EPIPHONE HOWARD ROBERTS HR-SE CUSTOM – 1969..SOLD !

SERIAL NUMBER: 593008
DATE: 1969

Howard Roberts was described as a ‘musical chameleon’, a real guitar man in every sense of the word. At night he was a sublime jazz guitarist, and by day he was a pop session guitarist deluxe. He was the sound of many TV theme tunes, literally hundreds of pop songs, and was even known as the fifth Monkee [for those too young to remember, the Monkee’s being America`s closest answer to the Beatles at that time].

His great love however was to teach guitar, which included the authoring of many tuition books, and in addition Howard even co-founded the Guitar Institute of Technology (now the Musicians Institute) in Los Angeles.

In 1961 he co-designed the Epiphone Howard Roberts guitars: there were two models, the Custom and the Standard [basically with less finer finishings].

The HR was basically a modified ES175 with the addition of a round sound hole, and upgraded wood. The ES175 had a laminated maple top, and the Howard Roberts a solid carved spruce top, but the body dimensions are identical. Later a Gibson version of the HR-SE appeared, the ‘Artist’- the biggest difference being a longer scale length (25 ½ inch as opposed to the Epiphone’s 24 ¾ inch) and having gold plated hardware. Both models discontinued in 1970

This instrument is in virtually perfect condition,
Beautiful carved top and back.
Carved spruce top,

Maple back and sides,
Florentine cutaway,
3 piece maple neck,
Rosewood Compensator Bridge,
Trapeze tailpiece
Florentine cutaway
Floating Mini humbucker
Floating scratch plate
Block inlays.

$2900