TYPE
Acoustic Hollow Body Archtop guitar
FEATURES
Solid spruce top, walnut back and sides, mahogany neck with dovetail joint
Ebony fretboard
INFORMATION
The first attempt by Epi Stathopoulo from New York to crown the Gibson L-5 failed. However, the young Greek immigrant learned quickly. Within three years he made a super guitar.
The Epiphone Masterbilt series was a major competitor to Gibson’s Master Model’ L-5. These archtop guitars had cut-out f-holes and many of the Gibson features. They were also characterized by a floating pickguard and floating tailpiece.
With the $175 Broadway model, you got the most bang for your buck. This guitar had a walnut back and sides, a solid spruce top finished with a dark tobacco sunburst. It had an ebony fingerboard and a patented neck brace, a variation on the innovative trussrod that Gibson had invented a decade earlier. The bridge was adjustable in height so that the instrument could be played in different ways.
