An Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman prototype

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An Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman prototype

Postby Ray Bohlken » Thu May 01, 2014 1:22 pm

I was surfing as usual and checking out Chet Atkins model guitars on eBay and found this unique prototype Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman. It has chrome hardware and no serial number. It's a great looking guitar and it looks kind of cool with the chrome parts. There are some great photos of it. I'm not looking to acquire another guitar, I just like looking for interesting things.
Ray

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epiphone-Elite- ... 1e8ad7de72
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Re: An Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman prototype

Postby PhilHunt » Thu May 01, 2014 9:43 pm

That's actually not too shabby of a guitar. Although for a couple hundred more you could get the real deal Gibson Gent. If I had that Epiphone first thing I'd do is rip out those god awful Epiphone pickups. I wonder also how it plays? I played the 80's Epiphone Gent and loved it....I didn't like the pickups though. I've played some actual Gibson Gents at CAAS that were hideous. They must have been rejects from the factory that Gibson would bring over to CAAS. One year they had a black one and it was horrible, not sure if it had a twisted neck or what.
Even though the Gretschs now are made overseas you can tell their quality control is top notch. Best decision ever was putting Chet's name back to Gretsch.

Not to change the subject but I just saw that Doyle is with Guild now. That's great to hear! I have never cared for Taylor guitars nice to see he switched. I could never find a Taylor that had a wide neck and a nice low action. I'd love to try his new classical model designed by Kirk Sand. I think some of the best builders are Kirk, Roger Stuckless, Keith Adams, and the late Bill Hollenbeck. Bill was such a nice man, I miss seeing him and Ray Butts at CAAS. Ray was a real character.....he was blunt and honest.
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Re: An Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman prototype

Postby Ray Bohlken » Thu May 01, 2014 10:05 pm

Phil, I once had an '87 custom shop Gibson Gent and it was a great guitar. I also had one of the Epi Country Gent IIs and I really liked it...the neck pickup was great, the bridge pickup was not so much. However, I played one of the Elitist Gents at a local music store for a couple of hours and I have to say I liked it better than the Gibson Gent I had. The neck was comparable, and the Bigsby seemed to work better. I am a little hard of hearing so when I tell you that the pickups sounded pretty good, you can take that with a grain of salt - but it seemed to sound better than my Gibson Gent. I liked the Epi Elitist fine and the price I negotiated was good, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. I have one of the Gretsch Nashville Classics and I think it is a far superior guitar to my Gibson Gent. The price on this one is pretty good compared to some Elitists I have seen on eBay. Anyway...that's just my thoughts and feelings on the subject.
Take care,
Ray
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Re: An Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman prototype

Postby alexjones » Thu May 01, 2014 10:55 pm

Great looking guitar. I see this with SO many guitars - an absolute waste of neck width! Look at the close ups of the nut - the spacing is incredibly narrow. Drives me nuts - they even botched the nut on the Guild D55 that I picked up. The only guitar company that impressed me with their nut spacing was the Maton acoustics. Oh well - I'll stop ranting... FWIW - I'd never spend that amount of money on that guitar when you can pick up a used Gretsch for nearly the same money.
Alex
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Re: An Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman prototype

Postby DagerRande » Fri May 02, 2014 11:11 am

Yes, that was strange about Doyle. He was with Guild last Summer at CAAS but yet was a featured performer for the special Gretsch tribute evening.
Rande Dager

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Re: An Epiphone Elitist Country Gentleman prototype

Postby rhudson » Fri May 02, 2014 12:03 pm

Doyle has a special emphasis to Guild, but since Guild is owned entirely by FMIC, he also helps in other FMIC brands where needed, such as the marketing of Gretsch. But, his primary allegiance is to Guild. I hope the recent turmoil with FMIC doesn't mess him up any. Doyle is a good guy.
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