try and deceive people? They know that musicians and luthiers will figure that out and expose them as being untruthful, which does not help sales in any way but negatively, and tarnishes their reputation for top quality archtops, which they are renowned for. That makes no sense whatever. I was told at the Naam show in 2009 by Gibson they were discontinuing the Epi ER and other Epi solid top archtops due to their cost, and limited sales. They told me that from that point on, all Epi archtops would have laminated tops and the only solid tops would be made by Gibson USA. It was strictly a cost driven decision made by the Gibson bean counters, who don't play guitars. The irony here is that today, archtops are on the comeback trail and re-gaining popularity as a new generation rediscovers them. Gibson threw in the towel too early! This is why the Loar, 5th St. D'Angelico, Cort, and Artcore guitars sales are so strong, as they have no competition from Gibson anymore. BTW, I have tried The Loar solid tops, and they do not equal my Epi ER with flatwound 11s.

The other thing that defies logic is that I have 5 other archtops, two of which are Gibsons (L-48 and solid top L-50) and none of them compare to the Epi ER when it comes to the sound.

[Gitterbug]

I think a similar finding was discussed in a recent post. My Peerless -99 ER has the center seam, and the inside of the top is clearly spruce. Thickness at F-holes varies from 5.2 to 5.8 mm - actually difficult to measure with my caliper. The acoustic tone has gotten better over the years. It's conceivable that the factories silently used solid/ pressed "upgrades" depending on the demand vs inventory situation.

[Rickco]

Im also a fan, have owned several Peerless ERs and a Terada -J I think its interesting that the peerless and the Terada both had the same laminated neck block so did my Peerless Monarchs. It seems this would be the most stable material but Ive never seen it on any other archtops particularly the ones we are generally drooling over on this site. I also chased the "is the top solid,carved?" on my ERs going back many years. All I will say is good hunting and if you can actually find a picture of one where you can see the edge grain (or not) youd be a hero to many for finally putting this to bed. My Terada was advertised by a notable Japanese dealer as carved solid top. It also said that in the epi lierature and in the unofficial wiki (which was mostly incorrect and taken down) well I changed the pickups and guess what...you guessed it lam construction but let me say it was of exceptional quality and graduated! and when it was played by my L5 etc friends they always complimented it and all assumed it was carved. My 2 Regents really benefitted from upgraded pickups.