Following close on the heels of Gibson’s ES-5, Epiphone introduced a three-pickup, six-pushbutton version of it’s top model, the Emperor.

Epiphone already had a Zephyr model, but the company also used the term to signify an electric version of any acoustic model. “Regent” was used in a similar manner to denote any model with a cutaway. So the new electric cutaway model was called the Zephyr Emperor Regent.

Although it appears to be an acoustic Emperor with pickups, the Zephyr Emperor Regent was in fact designed with a laminated maple top – like Gibson’s ES-5 and not like Gibson’s electric Super 400 and L-5 models.