A Fine Mid-Sixties Epiphone Frontier Flat-Top.

1966 Epiphone Frontier FT 110N.

This lightweight flat-top, square-shoulder dreadnought guitar weighs just 5.10 lbs. Two-piece laminated 'X-Braced' spruce top with walnut-stained maple back and sides. One-piece mahogany neck with a nut width of just over 1 9/16 inches, a long scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a very comfortable medium profile. Single-bound rosewood fretboard with 20 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl slotted-block position markers. Black-faced 'long' headstock with inlaid pearl "Epiphone" script logo and pearl vertical 'cloud' inlay. Two-layer, black over white plastic truss-rod cover with  stylized "E" logo, secured by two screws. Serial number "800616" stamped in blind on back of headstock. Individual Kluson Deluxe 'double-line' tuners with keystone tulip-shaped buttons (stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Pat No.". Seven-ply (white and black) binding on top and and five-ply (white and black) binding on back. Two soundhole rings in groups of seven white and black and three white and black.Tortoiseshell pickguard with Epiphone stylized "E" logo in black and silver. Rosewood reverse-belly bridge with height-adjustable saddle, two pearl dots and six white plastic pins. Inside the sound-hole is the pale-blue rectangular Epiphone, Kalamazoo label with 'style' "FT-110N" and serial number "800616" stamped in black. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition with just some fine finish checking on the top, a tiny area of playing wear on the bass-side of the top and a few very small cracks in the body binding. This guitar sounds absolutely amazing… Housed in the original Epiphone four-latch, shaped black softshell case with maroon plush lining (9.25).

This Epiphone FT-110 Frontier is a more 'deluxe' version of the Epiphone FT-79 Texan, which was also produced between 1959 and 1970 - but in far larger numbers (7,970 examples compared to 1,631 Fronters). The 1965 Epiphone price list shows the Frontier 110N at $290 compared to the FT79 Texan at $175. Paul McCartney frequently used a 1964 Epiphone Texan.

"Epiphone instruments made between 1957 and 1969 were made in the Gibson factory at 225 Parsons Street and on Elenor Street. Only solid guitars with flat tops and backs were made at the Elenor Street plant (both Gibson and Epiphone) in Kalamazoo, Michigan. These Epiphone instruments were effectively identical to the relevant Gibson versions, made with same timber, materials and components, and by the same people as the contemporary equivalent Gibson guitars. They shared the Gibson serial-number sequence." (Wikipedia)