Iconic Guitars

Vintage guitars, re-issues and relics found on the web or in stores

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Straight from the 60's, The Epiphone Wilshire

Conor at Guitar Collecting has a nice and informative post about the 1962 Epiphone Wilshire reissue. This is a nice guitar built by Epiphone in Nashville, Tenn, with the help of the Gibson Custom Shop. And it must be Custom Shop quality: this Wilshire '62 reissue sells for $2,899.


Epiphone Historic Custom USA Wilshire 1962 Reissue Electric Guitar Vintage Cherry

Connor's post prompted me to look for some of those nice 1960's Epiphone solid-body models on eBay. There is currently a very nice 1965 Wilshire that caught my eye. Compared to the re-issue, the '65 Wilshire has mini-humbuckers (vs P90s), this unique headstock which makes this guitar so distinctive (along with the body shape) and a Maestro vibrato. You got to love this cherry red finish and the shape of the pickguard!

This is too bad that the Reissue is going to have the classic Epiphone headstock. For 10% of the price at $299, you can get a very nice which looks more like the 1965 vintage with Humbuckers and one-of-a-kind headstock (maybe you can even refinish it in red).

Down the line, I'd definitely go with the '65 vintage on eBay if I was in the market for a Wilshire right now. It is reasonably price at $4,250 (Gibson's website put Wilshire vintages in the 5 to 12 grand bracket!) and the mojo and age definitely are worth the $1,000 difference with the re-issue!

1965 is a good year for vintages by the way! :)




UPDATE: Epiphone also created a 12-string version of the Wilshire which is a really nifty guitar!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just got the reissue (can't afford the real deal '62), I like the 3+3 headstock design and dislike the fender-like headstock of the post '62s.

Guillaume said...

I still find the 3+3 boring compared to the 60's crazy - fender-like, I agree- headstock.

Congrats on getting the reissue. It must be real nice!