Epiphone Coronet
The Epiphone Coronet is an entry level guitar previously manufactured by Epiphone. The guitar has been manufactured a number of times since its first production on the 1950s. It is not currently being manufactured.
Epiphone Coronet | |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Epiphone |
Period | Original: 1959-1970 First reissue: 1990-99 |
Construction | |
Body type | solid body |
Neck joint | set neck |
Woods | |
Body | mahogany |
Neck | mahogany, 24.25" scale |
Fretboard | Rosewood |
Hardware | |
Pickup(s) | 2 soapbar P-90s (1959-1962), 2 mini-humbuckers (1963-1970, 1982-1985, 2009-), 3 mini-humbuckers (1982-1985) |
Colors available | |
Polaris white, Cherry red, Various Sunbursts and custom finishes |
History
The Coronet was first manufactured by Epiphone under the Gibson brand in 1959. It was priced at approximately $120,[1] and was seen as a reliable entry level guitar.
Originally the Coronet came with a single Epiphone New York pickup[1] in the treble position. In 1959 Epiphone began shipping new Coronets with a P-90 pickup and began offering the Coronet with its signature cherry red finish.
Some Coronets manufactured in 1964 were made under the Dwight brand. Dwight was a house brand used by Epiphone for Sonny Shields Music in East Saint Louis (Illinois), which was owned by Charles “Dwight” Shields. These Dwight-brand Coronets featured a "D" on the pickguard and the "Dwight" logo on the peghead.[2]
In the 1970s, production of the Coronet came to a halt when Epiphone left its facilities in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to move overseas.
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There was a short run of Coronets in the late 1990s, which were made in Korea. These featured OBL model pickups, a single coil in the neck position and a humbucker in the bridge position, with a pull-out tone knob to tap the humbucker. As was the case with the original Coronet, the hardware and style of the Coronet varied through this short run. Some had six-on-a-side batwing-shaped headstocks, while others had more classic 3-on-a-side Gibson-style headstocks. The short-lived USA Coronet of 1990 had a similar pickup layout and matching electronics except for the addition of a two-octave rosewood fingerboard with rectangular block markers and a reverse droopy Explorer-style headstock. The USA Coronets came with the choice of gold hardware with stop tailpiece or black hardware with licensed Floyd Rose locking tremolo.
![](../I/m/Epiphone_Wilshire.jpg)
![](../I/m/Epiphone_ET-285_by_Matsumoku.jpg)
Notable users
Notes
- Bacon, Tony, ed. (2001). Echo and Twang: Classic Guitar Music of the '50s, p. 61. Backbeat Books.
- Achard, Ken (1990). The History and Development of the American Guitar, p. 72. The Bold Strummer Ltd.
- Heatley, Michael (2009). Jimi Hendrix Gear, p. 34. Voyageur Press.