Crestwood Deulxe

[JimPage]

Hey--

Eltuce wrote:
>>Was that a Coronet or an Olympic?

Gosh, since it had no paperwork or case or anything, and there was no Google in those days, it was just "Jim's Single-Pickup Epiphone."

Back then, when Epiphones were made in Kalamazoo and were great guitars and basses, it seemed like their main purpose was being a Gibsonish brand in stores that were too close to an authorized Gibson dealer to carry Gibsons. At least, that is how one dealer explained it to me.

I bought a brand-new Epiphone Rivoli bass at a store in the Edison mall in Fort Myers, Florida, in about 1968 and they carried no Gibsons except for the strings; everything was Epiphone.

Still, that was a darned nice single-pickup bass. It was a cherry-colored one, like my Epiphone guitar, and looked like a Gibson 335 guitar. I played that thing for years. It weighed a ton, though.

I got a Gibson EB-0 bass for long gigs. Much lighter. Also cherry finish; short scale, like the Epiphone.

--Jim

[oipunkguy]

these guitars always seemed to be the redhead step child of the epip line up, and these guitars are just too cool. the epip mini humbuckers are probably my 2nd favorite pickup of all time. I love these!

[eltuce]

Here are some pictures from old catalogs which I figure can help clear up any confusion with the different models. There are a few variations with the Crestwood name. Originally the bodies were symmetrical and the headstocks were 3 on a side. Then they switched to the asymmetrical body and the batwing headstock. The Deluxe had the larger headstock. The Olympic was also available with a single pickup.

[eltuce]

Oh, and as long as I'm at it, here's a tenor Wilshire copy that was built by Mike Gillentine in Tupelo, Mississippi. He originally built it for Neko Case but never wound up getting it to her so now it belongs to yours truly. The mini-humbuckers in this one sound especially excellent, kinda makes me nuts that it's not a 6 string sometimes.

[JimPage]

Hey, Tommy--

Mine was the Coronet model. My friend, John, being the better player, got the Wilshire with the two pickups.

--Jim

[Sarah93003]

Tommy, that is a gorgeous guitar!

[eltuce]

It is very cool and tonight I was playing away and once again feeling like I was neglecting some of my favorites. Everyone should have such problems, right? Anyway, the only weird thing about that guitar is the trem arm. It's kinda useless as it's just a floating spring under it. I can just take it out if I want and the arm is fixed where it is. I thought about putting a Bigsby on it but I don't really wanna mess with it since it is a one of a kind.

[oipunkguy]

very cool, how is a tenor guitar tuned? I've never played one.

[wombat]

That Epiphone is a real beauty!

For along time now, I admittedly have been looking down my nose at Epiphones. That's mostly because I happen to know what great guitars they used to be!

I would be proud to have that guitar.

[eltuce]

very cool, how is a tenor guitar tuned? I've never played one.

I bought a book on the CGDA tuning but haven't done much with it. So far I have just used DGBE like a guitar minus the A and low E. The other tuning sounds like it would be cooler though.