Silver Lake Vintage Guitars

1963 Royal Burgundy Epiphone Century

Extremely rare highly figured top

These early 1960s "Short headstock" Epiphone Century’s in Royal Burgundy with the white scratch plate are rare guitars.

The majority of these models were produced with plain maple tops and maple back and sides. However, this guitar has a rare highly flamed curly maple top. This is virtually unheard of, and I have never seen one before!

The May 1982 issue of Guitar Player Magazine featured a highly figured 1959 Gretsch 6120 owned by the late John Entwistle of The Who on its front cover. That guitar caused rather a stir throughout the guitar fraternity as few had seen a 6120 with such a vibrant flame top like this before. The 6120s more commonly came with a plain top.  Cover shot:- May 1982 Guitar Player magazine special edition. 

If you compare the flame on the famous Entwistle guitar to this Century they are very similar.

The Epiphone Century has gained a revival and re-evaluation following James Bay's high-profile use of an original '66 Century Royal Burgundy and also the launch of his reissue Signature model.

Royal Burgundy was offered as a custom order on the Epiphone Century E422-T from 1961. The early short headstock, Gibson Kalamazoo manufactured, Royal Burgundy Epiphone Century with the white pick guard are rare guitars. This variant was only available with the "Open Book" short headstock until late 1963, and from 1964 onward they came with a long headstock and the less desirable narrower necks.

The early versions had the classic early 1960's wider necks. This guitar is equipped with a single P90 pick-up, Kluson tuners and nickel hardware. It is similar to the Gibson ES-125T but with the longer 25 1/2 scale and wider nut.

The late Alan Rogan (Guitar tech for The Who, Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Crosby Stills and Nash and many more) maintained "they had the best neck on any vintage guitar". This is one very cool guitar.