Epiphone Pre-War SJ-200 Rosewood Reissue Vintage Sunburst

Epiphone Pre-War SJ-200 Rosewood - Vintage Icon Reissued!

After Gibson introduced the SJ-200 in 1937, it quickly earned the title "Queen of the Flat-Tops" thanks to its outstanding tone, size, projection and majestic looks. The earliest SJ-200 models featured a rosewood back and sides, which were replaced by maple in 1947. Due to the difficult economic conditions following the Great Depression, demand for the top-of-the-line SJ-200 was low, so relatively few examples were built. The rare pre-war SJ-200 models with rosewood bodies are highly sought after by collectors today, which has driven up their prices on the vintage-guitar market.

Now Epiphone has teamed up with Gibson Custom to develop a Gibson Custom–inspired reissue of this vintage icon that makes it more accessible to today’s players. The Epiphone Pre-War SJ-200 Rosewood Reissue is packed with vintage-inspired details, including a solid rosewood back and sides, a thermally aged solid spruce top with traditional, arched X-bracing made from quarter-sawn solid spruce, and a two-piece maple neck with a rosewood stringer and a rounded D profile, glued to the body with a dovetail joint. The ebony fingerboard is adorned with graduated crown mother-of-pearl inlays and fitted with 20 standard frets. The SJ-200-style pickguard features vintage-style graphics, and the open SJ-200 moustache ebony bridge with two saddles includes mother-of-pearl inlays.

The nut, compensated saddle and bridge pins are all made from bone. The Gibson "Open Book" headstock is embellished with a vintage Epiphone logo and a Gibson crown in aged mother-of-pearl, and the back is fitted with a stinger and an "Inspired by Gibson Custom Double Diamond" logo. As a nod to the needs of modern musicians, it is equipped with an L.R. Baggs Element Bronze VTC piezo pickup mounted under the saddle and an active preamp with soundhole-mounted volume and tone controls, so it’s stage- and studio-ready straight out of the included Red Line–inspired hardshell case with "Inspired by Gibson Custom" graphics.