The Epiphone Windsor guitar was a short-lived thinline electric six-string - produced by Gibson at their Kalamazoo plant in Michigan, between 1959 and 1961. When Gibson bought Epiphone, they purchased all the tooling, unfinished guitars and unused hardware. Production of many of the older models continued, but new models were also added to the line, often using names associated with other previous Epiphone instruments - in this case the top-of-the-line Epiphone Windsor mandolin.
In fact, the Windsor was very similar to the Gibson ES-125TC/ES-125TDC, and the Epiphone Sorrento: they all had identically sized bodies, the same maple body/mahogany neck/rosewood fretboard construction; and although the pickups were different on the Gibsons, they had the same positioning and controls. Of course headstock shapes and inlays differed, and the Windsor had oval pearl inlays and gold-plated hardware, whilst the ES-125s had dot inlays and nickel. The Sorrento was somewhere in between with the same oval inlays, but nickel hardware. Interestingly, shipping statistics show 6 Windsors left the Kalamazoo plant in 1959, where as no ES-125TC, TDC or Sorrentos were shipped until 1960. The Epiphone Windsor was first!
Just 221 Epiphone Windsors were shipped, with the majority having single pickup and Shaded finish.
1959 | 1960 | 1961 | total | |
E352T | 6 | 85 | 42 | 133 |
E352TN | 17 | 9 | 26 | |
E352TD | 44 | 44 | ||
E352TDN | 18 | 18 | ||
total | 6 | 102 | 113 | 221 |
The Windsor was sufficiently short-lived only to make one catalogue appearance in the 1960/61 guitar and amplifier catalogue
1961 'guitars, basses, amplifiers' catalogueNeed the value of your guitar? The Official Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide 2024 is out now: Amazon
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