It is an Epiphone Emperor. One of a recent vintage, made in the Far East, but to the original U.S.A. / Epiphone design.
I found it in a Pasadena guitar shop.
Although designed and setup to be a jazz guitar, wierdly, this one left the factory with this crazy gold-glitter-flake paint job!
I got it cheep, only $400.
I replaced the origional Jazz style pickup, pick-guard and controls with a set of custom P.U.’s from Lindy Fralin, had the white plexi-glass pick-guard made and body mounted the controls.
The super cool tailpiece is from an early 60’s Kay and was produced by the Bigsby company. It is cast aluminum.
The bridge is from a Gretsch.
The matching cast-metal knobs and pickup selector ‘paddle’ are from a 50’s vintage oscilloscope!
At lower volumes it has a big, bright and very, pure, twang. Louder, it goes from fat honk to gritty and feeds back easily.
