Howie Coleman's '83 Epiphone Emperor Tailpiece Refit

Rockabilly guitarist Howie Coleman (Class of '58) gives his beloved axe some love after 25 rockin' years on the road! Here's a note from Howie:

Hi Steve,

We bought a tailpiece off you recently and as promised here's the photos of the guitar with it on! We really loved the fast and co-operative service provided, we apologise for not being as quick as you, in replying!!

The guitar is a 1983 Epiphone Emperor and has had a hard working life. She has been on the road consistently for the last 25 years. I originally changed the synchromatic tailpiece virtually straight away, mainly for 2 reasons.The first being, that with the long headstock and the short length of the split tailpiece on the bass strings, at the time getting strings long enough was a real pain! And the second reason was that I wanted a tailpiece like a Gibson L5 (like Elvis' guitarist Scotty Moore, in the early days) - the real reason if I'm totally honest with myself was probably mainly the second reason!!!! She started life with a block inlay on the fingerboard but after a bad re-fret, which ruined the fingerboard, I had to get the fingerboard replaced, and it was cheaper to have dots rather than block inlay. The L5 style tailpiece never really seemed to fit and as I suffer from real acidic sweat (too much information, I know!!) a lot of the metal parts got severely wrecked. In real life, it's a hell of a lot worse than you can tell in the photo I've sent. All of a sudden I'm middle- aged and realise she deserves better and decided to put her back closer to her original state, hence the trapeze tailpiece, which I suppose is a cross between the two - clean lines without the metal. Actually, the wolf-tones are not as bad as they were before, either. I suppose the bottom line is, although not vintage, she's possibly one of a kind - being a cross between a 330 and an L5. No matter, she's all mine - and I wouldn't get rid of her, anyway!!!

Hope I don't sound too much like an anorak!!

Catcha' Later,

Howie Coleman

The Class of '58 (50's Rock 'n' Roll band)