One of the Earliest Cherry Broadways

The guitar weighs in at a very light 6.60 lbs., and with its very thin neck (nut width 1 9/16 inches) is extremely comfortable to play. Laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck with a scale length of 25 1/2 inches, and rosewood fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and pearl block inlays. Individual Kluson Deluxe tuners with double-ring Keystone buttons. Serial number "348931" stamped in blind on back of headstock and also written in blue ink on rectangular blue label inside bass f-hole. Two mini-humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and outputs of 6.78k and 7.04k. Single-bound black plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Black plastic bell-shape knobs with metal tops. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and Epiphone Frequensator tailpiece. This guitar is in near mint condition, with only a minuscule amount of almost invisible finish checking. Housed in its original gray hardshell case with blue plush lining (9.25).

The (electric) Broadway was manufactured by Gibson between 1958 and 1970, but Cherry was an optional finish ($475.00), which was only shipped in 1967, making this particular example, with a 1966 serial number, one of the very first of the rare Cherry Broadways.

After Gibson took over Epiphone in May 1957 they began producing several new guitars, and the Epiphone line of the early 60s 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 is typical of Epiphone's mid-60s excellence.