It is also famous for being the acoustic guitar on which McCartney performed the signature "McCartney Picking" in some album pieces such as " Mother Nature's Son" ( The Beatles "White Album"), "Calico Skies" ( Flaming Pie), and more recently " Jenny Wren" ( Chaos and Creation in the Backyard). The Texan was made popular by Paul McCartney for the recording and the live performances of the hit song from 1965 " Yesterday ". Wizz Jones playing his trademark 1963 Texan (purchased in 1967) at the 1978 Norwich Folk Festival, U.K. This model does not have the adjustable bridge, and adds a Sonic Nanoflex pickup and preamp. This model is still based on McCartney's original, and was manufactured in Indonesia. In 2010 Epiphone released an "Inspired By" 1964 Texan. The McCartney edition is sold stringed for a left-handed player. An Epiphone Elitist version, made in Japan, of 1,964 copies in honor of his original Texan which was made in 1964, were manufactured in tandem with the 250 Bozeman-built McCartney edition, minus the original signature of Sir Paul on the label. In 2006, a Signature McCartney version of this guitar was manufactured in Bozeman, Montana in a limited edition of 250 copies. Other models made by the Matsumoku factory included a 12-string dreadnought guitar (referred to as 'Texan-12', FT-160, FT-165, FT-365, and the FT-565). In 1970, the model was discontinued as a result of the acquisition of the Gibson company by Norlin, but in 1972, the Japanese-made FT-145 (Natural) and FT-145SB (Sunburst) was introduced and ended in 1980. In 1967 the tuner knobs were changed to metal.
In 1962 the adjustable bridge was introduced. All Texans in these years were solid mahogany with solid sitka spruce tops. In the late 1950s the body wood was changed to mahogany. In 1958 the Gibson-made FT-79 had 'Texan' added to the type name, the shape was changed as mentioned above, the epsilon 'slashed C' Epiphone logo was added to the pick guard and the truss rod cover, and the tuner knobs were changed to white plastic. In the late 1940s to mid 1950s the FT-79 body was made with maple. In 1954 the model had parallelogram fingerboard inlays and a vertical oval peghead inlay. The 1942 model had rectangular block fingerboard inlays and the original stick-pin Epiphone logo. After the takeover by Gibson, the FT-79 type designation was retained, but the body shape changed to one that resembled the slope-shouldered Gibson J-45 (but that guitar has a shorter 24.75" scale length, compared to the 25.5" of the Texan). Its body was a smaller jumbo model and is comparable to the later Guild F-47 (the Guild Guitar Company was started by ex-Epiphone employees after the company left New York). It was originally a walnut bodied guitar. The original, New York made Epiphone FT-79 is quite a different guitar. There have been numerous reissues of the Texan since their primary production period in the 1960s. After Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957, the Texan was produced in Kalamazoo, Michigan until 1970. The FT-79 was produced by the Epiphone company starting in 1942. Recent models have an integrated light-weight internal electric pickup fitted the original model was acoustic only.
The Epiphone Texan is an acoustic flattop guitar of the (advanced) Jumbo type.