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Epiphone () is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in İzmir, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over his father's business, Epaminondas Stathopoulos named the company "Epiphone" as a combination of his own nickname "Epi" and the suffix "" (from Greek phon-, "voice") in 1928, the same year it began making guitars. From the 1930s through to the early 1950s, Epiphone produced a range of both acoustic and (later) electrified archtop guitars that rivalled those produced by Gibson and were the instruments of choice of many professionals; a smaller range of flat-top guitars were also produced, some designations of which were later continued during the Gibson-owned era for the company.
In 1957 Epiphone, Inc. was purchased by Gibson, its main rival in the archtop guitar market at the time. Gibson relocated Epiphone's manufacturing operation from Philadelphia to Gibson's Kalamazoo, Michigan, factory, where production of both ranges took place until 1969, with Epiphone instruments—some with "sister" models in the Gibson line, some unique to the Epiphone line—generally considered equal in construction quality to those produced under the Gibson brand. From 1970 onwards, Gibson ceased production of Epiphones in its U.S.A factory and moved production offshore for a range of cheaper models. Today, Epiphone is still used as a brand for the Gibson company, both for budget models of other Gibson-branded products and for several Epiphone-exclusive models. Aside from guitars, Epiphone has also made , , and other string instruments, as well as .
After two years, the company became known as "The House of Stathopoulo". Just after the end of World War I, the company started to make . The company produced its recording line of banjos in 1924 and, four years later, took on the name of the "Epiphone Banjo Company". It produced its first guitars (the "Epiphone Recording" models) in 1928. In 1931 the company commenced production of its "Masterbilt" range of archtop guitars which became very popular and competed successfully with the equivalent range produced at the time by Gibson, its main rival in the archtop market. After Epi died in 1943, control of the company went to his brothers, Orphie and Frixo. In 1951, a four-month-long strike caused a relocation of the company from New York City to Philadelphia. A number of Epiphone employees decided to remain in New York rather than relocate to Philadelphia, and spearheaded by George Mann, former Epiphone Vice President and Secretary, formed the nucleus of the new Guild Guitar Company, whose early archtop guitar designs owed a lot to Epiphone.
In 1957 the company was acquired by Gibson parent company CMI, who merged Epiphone operations with Gibson. Between 1957 and 1969, the Gibson-owned production of Epiphone instruments took a parallel path to those marketed under the Gibson brand, with many equivalents between the two lines but also some instruments unique to the Epiphone range. The marketing strategy used was that since the number of Gibson dealerships was limited by design, equivalent quality instruments under the Epiphone label could be offered for sale through other dealerships thus in principle increasing market share overall. This arrangement lasted until 1969 at which point Gibson decided to cease production of the high grade, U.S.A.-made Epiphone instruments in favour of a cheaper range of lower grade instruments still bearing the Epiphone label, but now sourced in Japan.
By the late 1970s, Epiphone production began moving to Korea, and by the mid-1980s, all Epiphones were Korean-built. Beginning in 1997, Epiphone moved its production to China and Indonesia. Since merging with Gibson, the brand has been used for a number of different guitars, some manufactured by Gibson itself in its own factories, and some manufactured by other companies such as Matsumoku under contract to Gibson and marketed under the Epiphone brand.
Commencing around 1931, Epiphone decided to release a new range of full body archtop guitars in direct competition with Gibson, the leading factory manufacturer of archtop guitars of the day. The newly announced "Masterbilt" series comprised the Deluxe (with its tenor version named the Empire), Broadway (tenor version the Bretton, later named the Broadway Tenor), Triumph (tenor version the Hollywood, later the Triumph Tenor), Royal, Spartan (tenor version the Regent, later the Spartan Tenor), Blackstone, Zenith (tenor version the Melody, later the Zenith Tenor), Olympic, and Beverly. Other models introduced a little later comprised the Emperor (1936), Byron (1938), Ritz (1941) and Devon (1951).George Gruhn and Walter Carter, 1991: Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars. GPI Books. pp.23-25 These instruments were initially offered in acoustic, non-cutaway form, with cutaways appearing (often with the additional designation "Regent") from the late 1940s onwards, and with the addition of pickups, by the added designation of "Zephyr", thus an "Zephyr Emperor Regent" would indicate the (top of the line) Emperor model with added cutaway and pickups. Other archtops appeared solely in the amplified form, being the Zephyr, Century and Coronet (all 1939), Kent (1950) and a signature model named for Harry Volpe (1955).
