A Blond 1960 Epiphone Zephyr with Mini Humbuckers

This super lightweight 17-inch-wide guitar weighs just 6.60 lbs. and has a fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Laminated maple body, three-piece mahogany/maple/mahogany neck with a nice "V" profile, and rosewood fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl slotted-block position markers. Headstock with metal Epiphone logo plate. Black plastic truss-rod cover. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Two Epiphone mini-humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and balanced outputs of 7.06k and 7.07k. Tortoiseshell celluloid pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle on rosewood base and trapeze tailpiece with three horizontal lines on cross-bar. All hardware nickel-plated. Printed paper label inside the bass f-hole with the model number ("Zephyr E311TN") typed and the serial number ("A-3701") written in ink. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition. There is some very fine body checking, a few tiny marks on the top of the guitar between the bridge and the trapeze tailpiece, and a few tiny marks on the back of the neck and the edge of the headstock. Housed in the original Epiphone tan hardshell case with blue plush lining (8.50). The case handle is missing.

The Epiphone Zephyr is similar in body style to Gibson's ES-350TD. This is a prime example, in the rarest color, of one of the earliest Zephyrs with mini humbuckers. The 1961 catalog price was $280.00.

"Epiphone was an early entrant in the electric guitar business, issuing its Electraphone and then Electar models in the mid-1930s, while Epiphone's Master pickup of 1937, designed by Herb Sunshine, was the first with individually adjustable polepieces. The Zephyr was one of three Spanish electrics of the time, alongside the Century and Coronet" (Tony Bacon, The History of the American Guitar from 1833 to the Present Day, p. 69).

"1958 Zephyr Electric specs: Acoustic model dropped. Gibson-made thinbody with rounded cutaway. 2 New York pickups. Unbound tortoise pickguard. 1961 Zephyr Electric specs: Mini-humbucker pickups replace New York pickups. Zephyr Discontinued 1964" (http://www.provide.net/~cfh/epiphon2.html#zephyr).