1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

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kdawg2a
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1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by kdawg2a »

A little while ago Unique had a post about having a bunch of vintage bits and pieces and restoration stuff up for sale. Since thats the sort of thing i'm interested in and figuring he might have a part or two I might need I PM'd him about what he had on offer. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting this reply: "I have one project and many parts, but we'll leave the parts for later.

First up, I have an unfinished 1967 Epiphone Coronet. It has been truly rooted and I have been getting it back together. But I've moved on. I have all the parts necessary. It owes me (an amount of money!) but I am going to give it away...with some caveats. First up though, the project will not be for everyone. It requires routing work, fingerboard repair (difficult job...damaged fret slots x2), and ultimately refinishing. Up side is, it's a vintage (Gibson) guitar with old wood and cool vibe.

The idea with this is I will gift it to the person that promises to 1. finish the job, 2. Donate a small sum to the forum (say $25) and lastly 3. To never sell the guitar...only to gift it to someone else...and that person must also only ever gift it. The guitar can never be sold."

What an offer! What a great guy! What a responsibility! A free vintage guitar! Not just any vintage guitar either. I've always loved Coronets. They're sort of an Epiphone version of an SG jr, they were almost Epiphone's last original design before they became a cheaper version of Gibson and they were made in Kalamazoo at the Gibson factory during their glory years.
I gratefully accepted the offer, made a donation to the forum under Uniques name and played the waiting game until it's arrival.

Two days ago this arrived on my doorstep;
phpgh4l5lPM.jpg
phpvqVdK1PM.jpg
As you can see, 90% of the parts are there. The old routs have been filled in and it's been mostly refretted. There's still a lot of work to do but a lot of the major stuff has been done already. I have a 1966 Epiphone Olympic which is a sister guitar to this model, here they are side by side;
phpExvNmDPM.jpg
1935 Martin D-45, 1942 Gibson Southern Jumbo,1950 Fender Broadcaster, 1954 Fender Strat, 1958 Gibson Moderne prototype, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.
1958 Fender twin, 1965 Vox AC30, 1966 Marshall JTM 45, 1977 Dumble OD Special.
Big black garbage bag full of original Klon Centaurs and TS808s.

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kdawg2a
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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by kdawg2a »

Whoops! Photo's didn't show up! Here they are.......attachment=2]phpgh4l5lPM.jpg[/attachment]
phpvqVdK1PM.jpg
phpExvNmDPM.jpg
Attachments
phpgh4l5lPM.jpg
1935 Martin D-45, 1942 Gibson Southern Jumbo,1950 Fender Broadcaster, 1954 Fender Strat, 1958 Gibson Moderne prototype, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.
1958 Fender twin, 1965 Vox AC30, 1966 Marshall JTM 45, 1977 Dumble OD Special.
Big black garbage bag full of original Klon Centaurs and TS808s.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by kdawg2a »

Some more photos;
phpmlKBZlPM.jpg
Backs of guitars
phptZIc4OPM.jpg
Original finish on neck
phpFk3j4OPM.jpg
Serial number
1935 Martin D-45, 1942 Gibson Southern Jumbo,1950 Fender Broadcaster, 1954 Fender Strat, 1958 Gibson Moderne prototype, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.
1958 Fender twin, 1965 Vox AC30, 1966 Marshall JTM 45, 1977 Dumble OD Special.
Big black garbage bag full of original Klon Centaurs and TS808s.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by jeremyb »

Wicked! What a cool gesture! Can't think of a better home for it too!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by kdawg2a »

Another part of the deal was that I document and share the process of restoring it on the forum. The plan is the finished example will look like this; http://www.gbase.com/gear/epiphone-coronet-1965-black
Many thanks to Unique for his generosity and ultimately his trust that I won't do this guitar a disservice! I don't know how long this will take but i'll be looking at getting it as 'correct' as possible.
1935 Martin D-45, 1942 Gibson Southern Jumbo,1950 Fender Broadcaster, 1954 Fender Strat, 1958 Gibson Moderne prototype, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.
1958 Fender twin, 1965 Vox AC30, 1966 Marshall JTM 45, 1977 Dumble OD Special.
Big black garbage bag full of original Klon Centaurs and TS808s.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by Bg »

yeah thats a cracker! and donation was gratefully received :)
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by GrantB »

Nice work! Glad to see it on the road to recovery. When I got it was fully Les Paul'd with hum buckers, maple cap and bogus pickguard. It will look and probably play better.