Accompanying the archtop line were a range of flat top instruments, although these never acquired the cachet of their archtop companions. These included 2 Hawaiian models (the Madrid and the Navarre), plus the flat top FT 75 (introduced by 1935, discontinued 1942), FT 37 (1935-1942), FT 27 (1935-1941), FT De Luxe (1939-1942), FT 110, FT 79 and FT 45 (all 1942, all continued into Gibson era), FT 50 (1941-1950) and FT 30 (1941-1954, then reactivated in the Gibson era). Several cutaway flat top instruments were also made, designated the De Luxe Cutaway (also as the FT 210) and the Zephyr Cutaway.Gruhn and Carter, pp.27-28 It seems that Epiphone used ladder- rather than X-bracing for the tops of their flat top models, which may account for their less success in the market than comparable instruments by the Martin and Gibson guitar companies.
/ref> Subsequent additions to these lines included the semi-acoustic Granada, Professional and Riviera models (all introduced 1962); as well as artist-endorsed models for Al Caiola (the "Caiola", introduced 1963) and Howard Roberts (1964), the latter with an unusual oval shaped soundhole. The Riviera was also available in a 12-string version (1965 onwards). New acoustic instruments comprised the Excellente, El Dorado, Troubador and Folkster, along with new "folk oriented" 12-strings the Bard (1962) and Serenader (1963); additions to the classical line comprised the Espana and Madrid (both 1962) and the Barcelona and Classic (both 1963). None of these instruments survived the termination of manufacturing of Epiphone instruments in Gibson's Kalamazoo plant in 1969, at least in their original form (subsequent Japanese models, some even re-using Kalamazoo-era model names, were of generally cheaper construction, for example using laminated woods and bolt-on necks as compared with their U.S.-made predecessors).
While some of the 1960s, U.S.A. built Epiphones had near-equivalents to models in the Gibson range of the day—for example the Riviera and Casino were very similar to the Gibson ES-335 and ES-330, respectively, the Frontier was somewhat similar to the Gibson Dove, while the Texan, Cortez and Cabellero were generally equivalent to the Gibson J-45, LG-2 and LG-0, respectively—others had no equivalent in the Gibson range, the Sheraton (semi-acoustic thinline version) and Excellente (acoustic) being top-of-the line instruments without any real parallel in the Gibson line/s of the day.Ian C. Bishop, 1979: The Gibson Guitar from 1950 Vol. 2. Musical New Services, London. Chapter Three: The Epiphone Story.
In England in the 1960s, several Epiphone models were brought to particular prominence via their use by The Beatles, Paul McCartney favouring a 1964 Epiphone Texan that he purchased in 1965 and used for the writing of "Yesterday" among other songs, while John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison all performed using Epiphone Casinos through much of the group's years of early commercial success.
As of January 2021, Epiphone was marketing guitars under several lines, including several categorized on their website as "inspired by Gibson" for models that serve as the budget Gibson version. Historically, hundreds of different models have borne the Epiphone brand, and many are available in the used guitar market.
Gibson produced Epiphone amplifiers in the 1960s. These were copies or variations of Gibson and Fender amplifiers. They used a tube design, and some had reverb and tremolo. Gibson decided to launch a new line of Epiphone tube amplifiers in 2005 with models including the So Cal, Blues Custom, Epiphone Valve Junior and the solid state Triggerman range. The Valve Hot Rod and Valve Senior followed in 2009. The Valve Hot Rod is a 5 watt amp like the Valve Junior, but has a gain and reverb control. The Valve Senior offers 20 watts of power, with a full equalizer, gain, volume, reverb, and presence control.
As of 2012, Epiphone has ceased production of their line of amplifiers with the exception of the Player and Performance Pack practice amplifiers, available only in Epiphone's starter packages. These Amplifiers were under the Epiphone Electar brand. In 2014 the 1939 Electar Century 18-watt valve amplifier was reissued in an updated 75th anniversary Limited Edition.
Some specific examples of Gibson-era Epiphone instruments from this period includes the Epiphone Sheraton (co-developed with the Gibson ES-335 & sharing its semi-hollow body, but with, Epiphone's pre-Gibson "Frequensator" tailpiece and "New York" mini-humbucker pickups, and significantly fancier inlays) and Sheraton II (replacing the Frequensator with Gibson's "stop-bar" tailpiece), the Epiphone Casino (similar to the Gibson ES-330), the Epiphone Caballero (similar to the Gibson LG-0), the Epiphone Cortez (similar to the Gibson LG-2), the Epiphone Frontier (similar to the Gibson Hummingbird), the Epiphone Olympic Special (similar to the Gibson Melody Maker), the Epiphone Sorrento (similar to the Gibson ES-125TC, except for a few cosmetic changes), and the Epiphone Texan (similar to the Gibson J-45, apart from a change in scale-length). The other Kalamazoo-made Epiphones had technical or cosmetic relationship with the similar Gibson version.
