Close-up #52: Blond archtops
– how rare are they really?
When vintage archtop guitars with a natural or "blond" finish are offered for sale, descriptions often claim that examples in this finish are "rare" – or "much rarer" than those with a sunburst finish. Of course, sellers usually play the "rarity" card to justify a higher price...
This made me wonder: How rare are blond Epiphone archtops really? How do the numbers of natural finish examples compare to sunburst versions of the same models?
As always with pre-Gibson Epiphone instruments, no official production figures are known to have survived. So, the best we can do to get at least a rough idea is to dive into our Registry
database which has documented several thousands of surviving instruments.
When extracting and comparing figures about guitar finishes, we have to consider a few points such as:
- Before the late 1930s, Epiphone didn’t offer any finish options: Virtually all archtop guitar models came with a shaded top finish commonly referred to as “sunburst” today. On fancier models, the shading extended to the back, sides and neck, while lower-end models often showed sunburst on the top only.
Note: Sunburst was the standard or "regular" finish for almost all archtop models.
- The introduction year of an optional blond finish varied depending on the model: The earliest original blonds were Emperor and DeLuxe models showing up in 1938 – and officially announced in the 1939 catalog. Additional blond archtop models followed in 1940. Some models didn't get offered in blond before the late 1940s or early 1950s. Only few models were offered in both finishes right from the start. And even fewer models were made in blond only (Ritz, and prewar Zephyr + Zephyr DeLuxe).
Note: Examples with the "ivory blond" finish variation of the mid-1940s are included under "blond".
- Important caveat: Quite a few surviving instruments were refinished at some point in their life – a condition not always easy to detect. And of many documented instruments we don’t have reliable info regarding their finish.
Note: Only instruments that appear to have their original finish are counted in this exercise.
Meeting of Epiphone Triumphs from the 1940s, all with ivory blond finish: Peter Jung, Graham Tichy, Don Young.
The data
The charts below list figures for documented examples of models that were available with a blond finish (data as of 26 January 2026):
| Acoustic archtop | Blackst | Broadw | Broadw Cut | DeLuxe | DeLuxe Cut | Devon | Emp |
| Sunb intro | 1933 | 1931 | 1949 | 1931 | 1949 | 1949 | 1935 |
| Blond intro | 1940 | 1940 | 1949 | 1939 | 1949 | 1952 | 1939 |
| Blond optional | 81 | 41 | 10 | 67 | 15 | 11 | 87 |
| Sunburst optional | 122 | 78 | 13 | 48 | 9 | 28 | 84 |
| Sunburst total | 185 | 183 | 128 | 2 | 71 | 111 | |
| Not known | 51 | 79 | 5 | 52 | 26 | 10 | 53 |
| Acoustic archtop | Emperor Cut | Ritz | Spartan | Triumph | Triumph Cut | Zenith |
| Sunb intro | 1949 | – | 1935 | 1931 | 1949 | 1931 |
| Blond intro | 1949 | 1940 | 1940 | 1940 | 1949 | 1949 |
| Blond optional | 27 | 48 | 22 | 154 | 54 | 42 |
| Sunburst optional | 12 | – | 33 | 203 | 73 | 94 |
| Sunburst total | | – | 65 | 369 | | 354 |
| Not known | 9 | – | 23 | 139 | 20 | 122 |
| Electric archtop | Century | Volpe | Zephyr | Zephyr Cut | Zephyr DeLuxe | Zephyr DeLuxe Cut | Zeph Emp |
| Sunb intro | 1939 | 1955 | 1946 | 1950 | 1946 | 1948 | 1951 |
| Blond intro | 1953 | 1955 | 1939 | 1952 | 1939 | 1948 | 1951 |
| Blond total | | | 157 | | 56 | | |
| Blond optional | 44 | 4 | 75 | 48 | 51 | 126 | 59 |
| Sunburst optional | 40 | 16 | 52 | 50 | 40 | 49 | 50 |
| Sunburst total | 133 | 93 | | | | ||
| Not known | 35 | 3 | 35 | 40 | 13 | 53 | 27 |
Explanation of terms used in the charts:
- Sunb intro: Year the sunburst finish was introduced on model.
