1961 Epiphone Wilshire. A wonderful model and a killer player.

For those unfamiliar with this model and decade of Epiphone guitars…

Gibson bought the Epiphone company in the 1950s. By the late 1950s production had moved to the Kalamazoo factory in Michigan. 1960s Epiphone guitars are therefore made by the same people, in the same factory, and using many of the same parts as their older Gibson – branded siblings. Gibson revamped the Epiphone lineup to provide an Epiphone branded counterpart to their Gibson made guitars. In this case, the Wilshire corresponds most closely to the SG special. Both are solid body guitars with a set neck that gives full access to all the frets. Obviously the SG has sharper edges with the “batwing” style contours. The Wilshire is more rounded, corresponding loosely to the double cut style body you’d find on a Les Paul Junior or Special after 1958. One unique thing about the Wilshire is that it was the only solid body Gibson during those years that had P90 along with an ABR and stop tail setup. This one came from the factory, but as you can see it received some changes.

The Bigsby is from the 1960s. The custom-made plaque is also vintage. my best guess is that both the plaque and the Bigsby were custom ordered from Gibson by the original owner who added them to his instrument sometime in that decade. Both the plaque and the Bigsby were available by special order from Gibson through their catalog. The pickguard is a bit of a mystery. It definitely looks like a 1960s guard you would find on an apple phone. But typically see this color on a coronet the epsilon is obviously not in the normal place, but it does appear to be vintage sticker. Either it was removed and moved over, or just added after the fact. Typically the Wilshire came with tortoiseshell guard. These often gassed off as did many Gibson made pick guards made from the same material. So the pick guard remains a mystery. But I think it looks pretty cool. Pickups are original. The wiring harness has been replaced. The guitar suffered a headstock break, which was professionally repaired. There is a letter in the case from the guy who repaired it to the original owner. He oversprayed the front and back of the headstock when the repair was done. The bridge is definitely from the 1960s. It is an ABR-1 with a wire. Knobs and switch parts are original. Strap buttons are later. The tuners are drop in replacements. They are blank on the back and have metal buttons. The guitar plays great and sounds awesome, but could probably use a set up.

I took a bunch of pictures of the guitar before I realized that I hadn’t shot the front and back of the headstock. By the time I did that I had taken off the tuners and the strings so as to restring it and check for evidence of extra holes. Once I get it strung back up, I will put proper pictures of the front and the back of the headstock with strings on.

I may have a reissue Wilshire pickguard here. It is tortoiseshell. If you’d like the look at that, I can see if it fits and include it in the sale. Comes in a 1980s chainsaw protector case. Totally rad guitar that surely get the attention of everyone who sees it :-).