With its unique wiring scheme, this Epiphone Riviera Custom P93 offers
seven different pickup settings. Photo by Will Ray |
I have to admit I’m a big fan of
P-90 pickups, which I consider
to be some of the best-sounding
single-coils on the planet. They’re
warm and fat, but also have a
nice bite in the high end. So
when I saw Musician’s Friend
advertising a new Epiphone
Limited Edition Riviera Custom
P93 model in their catalog, I did
a double take. It had not one, not
two, but
three P-90s, along with
a Bigsby and all-gold hardware
ornamenting a 335-like body. She
sure was smart looking!
I did my homework first.
With a list price of $832 and a
street price of $499, that gave
me an idea of a P93’s new value.
But we don’t play that game. So
the next step was to find a used
one within my bottom-feeder
range of $300–$400. Since P93s
were only introduced in 2008,
there were very few around. I
was diligent, though, and after
a few weeks started seeing more
and more of them for sale on
eBay. However, I noticed there
was a bunch of these for sale
with shipping damage, as if a
speeding train hit a shipping
container full of P93s. There
were all kinds of Riviera Custom
P93s on eBay with neck, headstock,
and body damage. That
meant I had to be careful,
because there might be some
recently repaired ones being
resold that could have potential
problems down the road.
I found this one offered as a
seven-day auction with an opening
bid of $299. I bookmarked
it, and on the seventh day sent
in my elite Navy Seal team to
go into bidding battle for me. In
other words, I “sniped” in the last
five seconds, winning the guitar
for $306—a very good deal with
added shipping of only $17.50. I
was really excited when it arrived
about 10 days later. There was no
case included, and it was rather
poorly boxed, which could have
led to shipping damage. But
I examined it thoroughly and
found nothing wrong.
However, when I went to
plug the guitar in, I found that
the output jack was loose. While
trying to tighten it, I discovered
the threads on the jack’s nut were
stripped badly. After plugging
in a few times, the jack dropped
inside the body. I had remembered
seeing a few of these guitars
on eBay with loose jacks that had
also fallen inside the body. Those
guitars were sold at a discount for
the buyer to fix. It made me suspicious
that the seller might have
bought one of these and jerry-rigged
the jack as best he could
before reselling it. Hmmm.
Because hollowbody Gibsons
and Epiphones do not have access
covers on the back, replacing a
jack means taking all the electronics
out first—a formidable task. I
contacted the seller, explained the
situation, and asked for a $35 partial
refund to get it repaired. He
counter-offered with a $25 refund.
After thinking about it, I took
the offer, figuring that the guitar
was still a great deal. I received his
PayPal partial refund, and after I
was satisfied with everything else, I
left him positive feedback.
Bottom Feeder Tip #2877:
Never leave positive feedback
until you have taken enough
time to really be happy with a
transaction. Once feedback is
left, it cannot be undone—game
over. It’s a fact: eBay is a buyer’s
market, meaning that buyers
have most of the power, and
positive feedback is how we buyers
level the playing field. Since
sellers cannot leave negative feedback,
they have little power.
The way the P93 is wired is
quite different from other triple-pickup
guitars. Instead of a 5-way
switch, it has a 3-way toggle for
selecting the neck pickup, the
bridge pickup, or both those
units together. Because each
pickup has its own Volume control,
you bring the middle pickup
in and out with its Volume—it
doesn’t have a switch. This
scheme yields a total of six combinations.
In fact, you can get a
seventh combination by turning
down the bridge and neck pickups
while leaving the middle one
turned up. This setup offers very
interesting combinations for a
P-90 equipped guitar, and provides
lots of tonal options when
you start blending the levels.
Sadly, the guitar sat in the
corner of my studio for about six
months before I finally decided to
get the jack fixed. I found a repair
guy in Asheville named Jack
Dillon, who came highly recommended.
He also noticed reduced
output from the bridge pickup,
which was due to the previous
owner reversing the bottom alnico
magnet for unknown reasons.
Jack was able to replace the output
jack, reverse the bridge magnet,
and lower the string slots at
the nut for a total of $40—a very
reasonable sum, even for a bottom
feeder. I had him replace the
gold-plated jack with a standard
chrome one we both thought
would be more stable. In a classic
bottom-feeder move, I took a red
Sharpie to it and smeared the ink
a little. Now the jack blends in
more and looks, well, gold-ish.
Good enough for me.
In the end, the guitar cost me
a total of $338.50, but now it’s
easier to play, it’s much more stable,
and it sounds better, to boot.
You can’t beat that! It’s especially
hip for blues and rockabilly—
almost like a Strat trapped inside
a 335 body. So is it a keeper? Yep.
She’s now part of my arsenal.
Will Ray
is a founding
member of the
Hellecasters guitar-twang
trio. He also does guitar
clinics promoting his
namesake G&L signature
model 6-string, and produces
artists and bands at his studio in
Asheville, North Carolina. You can contact
Will on Facebook and at
willray.biz.