|
The Epiphone Zephyr Electric Guitar was one of the “jazz” archtop guitars produced by Epiphone that established them as one of the leading manufacturers of archtop guitars of their generation. |
The Epiphone Zephyr was first produced in the 1930’s and went through a number of modifications over the next 20 years – starting with a single bridge pickup this evolved to two mini humbucker pickups. The guitar featured a number of designs with both a non cutaway and a single cutaway version available. Hardware configuration also changed with the guitar featuring a variety of setups including a frequensator tailpiece, flat backed neck unlike Epiphone’s usual “C” shape.
Tonally the guitar was great for blues, jazz or swing and benefited from the quality Epiphone build . The guitars sounded bright when played acoustically and when plugged in produce a full and fat tone. The vintage pickups were quite loud and gave a crisp Jazz tone which could sound brittle at high volume. After 30 years of manufacture the original incarnation of the Zephyr was discontinued in 1964.
| The Zephyr brand was reintroduced by Epiphone in the 1990’s and featured as an alternative to the Gibson ES-5., in its reincarnation Epiphone offered a variety of Zephyr guitars with ra range of setups and configurations, the Epiphone Zephyr regent featured a single neck humbucker and Mahogany body, Epiphone also released a Zephyr Blues deluxe which featured 3 P90 pickups, and a maple body. | 
|
There is still a vibrant used market for Vintage Zephyrs which appeal to those looking for a authentic vintage Jazz tone – these guitars can fetch a moderate sum so those looking for this line, who are on a budget, may look at the reissues first!