I think that bridge will suck. If I find anything better I'll send down.

I think this will look great in black.
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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by handlefras »

Great concept. I'm looking forward to the progress reports!
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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by kdawg2a »

Time for a little bit of investigation. Originally this guitar would have been one of 3 models, a Coronet, an Olympic (1 single coil) or an Olympic Double (2 single coils). All the various routs (both original and new) have been filled in but you can clearly see the limit of them all.
Opening up my Olympic Double the routing looks like this;
php94IrbdPM.jpg
The top of the bridge pick up rout seems to be about 10mm above the centre of the top bridge rout. There is a channel also routed from the neck pick up to the control cavity.
The 'Coronet' looks like this;
phpMGeii4PM.jpg
As you can see, no rout from the neck pick up to the control cavity so we can now safely assume it wasn't originally an Olympic Double. The bridge pick up rout isn't as high up as the OD. It's not by much but it could be a sign of a different style of P/up being in there at some stage i.e a P90. Whilst they are bigger pick ups their rout is quite small and the dog ear cover covers it up.
If Epiphone were anything like Fender, they would have routed the Olympics and the Olympic doubles the same and just put the required pickguard on for whatever model of guitar it was to be. Just look at the bodies of a Telecaster-Esqire or a Duosonic-Musicmaster to see what I mean.
Obviously none of this is conclusive evidence yet and it doesn't really matter because it will be becoming a Coronet now! That said, if I could find a shot of an Olympic with the pickguard off it might help.
Last edited by kdawg2a on Wed Apr 15, 2015 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1935 Martin D-45, 1942 Gibson Southern Jumbo,1950 Fender Broadcaster, 1954 Fender Strat, 1958 Gibson Moderne prototype, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.
1958 Fender twin, 1965 Vox AC30, 1966 Marshall JTM 45, 1977 Dumble OD Special.
Big black garbage bag full of original Klon Centaurs and TS808s.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by kdawg2a »

Actually, now looking at the 'Coronet' with the pickguard on I can see where the holes from the pickguard screws should be. Since the Coronet pickguard rides higher up the top horn then an Olympics and there's no old hole there it means that this guitar was originally an Olympic!
1935 Martin D-45, 1942 Gibson Southern Jumbo,1950 Fender Broadcaster, 1954 Fender Strat, 1958 Gibson Moderne prototype, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.
1958 Fender twin, 1965 Vox AC30, 1966 Marshall JTM 45, 1977 Dumble OD Special.
Big black garbage bag full of original Klon Centaurs and TS808s.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by StrummersOfThunder »

awesome project! cant wait to track the progress!

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by Slowy »

I really love this whole concept. Huge respect to Unique; what a wonderful thing to do.
And kdawg2a is just the man for the task. :thumbup:

How cool would it be if there were a bunch of these obligation guitars floating around..... the commitment to their caveats would be an uplifting force in the community. 8)
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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by Dano_NZ »

Agree. What an awesome approach to keeping some decent guitars alive and in the hands of players. Thank you Unique.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by Lostininverness »

Matt, thats quite a project you got there - very cool! Looking forward to seeing your progress.

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Re: 1967 Epiphone Coronet restoration.

Post by GrantB »

Thanks Dano.

To the others that put your hands up for this...it really was first in first served, and Matt wasn't the first...the first turned down the offer!

I will get around to releasing some of my other parts and stuff some time in the future.
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