Very rare 1989 Epiphone USA Pro I superstrat guitar, made by Gibson

Very rare 1989 Made in USA Epiphone Pro I superstrat guitar, black nitro finish. Made at the Gibson factory in Nashville, very much a Gibson in terms of build quality and features. This guitar is from one of the periods when Gibson pulled out all the stops in making a comparable quality USA Epiphone. There’s even a factory installed, shadow single coil in the control cavity, for Strat-style sounds, accessible via a push-pull tone pot.

For wear, the guitar has a few dings and indents on the body, along with finish checking due to its poplar body. However, there is one issue with the Floyd Rose that needs attention (see below). The guitar is all original, except for a Seymour Duncan TB4 installed in the bridge position. This guitar is being listed as an excellent bargain, due to the Floyd Rose.

Features/issues:

·         Carved poplar, nitrocellulose finish body. The body has a little bit more finish checking than expected due to the poplar. (This is also like the poplar bodies on 1980’s Gibson Spirits, and a few other models.) There is one main ding/imprint on the top (see pics), a scratch near the neck pickup, and some nicks near the end of the Floyd Rose cavity on the top, otherwise relatively light use. The guitar is similar in shape and design to a Hamer Californian, but with a better carve and bevels.

·         Very fast, 25.5” scale flatter radius ebony fretboard. No fret wear. The guitar plays great with low action. Has a banana/hockey stick style headstock, also like a Hamer Californian. There is some finish checking on the headstock as well.

·         Gibson logo, Schaller made Floyd Rose bridge. The steel knife edges show almost no wear, but one of the baseplate holes to secure the ‘D’ string saddle at proper intonation is stripped. Even though the Schaller bridges are considered the be one of the “good ones”, it’s a fairly common issue on some of them. If you have a compatible Floyd Rose, you could just drop it in the guitar and be done, otherwise there are solutions like heli-coil for fixing the baseplate threads on the ‘D’ string. The fix would be worth it, for such a rare vintage model.

·         6 in line, factory Grover tuners.

·         For electronics, there is a 1990’s Seymour Duncan JB (TB4) in the bridge position, along with the original Gibson single coil (SC-2) in the neck. The 3 way pickup selector works as expected on a Gibson. However, there is a push-pull tone pot that activates a shadow single coil, and also does a coil cut on the TB4. These settings give convincing Stratocaster-style sounds, similar to positions 2 and 4 on a Strat.

·         Included is a high quality, wooden TKL case (branded for Yamaha) that fits the guitar perfectly. A previous owner left some tape residue on one of the latches, so there’s a small piece of masking tape covering it.