Epiphone Olympic Archtop Guitar

To the right is inspector #14 at prominent Nashville luthiers shop. He is comparing his 1935 vintage epiphone olympic archtop masterbilt model, in his right hand, to a 1934 vintage epiphone archtop masterbilt model, in his left hand.

The 1934 model had its neck reset and a refret job to bring it back to life, it had been found in a storage garage.

The pupose of this group is to gather and publish information about Epiphone Olympic Archtop Guitars. The Sources of the information are as follows after this paragraph 1) any infomation printed in small type means that the information was taken from the Epiphone site referenced in the Link area of this group - 2) any information printed IN CAPITAL LETTERS MEANS IT WAS FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS OF SPECIFIC MODELS EITHER FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OR ACTUAL PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF AN INSTRUMENT BY THE MODERATOR.

1931 Olympic specs: 13" wide, mahogany back and sides, 3 segmented "f" holes.

1933 Olympic specs: 13 5/8" wide, trapeze tailpiece, rounded end fingerboard with dot inlays, rounded non-peak peghead, sunburst finish. CELLULOID VENEER ON FRONT OF HEADSTOCK, DECAL ON BACK OF HEADSTOCK, THREE ON A STRIP TUNERS, 10IN FRET BOARD RADIUS.

1934 Olympic specs: decal logo with "Epiphone" on a banner and "masterbilt" underneath banner. CELLULOID VENEER ON FRONT OF HEADSTOCK, THREE ON A STRIP TUNNERS, 7.25IN FRET BOARD RADIUS.

1935 Olympic specs: TRANSITIONAL YEAR, EARLY MODELS MAY HAVE THE THREE PIECE F HOLES, BLACK BINDING, 13 5/8" WIDE LOWER BOUTS, STRAIGHT FRET BOARD END, LATER MODELS MAY BE 10/5/8 INCH UPER AND 15 INCH LOWER BOUTS, WHITE BINDING, LARGE ONE PIECE F HOLES.


1937 Olympic specs: 15 1/4" wide, standard "f" holes. Tenor and plectrum version available.

1942 Olympic specs: script peghead logo with tail underneath.

1939 Olympic specs: center dip peghead.

1950 Olympic specs: discontinued.