Epiphone - Riviera Royal Tan

The Epiphone Riviera takes its name from a company founded in 1873 by the Stathopoulo family, who moved from Smyrna to New York, before joining Gibson in 1957 whilst retaining its identity. Its archtop guitars left their mark on jazz, and later on rock and pop. The Riviera preserves this heritage in an accessible semi-hollow body design.

The laminated maple body, in the Riviera ES-style archtop shape, maintains a rich sound without feeling heavy on the shoulder. The gloss Royal Tan finish and the cream single-ply binding outline the contours of the top and back. The mahogany neck, set into the body, features a rounded C-shape profile, with a scale length of 24.72 inches and a double-action truss rod to maintain stable tension.

The Indian laurel fingerboard, with a radius of 12.01 inches, remains flat for sustained chords and bends across the 22 medium-jumbo frets, marked by trapezoid inlays. The 43 mm Graph Tech NuBone nut distributes the strings evenly, beneath a Sloped Dove Wing headstock featuring the historic Epiphone logo in mother-of-pearl and Vintage Deluxe tuners.

The HH configuration combines a PRO R Mini-Humbucker at the neck and a PRO T Mini-Humbucker at the bridge, housed in nickel covers, for a hollow tone that retains its bite when soloing. The 3-way selector switch and the two CTS volume and tone controls, adjusted via black knobs with metal inserts, bridge the gap between a rounded tone and a crisper sound.

The Tune-O-Matic LockTone bridge and Frequensator tailpiece keep the tuning stable with .010 to .046 strings. The three-ply Riviera pickguard, featuring an aluminium ‘E’ logo, echoes the model’s original design. The 6.35 mm jack output and nickel hardware complete the package, and the case is sold separately.