Several Epiphone guitars have been produced in the United States after 1971. The Gibson Spirit and Special were produced in the early 1980s in Kalamazoo. In 1993, three historic Epiphone acoustic guitars, the Texan, Frontier, and Excellente, were produced by Gibson Acoustic in Montana. The Paul McCartney Texan was produced in 2005, and in 2009, the Epiphone Historic Collection was created, beginning with the 1962 Wilshire, built by Gibson Custom. Several other models, such as the Sheraton and John Lennon Casinos, were built in Japan and assembled and finished by Gibson USA.
By 1975, the Japanese market started seeing some of the more familiar designs and names being reintroduced. These guitars were of higher quality than that of the previous years of production in Japan and included models such as the Wilshire, Emperor, Riviera and Newport bass.1977 Epiphone Japan catalog These models were available to the Japanese market only. By 1976 new designs of higher quality were being introduced for export but did not include the current Japanese market models. Notable new designs from this era were the Monticello (Scroll Guitar), the Presentation (PR) and Nova series flat tops and the Epiphone Genesis solid body guitar. By 1980, most Japanese-only designs were available for worldwide distribution. One in particular, the ES930J, was made at the famed Terada factory and was a superior instrument. The Matsumoku-made archtops, such as the Emperor, Riviera, Sheraton and Casino, were available into the mid-1980s.
The guitars were constructed using different woods, generally only distantly related to true mahogany, and were fastened with epoxy rather than traditional wood glues. Gibson and Epiphone guitars all use Titebond resin glue, which is simple carpenters' wood glue, and were finished in hard, quick-to-apply polyester resin rather than the traditional nitro-cellulose lacquer used by Gibson. Epiphone guitars assembled or made in the US use lacquer finishes (except, perhaps, for SL models, made around 2000 and said to be finished "sans lacquer," in polyurethane), but those made outside of the US use a polyurethane finish because of pollution requirements. Those particular budget considerations, along with others such as the use of plastic nuts, and cheaper hardware and pickups, make for a more affordable instrument.
After 1996, Epiphones were built by the Peerless Guitars Co. Ltd., established in 1970 in Busan, South Korea. Many of these Peerless guitars, particularly the 1998 models commemorating their 125th Anniversary, were very well made, represent excellent value, and have become quite collectable. However, all the guitars made at the Peerless plant, including the vastly underrated Sorrento model, are very well made and are well worth a search.
There is a controversial Epiphone guitar using "LU" serial number. It is said those guitars were made in Indonesia under license from Unsung Korea.
In 2004, Gibson opened a factory in Qingdao, China, which manufactures Epiphone guitars. With few exceptions, Epiphones are now built only in the Qingdao factory.
Also in 2004, Epiphone introduced a series of acoustic guitars named Masterbilt, after a line of guitars of the 1930s, which are built in the same factory.
Production was moved back to Nashville and Bozeman for a similar limited run of instruments (250 each of Sheratons, Rivieras, Frontiers, Excellentes and Texans). These guitars were the "Nashville USA Collection" (archtops) and the "Anniversary Series" (acoustics). Contrary to popular information, this line was related to, but not part of the 1994 Gibson Centennial Series commemorating 100 years of the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The Nashville and Anniversary Collections were intended as reintroductions of original, USA built Epiphone models.
In 2002, Epiphone began producing a range of higher quality instruments under the "Elite Series" moniker which were built by Terada and FujiGen in Japan. After legal action by Ovation the name was changed to Elitist in 2003. As of 2008, all of the Elitist models have been discontinued with the exception of the Elitist Casino and the Dwight Trash Casino. The Epiphone Elitist guitars included features such as higher grade woods, bone nuts, hand-rubbed finishes, "Made in the USA" pickups and USA strings. Japanese domestic market Elitists used the Gibson Dove-wing headstock as opposed to the "tombstone" headstock used on exports.2002 Epiphone Japan Elite/Elitist catalog
Korea
China
Japan
Czech Republic
Indonesia
Example: SI09034853 SI = Samick Indonesia, 09 = 2009, 03 = March, 4853 = manufacturing number.
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