- Blond intro: Year the blond finish was introduced on model.
- Blond total: Total of all documented blond examples, including periods when no sunburst option was available. Figures only listed when differing from "Blond optional".
- Blond optional: number of documented blond examples in periods when both sunburst+blond finishes were an option.
- Sunburst optional: number of documented sunburst examples in periods when both sunburst+blond finishes were an option.
- Sunburst total: total of documented sunburst examples, including periods when no blond option was available. Figures only listed when differing from "Sunburst optional".
- Not known: examples without reliable info regarding original finish (e.g. no picture, obvious refinish)
Note: The figures highlighted bold italic in the charts represent the higher value in the comparison between blonds and sunbursts from the period when both were an option.
What do the figures show?
When comparing the "total" figures for each model, we mostly count more sunbursts than blonds – which is no surprise: The blond option typically only became available years after the launch of the "regular" sunburst version, and therefore had a shorter production period.
But the figures get really interesting when comparing periods when both a blond and sunburst finish option was offered for the respective model. The results in a nutshell:
- Acoustic archtops:
After 1938, total numbers for blond Emperors and especially blond DeLuxes are higher than for sunburst versions – also in the cutaway models.
With the lower models, sunburst versions stayed in the lead – but blonds are often not that far behind once they became available: In those years, the ratio between sunburst and blond versions is roughly 4:3 for Triumphs, and 3:2 for Spartans + Blackstones. With Broadways, Devons + Zeniths we count about twice as many sunbursts as blonds.
- Electric archtops:
The Zephyr DeLuxe – especially the cutaway version – and the Zephyr Emperor show higher totals for blonds than sunbursts.
The non-cutaway Zephyr seems to have been made predominantly in blond – also after 1945, when a sunburst option was introduced.
With the Zephyr Cutaway and Century we count similar numbers for each finish, after these models became available in blond.
Page from the 1954 Epiphone catalog: For the Zenith, the blond finish came with a $15 upcharge – more than 10% of the price! For the Emperor Electric the difference was $25 – less than 5% of the price.
Did the higher prices for the blond option affect sales?
It looks like the blond versions of Epiphone's acoustic and electric archtops sold pretty well – despite their higher catalog price! Note that there was an upcharge of $10–25 for blond finish, varying by model and period. Especially with the fancy DeLuxe + Emperor models, blonds (after becoming available) sold better than sunburst examples. We guess that the price difference – which was only a few percent for the more expensive Epiphones – wasn't that big of an issue for customers in this high-end segment.
With lower models however, the situation was rather different: Here the upcharge for blond finish was relatively high – up to 10% or more of the instrument price! We assume that such a price difference was significant – and potentially a deal-breaker – for many buyers of cheaper instruments who typically were more budget-oriented. This may explain why lower-end Epiphone archtops generally sold better in the cheaper sunburst versions. Still, considering their pricing disadvantage, the numbers of blond lower-end instruments actually seem remarkably high.
Conclusion: Blonds are nice, but hardly rare
Even though the documented examples in our research database represent only a fraction of the total production, our figures seem solid enough to draw some conclusions: The often-heard claim that blond archtops are "much rarer" than sunbursts is a bit of a myth – at least when talking about pre-1957 Epiphones.
Sure, until the late 1930s blonds were virtually non-existant. But when looking at archtops from the 1940–50s, the blond model versions were far from "rare" – and definitely not so with high-end instruments: Our figures suggest that some of these are actually less common in the sunburst version.
Well, personally we think the "rarity" factor is anyway often somewhat overemphasized in the vintage guitar market. Most important is that we like an instrument: Yes, blond archtops tend to show spectacular woods and look stunning – regardless of rarity. That said, a perfectly applied sunburst finish is a true art in its own right and such a classic look. But most importantly: Both can play and sound equally great.
(January 26, 2026 – with later updates)