❌SOLD❌ Epiphone Emperor Regent Archtop Electric Natural Antique, 1997

Built as a ‘reissue’ from 1995 to 2011, the Epiphone Emperor Regent is a full 17 inch wide archtop guitar with a single floating pickup and pickguard-mounted controls. The label reads ‘Epiphone Emperor NA’ (NA meaning Natural Antique), the Emperor model had two top-mounted pickups, the Regent has one floating pickup.

From their 1939 introduction, the Epiphone Emperor Regent and upgraded Emperor were at the top of the Epiphone archtop line, with Gibson as their main competition. When Gibson finally purchased Epiphone in 1957, several versions were dropped and by 1970 all of the Epi archtops were only available as Japanese made versions. Since then, production has moved to other locations including Korea and China.

Here we’re looking at a very nice Epiphone Emperor Regent NA dated to 1997 and built by Peerless at their plant in Gimhae, South Korea. It is a 17 inch wide archtop electric model largely built using laminate woods for the body. The top is Spruce, almost certainly laminate though some sources list it as ‘select’. The sides and back are Laminate Maple. The neck is Maple with a scarf joint to create the head, a very stable construction method. The bridge and bound fingerboard are Indian Rosewood. The traditional Epiphone styled headstock carries the Epi logo and vine inlay in acrylic. Fingerboard markings are V-blocks in faux Mother of Pearl and Abalone.

For hardware, the tuners are gold coloured sealed models, and the tailpiece is a classic Epiphone Frequensator design. A single ‘Johnny Smith’ style mini humbucker is mounted to the fingerboard tag, with the controls mounted to the pickguard and the output wire through the treble F hole to the side-mounted jack.

These are a great way to get into the world of archtop jazz guitars. They are well built and being largely laminate, they are very stable. This example plays well and is in good clean condition with what would have been the original TKL-made hard shell case supplied by the Canadian Epiphone distributor. The original warranty card is in the case pocket.