Epiphone Century James Bay '1966' Limited Edition

A limited replica of James Bay's original 1966 Century.

James Bay is known first and foremost as a singer-songwriter, but listen a little closer and it becomes clear he's also a fine and genuinely creative guitarist. His tone is unmistakable and shapes every one of his songs, which is what gave the 1966 Epiphone Century something of a revival.

Epiphone spotted the demand, measured up James Bay's original and produced an excellent replica in a limited run that sold out in no time. They even measured his particular strap and packed an exact copy of it into the sturdy case. A nice certificate is included too. They were only built between 2018 and 2019.

One of the things that makes the reissue special is that the original guitar was refretted at some point, so the James Bay signature comes with the “right”, grippier frets from the start. James also went for a Kinman Noiseless P-90, as the original pickup in his 1966 Century eventually gave up, and he appreciates a hum-free P-90 on television in particular.

The guitar's distinctive sound announces itself acoustically straight away. It's essentially a hybrid between a slim acoustic and a hollowbody electric, and the P-90 carries that across to the amp exactly as it should. Meister Ede is a big James Bay fan and, after a long search, found a very good example on the used market — fortunately including the strap, which is often missing.

This one comes along to nearly every show Ede plays, with that unmistakable sound of its own.