1970 Antoria 2358R (Epiphone Al Caiola pre-lawsuit copy)

guitarz.blogspot.com

This Antoria 2358R is not only a pure beauty, it is also a complicated story.

The original model is an Epiphone signature guitar designed in 1963 for jazz musician Al Caiola (who sided the greatest such as Frank  Sinatra or Buddy Holly). In 1970, Ibanez issued a quite accurate copy - that's what they were doing at the time, before they started to get sued by Gibson - but the FujiGen Gakki factory that worked for Ibanez also made the same guitar for the UK brand Antoria.

This guitar is remarkable for being a thin full hollow-body E-335 without F-holes - this being being aimed at reducing feedback - similar to the B.B. King Lucille signature model Gibson released in 1983. I like the FujiGen Gakki model better for its curved control plate being further back an smaller than on the Epiphone, but the big round scratchplate is a little bit bizzare.

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Antoria model 994 from 1963

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This Antoria guitar, recently sold on eBay, is an early example from the 1960s. It is a Japanese guitar from just before the era of "copy guitars" and lawsuits, Fender and Gibson getting very worried, etc, etc. In fact, it's not often you'll see a vintage example of an original Antoria design as they are better known for their replicas. Note the really thin body which would have had very minimal routing inside; the pickups are basically sitting on top of the pickguard.

Another nice touch is the matching coloured pickup selector switches - that's one way of being sure that the baby blue guitar finish is original!

G L Wilson

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