Just Like an SG Special -- But with Perfect Pitch

This super little guitar (12 3/4 inches wide) weighs just 6.40 lbs. and has a very fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck with a nice, medium profile, and rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Epiphone "short" headstock with inlaid pearl "Epiphone" script logo. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with "D-169400 Patent No." stamped on the inside and white plastic oval buttons. Serial number ("122748") impressed into the back of the headstock. Two hot P-90 pickups with black plastic covers and outputs of 8.23k and 7.82k, set into the original four-screw tortoiseshell "batwing" pickguard with the Epiphone stylized "E" logo in silver. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles and separate Gibson-style stud tailpiece. The pots are stamped "134 6326" (Centralab June 1963). The neck pickup cavity has been very slightly enlarged by about one quarter of an inch on the upper edge only and the pickguard has been slightly modified as well, but only by less than one eighth of an inch on the same edge. All of the electrics are original, and if at one time the neck pickup was indeed changed, the original has been long back in place (the solder joints don't show). In any case this really does not affect the playability or the sound of this mean blues machine. Otherwise, apart from some body checking and a few minor edge marks, this forty-four-year-old guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition and sings just like an SG Special, but with that "perfect-pitch" afforded by the Tune-O-Matic bridge. Housed in the original rectangular black hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00).


The Wilshire, Epiphone's equivalent of the Gibson SG Special, was added to the Epiphone solid body line in 1959 at around $195.00, but by 1962 the price tag had risen to $235.00. Originally it had two white P-90 pickups, no doubt left over from the Gibson Les Paul's conversion from P-90s to metal covered humbucking pickups. The white P-90s were replaced by black P-90s (which were still in use on some Gibson's) in 1961. Later in 1963 the Wilshire's body shape became asymmetrical with the upper bass horn slightly longer than upper treble, and the headstock received six-on-a-side tuners.