Epiphone's Version of the 1950's Gibson ES-350 - but with Mini-Humbuckers.

1963 Epiphone Broadway E252N.

This super lightweight guitar weighs just 6.90 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck with a medium proflie and Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 20 medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Triple-bound on the top of the guitar, single-bound on the bottom of the guitar, the headstock, and the fretboard. Individual Kluson Deluxe 'single-line' tuners with double-ring Keystone plastic buttons and "D-169400 / Patent No" stamped on the underside. Two "Patent Number" mini-humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and outputs of 7.18k and 7.98k. Tortoiseshell pickguard with single white binding. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and Epiphone Frequensator tailpiece. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with only minimal finish checking to the body. Housed in a slightly later Epiphone black hardshell case with maroon plush lining (9.25).

The Epiphone 'Frequensator tailpiece' was featured on high-end models between 1939 and 1970 and allowed for a longer string length on the 3 bass strings and a shorter string length on the 3 treble strings. The two parts are sometimes reversed by players to accommodate short strings.

After Gibson took over Epiphone in May 1957, they began producing several new guitars, and the Epiphone line of the early 1960s included some models that rivaled, or even surpassed anything in the Gibson range, in price as well as in appeal. Epiphone had used the "Broadway" name from 1931-1958 on their non-cutaway acoustic archtop, but from 1958 to 1970 the "Broadway" designation was transferred to this new full-size electric archtop, first with New York pickups, and then from 1961 with mini-humbuckers.

This guitar (Epiphone's version of the third variant Gibson ES-350 which was discontinued in 1956) is typical of Epiphone's early 1960s excellence.