The Elusive "Silver Fox"

This elusive "Silver Fox" weighs just 6.40 lbs., with a narrow nut width of just over 1 9/16 inches and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body, mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Scalloped "batwing" headstock with six-on-a-side closed-back Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Gold silk-screened Epiphone headstock logo. Serial number "550686" stamped in back of headstock. One P-90 pickup with an output of 7.07k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with the stylized Epiphone "E" embossed in silver. Two controls (one volume, one tone) with black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. Pre-set ridged bridge and factory Epiphone Maestro Vibrola tailpiece. This guitar is in exceptionally fine condition, with only one little ding on the top of the guitar between the volume and tone control, a little bit of chipping to the bass bout, a minimal amount of edgewear, and a tiny few marks on the back of the guitar. The pots are dated "137 66 07." Housed in the original Gibson black rectangular hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.00).

"[In 1957] Gibson purchased Epiphone and relocated it to Kalamazoo, Michigan, turning the brand into its second-tier line. In 1958 Gibson started to manufacture and market its new Epiphone lines. These included the first Epiphone solidbody electric guitars, similar in style to Les Paul Specials and Juniors; the equal-double-cutaway, slab-bodied, two-pickup Crestwood; and the low-end one-pickup Coronet. Both models were fitted with small pickups now known as 'New York' types because they were devised and originally used when the company occupied its east-coast premises...[In] 1959, the Epi solidbody line was expanding. The Crestwood was renamed the Crestwood Custom, restyled with a trimmer, more rounded body that sported New York pickups until a change was made to mini-humbuckers in 1963. The Coronet remained, but now came with a P-90 single-coil pickup...In 1963 the Epi solidbodies were redesigned to feature a longer upper horn as well as a scalloped 'batwing' six-tuners-in-line headstock" (Tony Bacon, Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, pp. 54-55).

Silver Fox, the rarest of all the Epiphone colors, is a translucent green filled with a whitish silver filler to show the grain. It first became available as an option on Coronets in 1963. In the July 1, 1963 Epiphone Price List, the SB 533MV Coronet ("double cutaway, Silver Fox or Cherry finish, single pickup, Maestro Vibrola") is listed at $181.00 and the SB 533 Coronet ("double cutaway, Silver Fox or Cherry finish, single pickup") at $154.00. In the June 22, 1965 Price List, the SB 533 Coronet ("double cutaway, Silver Fox or Cherry finish, single pickup, Vibrola") is listed at $175.00. And in the June 1, 1968 Price List, the SB 533 Coronet is listed at $205.00, in Cherry finish only. See Walter Carter, Epiphone: The Complete History, pp. 120-122.