Why no love for the Riviera?

[øøøøøøø]

I’ve got to admit, I’d love an old Riviera, skinny neck and all. But there’s no way I’d ever pay the ridiciulous prices they’re being listed at these days — $4k for a late 60s Epiphone?!

I’m on the prowl for a cheap Silvertone 1446 or Starfire V; will scratch the mini-hum itch and still leave me some dough to pay rent.

Wish they still made the somewhat vintage accurate Elitist Rivieras, I had one about ten years ago and still regret selling it. Been waiting for one of those to pop up on Reverb for years now, but no dice.

$4k is too much for a Riviera made past '65, IMO. $3k for a nice one made '66-'69? Sure, fine. In fact, I sold mine (a 1967) for $3300 or so a year or two ago. It was not 100% (refret, repro guard, later case) but was a great player and beautiful.

Those Epiphone Elitist guitars were so good. Too good, in fact, for their own good... there was definitely a time where I'd rather have had one of those (and installed the pickups of my choice) than a new Gibson. I have a hunch they competed with Gibson USA a bit too much.

Starfire IV and V are great guitars as well, and they made good ones for a very long time. I love those Guild humbuckers, too... but they can often be quite microphonic. Not so much that it matters at sane volume levels and with only light overdrive, but could become an issue under certain circumstances

[Despot]

There was a wide-nut '65 Riviera for sale in New Mexico earlier this year for under 2.5k. No structural issues - but a rewound bridge pickup. Unfortunately I couldn't convince the seller to ship it to Europe (cites again - so I understand) ... but someone got a great deal there I think.

My 'one that got away' Epiphone was a fairly rare US Gibson made Epiphone Sheraton from the '90s. It had a bigsby and the usual Gibson minihumbuckers (which would have needed to come out) ... but with old patent no. minihumbuckers not being massively expensive (and some great boutique offerings as well) the main 'problem' with that guitar (the stock pickups) could have been easily corrected. It would have worked out a hell of a lot cheaper than a vintage wide nut Sheraton ... and it was a really nice playing/sounding guitar unplugged - it was only amplified that I didn't quite like it enough.

[kapepper]

Love my riviera.

It's a 1965, that was played for many years by a pro. He did some mods to it. changed the pick ups and converted it into a stoptail. Good thing is he kept the original pick ups and trem o tone tailpiece.

I swapped already the pick ups and put in the original. I also put once the tremotone tailpiece but that was not an improvement to say the least. It sounds so much better with the stoptail

[shoule79]

Not vintage, but I love my old Korean Riviera with mini hums and frequensator. Its my sitting around on the couch guitar at the moment.

[HH1978]

I'd love a Riviera! Too broke for the moment, but definetely on my wish list.

[Pacafeliz]

...well after a long hunt, I decided these two are the keepers! ❤



The red one is a modded 1995, the Valensi is a 2007 model.

...now I gotta get rid of the ones that weren't IT!

[greens]

Riviera, Casino, Sheridan . . . I don't know why I have such a harder time keeping them straight then the ES-es

[stilwel]

Riviera, Casino, Sheridan . . . I don't know why I have such a harder time keeping them straight then the ES-es

Riviera - Semi hollow, similar to ES-335. Originally came with mini-hums. 90’s models typically have full size humbuckers and either a Frequensator or Epiphone branded import Bigsby. They switched back to mini-hums in the early 2000's. Always has Rosewood fretboard with parallelogram inlays. Think Robben Ford.

Casino - Fully Hollow, similar to ES-330. Equipped with chrome covered P90’s and Trapeze tailpiece. Neck joins the body pretty deep. Rosewood fretboard with either dots or parallelogram inlays. Think Beatles playing on the rooftop.

Sheraton - Semi Hollow, similar to ES-355. The fancier big brother with gold hardware, intricate tree of life headstock inlay, ebony fretboard and lots of headstock/neck/body binding. Vintage models have Frequensator or Bigsby and mini hums. Switched to full size humbuckers and stoptails in the 90’s. Recent reissue had mini-hums and a frequensator or vibrato tailpiece and look killer.


I love the 90’s Peerless Rivieras with the narrow nut. This one has been fully modded with upgraded tuners, Bigsby B7 and ‘57 Classic pickups. I have some really nice guitars and this one gets played A LOT.

[greens]

Riviera, Casino, Sheridan . . . I don't know why I have such a harder time keeping them straight then the ES-es

Riviera - Semi hollow, similar to ES-335. Originally came with mini-hums. 90’s models typically have full size humbuckers and either a Frequensator or Epiphone branded import Bigsby. They switched back to mini-hums in the early 2000's. Always has Rosewood fretboard with parallelogram inlays. Think Robben Ford.

Casino - Fully Hollow, similar to ES-330. Equipped with chrome covered P90’s and Trapeze tailpiece. Neck joins the body pretty deep. Rosewood fretboard with either dots or parallelogram inlays. Think Beatles playing on the rooftop.

Sheraton - Semi Hollow, similar to ES-355. The fancier big brother with gold hardware, intricate tree of life headstock inlay, ebony fretboard and lots of headstock/neck/body binding. Vintage models have Frequensator or Bigsby and mini hums. Switched to full size humbuckers and stoptails in the 90’s. Recent reissue had mini-hums and a frequensator or vibrato tailpiece and look killer.


I love the 90’s Peerless Rivieras with the narrow nut. This one has been fully modded with upgraded tuners, Bigsby B7 and ‘57 Classic pickups. I have some really nice guitars and this one gets played A LOT.

Thanks!