Although we as fans tend to divvy up the guitars as being either Paul's or Ace's, during these early years there were times when the backup guitars were essentially communal. We saw it with the Dan Armstrong in 1974 and later on Paul will gift his Ibanez Destroyer to Ace. This 1961 or '62 Epiphone Coronet was one of those shared backups. It first shows up on September 13, 1975, in Norfolk, Virginia (see below).
This guitar was heavily modified. As noted in a previous section, the Coronet originally only came in a translucent cherry red finish and most guitars had a dog-ear P90 pickup (although some early examples had a mini New York pickup). This guitar had a white finish, a full-size humbucker (probably a DiMarzio Super Distorsion), a Leo Quan Badass wraparound bridge, and Schaller M6 tuners.
When the Coronet made its debut it was under somewhat odd circumstances. It seems as if Paul had gotten his Gibson Flying V a few days earlier in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but that guitar is nowhere to be seen in the live and backstage photos from Norfolk, nor in the (admittedly limited number of) photos from Wilkes-Barre. All the photos from both of these dates show Paul playing this Epiphone Coronet. When "regular" touring resumed in October Paul had his Flying V and the Coronet initially shows up standing on Ace's side of the stage.
And this is when the guitar starts appearing in Ace's hands and then more or less disappears for the rest of the month. When it comes to the backups this was common, there were sometimes long periods when they were nowhere to be seen. This usually depended on whether the venues were large enough to house the backup instruments on the side of the stage, whether any photographers actually pointed their cameras towards those areas of the stage, and whether they ended up being used. There is only one more possible sighting of this Epiphone Coronet in October 1975.
Photo evidence returns when we get to November but then mainly backstage as seen below. Paul did use the Coronet on stage in Toledo and Ace (probably) strapped it on for the encores in Rockford, Illinois, but the latter date is somewhat questionable.
And then the money started pouring in as Alive! sold like hotcakes and concerts sold out. At the prospect of being able to afford almost any guitar the band moved on. The Epiphone Coronet made its way on stage once more as seen below and then it was replaced. Its whereabouts is unknown.
