A Fine Pre-War Epiphone Royal

This 15 1/4-inch-wide acoustic archtop guitar weighs just 4.90 lbs. and has a very fat nut width of just under 1 3/4 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Two-piece carved spruce top with three-segment f-holes, one-piece mahogany back, mahogany sides, two-piece mahogany neck with maple center ply, and pearloid-bound rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Asymmetrical headstock with peak banner on black plastic overlay with etched logo. Individual open-back tuners with oval metal buttons. Unbound black Bakelite pickguard. Rosewood bridge with rosewood base and trapeze tailpiece. This guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition. There are a few small surface marks on the body of the guitar and a very slight (surface only) seam crack on the top of the guitar, extending only about six inches from the bottom edge. This guitar is totally original -- nothing has been changed. The action is wonderful, the guitar has never had nor needed a neck reset, and there is still some downward travel on the bridge. Housed in the original black hardshell case (crudely repaired with black tape) with purple velvet lining (7.00).

"The Royal was next [after the De Luxe, Broadway, and Triumph], with a body width of 14 3/4" and back and sides of mahogany, which, like walnut, was not generally considered to be a suitable material for archtop guitars (except by Martin, which would make its archtop bodies just like its flat-tops, of mahogany and rosewood)" (Walter Carter, Epiphone: The Complete History, p. 25).