Vintage Epiphone Crestwood Custom - USA 1966

The Epiphone Crestwood Custom was the flagship solid body guitar for the Epiphone company in 1966. Epiphone – a reputable manufacturer of high-end instruments was purchased by Gibson in 1959. Gibson took over manufacture of the Epiphone brand at their base in Kalamazoo Michigan. The Kalamazoo factory produced Epiphone guitars until 1969, after which the production of Epiphone manufacture was relocated to Japan. During this 10-year period from 1959 to 1969 the guitars produced baring the Epiphone name in the Kalamazoo were built with the same quality, craftsmanship and materials as the Gibson instruments of the day. As a result, these guitars have maintained their reputation as exquisite instruments, and the pinnacle of Epiphone solid body guitars was the Epiphone Crestwood. 

History 

The Epiphone Crestwood debuted in 1958. The solid mahogany guitar featured a double cutaway with thru neck design, Brazilian rosewood fretboard, 3 a side tuners with the bikini headstock logo, and dual New Yorker pickups. Shortly after the release of the instrument, Epiphone was purchased by the Gibson company. The overall design of the guitar remained the same. The guitar retained its solid mahogany construction with rosewood fretboard. Mini humbuckers were a feature from late 1959, a change in design of the pickguard and the ‘batwing’ style headstock were introduced in 1963. 

Presentation 

A recurring theme at Premier Guitars is that the best guitars are often the most worn in. Good guitars tend to get played, and over the course of the past 57 years this Crestwood has seen its fair share of pubs, clubs, festivals and recording sessions. Both pickup rings are cracked but complete and could be restored with black epoxy resin. The high E string is missing its tuner bushing, which should be fairly easy to source due to the tuners being standard Klusons and readily available. The volume and tone knobs on the neck pickup have been replaced at some stage, though vintage style reissues are available. The pickguard has some stains from many years of rock and roll but is in otherwise good condition with one straight split above the treble side of the neck pickup. This guitar could clean up very nicely with minimal work required.  

There is life yet left in these frets. They utilise the same low-profile frets as the ‘fretless wonder’ Les Paul Customs, introduced in 1954, and while there are visible indentations in the ‘cowboy chord’ zone, the guitar plays well up and down the neck with a nice low action and very little fret buzz.  

Feel/Sound 

The feel of this guitar has Gibson written all over it. The fit and finish are tantamount to any pre Norlin era Gibson. The neck is on the slimmer side, but not too much so, as there is a decent amount of thickness in the neck profile to make a comfortable grip. The fretboard fans out nicely to a 51mm width at the 12 fret, making lead work easy up the neck. The mini humbuckers produce a big, bright tone. The smaller footprint of the mini humbuckers bring a nice mid-range focus and are an excellent mid ground between bright single coils and the big warm humbucker tone with plenty of snarl and spank with particularly nice fidelity, especially with clean tones.  

Conclusion 

These Crestwoods are great guitars and are hard to find. There were only 1349 made in the 10 years at Kalamazoo and this is a great opportunity to own an original example without breaking the bank.  

Specs: 

Scale length: 24 ¾" 

Fretboard Radius: 12’ 

Action at 1st fret: 0.3mm 

Action at 12th fret: 1.75mm 

Neck depth at 1st fret: 20mm 

Neck depth at 12th fret: 25mm 

Nut Width: 40.6mm 

12 fret width: 51.1mm 

Neck material: Mahogany with Brazilian Rosewood Fretboard 

Fretboard inlays: Pearloid Oval 

Body: Mahogany 

Body size at lower bout: 330mm 

Front Pickup: Gibson Mini Humbucker  

Bridge Pickup: Gibson Mini Humbucker 

Tuners: Kluson Deluxe Single Line 

Pickguard: White 3-ply 

Bridge: Replacement Tune-o-Matic with Steel Saddles 

Electronics: Volume, Tone, Volume, Tone and 3-way Selector 

Hardware: Tremolo Arm in Case 

Case: OHSC