1987 Epiphone Emperor Vintage Archtop Electric Guitar Blonde, Japan Terada

Up for sale, a 1987 Epiphone Emperor archtop in excellent condition and in perfect working order. This Epiphone is a rare model, produced in small quantities at the Terada factory in Japan, featuring a spruce top, maple back and sides, and the original alnico magnet humbucker pair. Acoustically, this archtop has a treble immediacy and woody cut, with the breadth and smooth note attack afforded a fully hollow instrument. The humbucker pair is wound in the vein of a PAF, offering more midrange emphasis and treble sparkle in the bridge position, while the neck humbucker has a round, sweet quality that retains good clarity for complex chord voicings and lead work that has plenty of body. This Emperor weighs only 6lbs 6oz, professionally setup here at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar with 10-46 strings, low action, and accurate intonation.The three-piece maple neck has a slender D-shaped profile carve with round shoulders in every register, measuring .820” deep at the 1st fret and .855” at the 9th. The slab ebony fretboard boasts ambered multi-ply binding, pearloid block inlay, and stock medium fretwire. The frets have good meat with well-rounded crowns, only showing light wear beneath the plain strings on frets 1-3. This guitar plays cleanly up the 24 3/4“  scale with a straight neck and a responsive, optimally-adjusted truss rod. The stock bone nut measures a full 1 11/16” in width, and the headstock sports the Epiphone logo and tree of life inlay. The original Schaller-style tuners are present; turning smoothly and holding pitch as they should, with consistent surface patina on the gold plating.All of the electronics work as they should, with a three-way pickup selector switch and dedicated Volume and Tone knobs for each humbucker. Due to off-gassing of the original pickguard, there is heavy patina across the treble side of the pickup covers, and the gold trapeze tailpiece shows its fair share of surface patina as well. The original carved ebony bridge with compensated saddle rounds out the hardware, and the guitar is fitted with a replacement vintage Emperor pickguard with the correct multi-ply binding and silkscreened "E" Epsilon (this replacement guard is made from a more stable plastic than the original). The original orange oval label is visible through the bass-side F hole with a five-digit serial that denotes Terada production, the first digit of which indicates the year the guitar was crafted (7 for 1987).The gloss Blonde finish is framed by multi-ply binding and highlights prominent bookmatched tiger flame figuring on the maple back and sides. Cosmetic wear on the finish includes a handful of minor dings on the lower bout on top and along the body perimeter on the lower bout edge, with some faint finish scratches in the clear coat on the body as a whole, primarily concentrated on the back. The neck retains its smooth gloss finish on the profile length. The instrument also has a subtle smell of smoke.A gigbag is included.