1953 Epiphone Century Vintage Archtop Electric Guitar Sunburst, New York Pickup, Case

Up for sale, a 1953 Epiphone Century vintage archtop electric guitar with one of Epiphone's highly regarded New York pickups. Built when Epiphone was still an independent company prior to Gibson's acquisition of the brand, this archtop was crafted in New York and features a fully hollow 16 3/8" wide all maple body. The guitar has excellent projection and cut with a smooth, complex midrange character and trebles that yield articulate sparkle and a distinctive punch. Strung with roundwound 12-52 strings, the guitar amplifies complex chord voicings with ease and clarity, offering a balanced sound in every register. The neck position New York pickup has a woody cut and percussive clarity, extremely dynamic and representative of the ample natural acoustic properties of the instrument. The guitar weighs 6lbs 7oz, professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with easy-playing action and accurate intonation.The two-piece mahogany neck has a deep V profile carve, measuring .965" deep at the 1st fret and 1.045" at the 9th. The thick slab Brazilian rosewood fretboard sports pearl dot inlay, professionally refretted with slender vintage-style fretwire that shows just a touch of wear on the crowns of frets 1-3. The truss rod is responsive and ideally adjusted, the neck is straight, and the guitar plays cleanly in all registers. The scale length measures a full 25 1/2“, and the carved bone nut is 1 5/8" wide. On the headstock, the guitar features a set of modern Kluson-style tuning machines with butterbean buttons, and a vintage metal Epiphone "bikini" badge is also present.On the body, the guitar features the original New York humbucker paired with Volume and Tone controls capped with modern burgundy pointer knobs. A vintage transparent single-ply tortoise pickguard rounds out the plastics, not original but a very close match with a fresh “E” epsilon foil sticker. The original nickel trapeze tailpiece is intact, and the guitar has been fitted with a genuine vintage Brazilian rosewood bridge with compensated saddle. The neck has also been professionally reset, meeting the body at the ideal angle with height for future adjustment on both bridge thumbwheels. The serial number and factory stamps are intact on the blue and white rectangular label visible through the F hole.The body retains its original nitro lacquer Sunburst gloss finish which exhibits prominent finish checking, framed by ambered body binding with numerous repaired splits and a couple new pieces of binding as needed where the material had shrunk. Representative of an instrument that's been honestly played and professionally serviced, there are a couple slender repaired splits just to the treble side of the heel, and a couple even more slight repairs on the treble side upper bout and adjacent to the input jack. Wear includes various scuffs, nicks, and marks of honest wear on the instrument as a whole, with some finish loss on the back lower bout body edge and on the bass-side upper bout on the side, and finish touch up on the neck heel.A modern hardshell case is included.