Not-Exactly Reverse Firebird: Epiphone Slasher

It's not exactly an Explorer either.

We go back to the early 2000s for this one.

Firstly, there were two versions of this guitar. The "normal" Epiphone Slasher and the more rare Epiphone Slasher FX that had on-board (as in built-in) distortion and chorus effects.

Is the Slasher a Firebird shape? No. Is it an Explorer shape? Also a no. The Slasher is its own unique shape as far as I know.

The uniqueness doesn't stop there. The word "Epiphone" appears nowhere on the front of this guitar. All you get on the front is a stylized red Epiphone "E" on the headstock with wings on the side that almost looks like something that should be on a car.

From what I've been able to gather on this guitar, the pickups are really hot, the neck is maple and bolt-on, and yes this guitar was part of something Epiphone called the E-Series, hence the "E" on the headstock.

That same "E" is also directly engraved into the pickup covers. Nice touch.

On the rear of the guitar are 6 "E" logos and 7 "EPIPHONE" logos. There's an "E" and curved "EPIPHONE" on the back of each tuner, and "EPIPHONE" on the neck bolt plate.

The fingerboard is real Indian rosewood, and the back of the neck was finished with a "Super Slide" satin finish.

Was this guitar a special edition? Yes, it was.

There were 800 Slasher edition guitars made, and only 200 Slasher FX guitars made. All of them were made in Korea as far as I know. Only three colors for this guitar. Black, blue and red. The blue is the most common.

Published 2022 Sep 6