Wilshire
One of Kalamazoo-era Epiphone’s
most enduring and beloved solid-body
electrics is the Wilshire. This svelte,
double-cutaway rocker was introduced
in 1959, and has been reissued in
various forms since that time. It is in
fact still in production, currently made
in no less than three versions. If there
is a Gibson equivalent, it’s probably
the SG. While the Wilshire and the SG
are very different guitars, they share
features like a slim mahogany body,
set mahogany neck, tons of upper fret
access, and an attitude and bark that
make for raw rock tonal glory. The
Wilshire’s bark tends to have more
snap and jangle than the SG, probably
due to the mini-humbuckers with
which it is usually equipped. It’s also
not especially great for high octane
shredding, but it is superbly suited
to no-nonsense rocking, and makes
a great slide guitar. Epiphone made
number of models very similar to the
Wilshire over the years and in various
factories, including the Coronet,
Crestwood, and the Olympic.
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