Vega E-201 Model Arch Top Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1959), made in Boston, Mass., sunburst lacquer finish, maple body, spruce top; mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, original soft shell case.
A very cool and fairly unusual Vega archtop electric from the 1950's. This Model E-201 is a very nicely made guitar with a carved spruce top and suspended pickup and electrounics, with simple cosmetics but a lot of sound. By this time the once-mighty Vega company was no longer much of a player in the guitar market; the company was pretty much a rump operation surviving on the sales of folk banjos. Despite this they produced some very nice guitars, and here is one of them. The E-201 has a triple bound top and single bound neck with dots-and-a-single-block inlay in the rosewood fingerboard. The plastic pickup cover is gold, and the clear acrylic pickguard is back painted ala Gretsch, in a very 1950's blended gold and black. The tailpiece has a subtle ornamental "V" between the forks. A good sounding and playing guitar, perhaps a bit outdated when built but an excellent bargain in a floating pickup acoustic/electric today.
Overall length is 41 in. (104.1 cm.), 16 3/8 in. (41.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.). All original, super clean; a 100% intact and unaltered guitar even has the original (or at least period) flatwound strings on it...well we changed the plain B and E strings, but they're still in the case! Some very light play and fret wear but basically as nice as we generally expect to see 50+ year old guitars. Excellent + Condition.
