The Epiphone Version of the Gibson ES-335

1963 Epiphone Riviera E360TD

This guitar weighs in at  just 7.70 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Single-bound laminated maple top, back, and sides with maple central block, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 original medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl single-parallelogram position markers. Early-style "short" headstock with inlaid pearl Epiphone script logo and pearl cloud inlay. Individual dual-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons, each one stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with silver Epiphone stylized "E" logo. Two PAF mini-humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and outputs of 7.55k and 7.09k, each with a rectangular black label on the underside with "Patent Applied For". Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. The potentiometers are stamped  "134 6028" (Centralab, July 1960). Original ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with nylon saddles and Epiphone Frequensator tailpiece. All hardware nickel-plated. Model number "E360TD" and "Riviera" typed and serial number "96249" stamped in black on a rectangular blue label inside the bass f-hole. The serial number is lightly stamped on the back of the headstock as well. At some time early in it's life, the jack socket on the top was 'knocked' causing a crack in the wood and the 'enlarged' hole was covered over by a rectangular plate with six mounting screws. The jack socket was re-positioned slightly nearer to the bridge pickup volume control. In our opinion the guitar was sent back to the factory, most likely in the late sixties, for a professional factory repair and automatic re-finish of the top. Under ultra-violet light this guitar shows perfectly but on close examination under bright white light one can see where the repairs were carried out as the varnish has shrunken slightly as is often the case. The white binding on the bass-side of the neck from the 17th fret to the 19th fret has been expertly and almost invisibly replaced. **The guitar looks, plays and sounds like a pristine example. The integrity of the guitar is unaffected and we have priced this very rare instrument accordingly. Complete with the original Epiphone four-page hang-tag with matching serial number. Housed in its original black Epiphone hardshell case with royal blue plush lining (9.00).

** We had sold this guitar to a client in Japan in 2013 and recently repurchased it in a trade… during the shipping from Japn to the US the headstock suffered a very mild and superficial crack which had not affected the integrity of the guitar - our luthier Seth Mayer has done an invisible strengthening and the guitar is absolutely sound and plays like a dream…

According to the Gibson ledgers, this guitar was shipped from the factory on February 6th, 1963.

Introduced in 1962, the Riviera was Ephiphone's equivalent of the Gibson ES-335 and had the same maple central block. Sunburst was added as a finish in 1965. The Royal Tan finish was discontinued by 1968. Rivieras were used by many great players, including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lenny Kravitz. This is the earliest Riviera that we have seen -- Epiphone's version of the world-conquering ES-335 is far, far rarer than its Gibson counterpart.

In the July 1, 1963 Epiphone Price List, the Riviera in Royal Tan finish listed for $325.00 (Walter Carter, Epiphone: The Complete History, p. 120).