Zipwood's Epiphone Archtop

Rob Saunders was curious about the big blonde I held in my arms at the Bond Street "Ben Day & the Zipatones" gig. From info I've gleaned from the web, Rob is correct, it is a Epiphone Zephyr Deluxe Regent from the early 50's. A fickle Gemini, I've gone through a slew of guitars and mandolins over the years, always in the hopes of finding the "perfect" axe. I ran upon this dandy Epiphone (which, sadly, I no longer own) in a shop on 48th Street. As I recall, I had a measly $700.00 in my CitiBank account from which I withdrew $500.00 to buy this lovely archtop. I was mostly a bluegrass picker and I knew acoustic flat-top guitars like vintage Martins, but I knew very little about the world of archtops. Obviously, this Zephyr Deluxe with it's nifty Art Deco details, would have been a fine investment. The pickups, as you can see in the photo, were cradled with lovely, almost amber, Bakelite. It was not a carved archtop but had, like many acoustic-electrics of that era, laminated top, sides and back. I now have a Bob Benedetto carved archtop, so I don't weep when I think of this long, lost guitar, but it was fun to play, a delight to hold and a treasure among great vintage archtop guitars. I wish I had taken better pictures, but I'm posting a fairly good, but soft focus, pic I found on the web (which I'll remove if I need to--I can't recall where I got it) along with a couple more pics taken at the Bond Street event.