The Making of the 1962 Wilshire Reissue

After acquiring Epiphone in 1957, the engineers and designers at Gibson set out to create a collection of instruments that would distinguish their new brand from the Gibson instruments of the era and at the same time provide strong competition for other popular brands. The result was the creation of some of the best sounding and constructed instruments of the era. Though these instruments logically shared some features with their Gibson cousins, they offered unique body shapes and features not found elsewhere within the company. Built on the same production lines, by the same craftsmen, and with the same quality of materials, the Epiphone guitars produced in Kalamazoo in the late 50s and throughout the 60's were of superb quality and tonal character.

Compared with production numbers of instruments with the Gibson logo on the headstock, Epiphone models of this era were produced in very limited quantities. For example, in 1962 only 220 total Wilshires, with and without tremolo, were shipped. Due to the low production numbers and the superb quality of these guitars, values have seen a steady increase over the years. Depending on condition, many of these Kalamazoo made Epiphones now sell for $5000 to $10,000 or more. As their value as collectibles and reputation as tone monsters continues to grow, this upward trend in value will continue.

With increasing interest from the vintage community and a desire to provide a great guitar that is second to none, we partnered with the prestigious Gibson Custom Shop to produce an accurate reproduction of one of the greatest solid body Epiphone guitars of all time. Initiated by Epiphone President Jim Rosenberg and spearheaded by myself, Richard Akers, Director of Engineering, the Epiphone Custom Historic program was launched in January of 2008. What followed was a long and meticulous process to produce the Wilshire with the highest quality of materials and degree of accuracy possible.

In the beginning , much thought was given to which model we would use as the first in the Custom Historic series. There were a number of great guitars produced during the era that offered many choices in features. Batwing or three on a side headstock, asymmetrical or symmetrical body, mini humbuckers or P90 pickups. These were a few of the features which required consideration. From discussions with the Custom Shop's vintage expert, Edwin Wilson, a number of highly respected vintage dealers, and several vintage guitar collectors at the Dallas Guitar Show in April of 2008, it was decided that the 1962 Wilshire would be the perfect instrument to begin this ambitious project.

With excitement building, the real work of reproducing this guitar began in earnest. I was able to acquire an all original '62 Wilshire in very good condition from a collector in Austin, Texas. Exact measurements were then taken using our Brown and Sharpe CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine). The Brown and Sharpe uses a touch probe that gives a single point each time it touches the guitars surface. This machine is accurate to .0007", which is less than the diameter of an average human hair. I acquired hundreds of individual points to create a "point cloud" of digital information which would later be used with a CAD (computer aided design) system to produce the drawings necessary to accurately reproduce the guitar.

After acquiring the raw data it was then necessary to refine the information into a format that could be utilized by a CNC (computer numerical control) machine. For this I used a combination of AutoCAD and Solidworks, a 3D CAD design software. The process is very time consuming and requires careful work to ensure the model's integrity is maintained. From this information I created a 3D model in Solidworks that was used by master luthier and engineer Mathew Klein at the Custom Shop to reproduce the '62 Wilshire with exacting accuracy.

Much work was also devoted to correctly reproducing the pickups and hardware used on this reissue. The unit base used on vintage P90s differs from current Gibson production, therefore new tooling was created to fabricate the unit base to historic specifications. To further ensure accuracy, we sent an original unit base to a metallurgical testing laboratory to determine the exact alloy of brass used by Gibson in 1962. I used the original unit base to create drawings for reproducing the unit base to exact specifications. The method of wiring used for the early 60's P90 also differs from current production and was duplicated for this reissue.

It goes without saying that the quality of craftsmanship and materials used at the Gibson Custom Shop are of the highest standards. The '62 Wilshire reissue features a one piece Peruvian mahogany body and neck with a Madagascar rosewood fingerboard. Finding one piece body blanks of sufficient size and quality for producing guitars is getting to be very difficult. The body blanks used for these guitars were pulled from a special reserve of high quality Peruvian mahogany at the Custom Shop. Special cutters were developed to exactly shape the edge profiles and CNCs were utilized to consistently machine the bodies. In addition, all of the guitars were plek'd (www.plek.com/en_US/home) once completed to provide the best playing guitars attainable. Not only are these guitars very accurate reproductions of the originals, they are made to be played.

Though we took the liberty to improve upon the original case that shipped in 1962, efforts were made to ensure that the outside tolex and inside velvet were the original colors of gray and blue and that the case had a vibe and quality suitable for such a fine instrument. In addition, I was able to locate and acquire a number of original hang tags. Kent Allen, the art director here at Epiphone, painstakingly reproduced the hang tag complete with factory typos to add a nice finishing touch to the overall package.

There are a number of people that deserve special mention for their support and assistance throughout this project. Sam and Ben Taylor from Southside Guitars in Brooklyn, NY. provided several guitars for my use and a lot of helpful information. Walter Carter from Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, TN. provided a wealth of information and access to many cool historic guitars and cases. A long time Epiphone friend, Scott Freilich from Top Shelf Music in Buffalo, NY. provided original Epiphone hang tags, expertise, and the contact that lead us to Chuck Riley, the collector who supplied the original '62 Wilshire that was ultimately used as the model for our first Custom Historic reissue.

A very special thank you is also in order to General Manager Rick Gembar, Edwin Wilson, Mathew Klein, Lynn Mathews and the entire staff of skilled craftsmen at the Gibson Custom Shop. Without their expertise, attention to detail, and skilled hands these guitars would not have been possible.

After spending the last year researching these great old Epiphones and developing the '62 Wilshire I am really excited about what's to come. I am currently working on designs for other great Epiphone guitars from this era. Stay tuned. Good things are on the way.

Comments or questions for Richard Akers can be sent to richard.akers@epiphone.com

More Epiphone news items.