Epiphone
Joe Pass Emperor II

I was not at all in the market when I stumbled across this guitar. I was out and about with the wife on a day to ourselves and she happened to suggest popping into the local guitar store knowing we were around the corner. I initially didn't even want to bother and after roaming around for a while I saw this guitar hanging between a bunch of random hollow bodies.

After playing it I immediately fell in love. The salesman was gutted as this was his "lunch time" guitar but was glad it was going to a good home. They originally had it listed as a c1986 but I'm fairly sure it's a 1996.

It never came with the original pick guard. I've since learnt it's often removed due to the large Joe Pass signature in white on it. I ended up 3D printing a template for this very hard to find pick guard shape and used a router to cut out a single ply black pick guard. It's not perfect if you get up super close but I quite like the look of it as opposed to the original semi transparent tortoise shell.

This guitar has such a vibe about it, truly love having it in my collection.