Epiphone

The Epiphone Company is a guitar manufacturer. Before being bought out by Gibson in the late 1950s, Epiphone was actually Gibson's main rival in the archtop market. Their professional archtops, including the Emperor, Deluxe, Broadway and Triumph, rivalled (and some contend surpassed) those of Gibson. Aside from their guitars, Epiphone also made bass guitars, banjos, and other stringed instruments. However, the company's weakness in the aftermath of World War II allowed Gibson to absorb it.　

The name "Epiphone" is a combination of proprietor Epaminondas Stathopoulos' nickname "Epi" and "phone", Greek for "sound".

History

The history of Epiphone dates to the 1870s, in Smyrna, Turkey, where Greek founder Anastasios Stathopoulos made his own fiddles, lutes, and Lioutos. Stathopoulos moved to the United States of America in 1903, and continued to make his original instruments, as well as mandolins, from Long Island City in Queens, New York. Anastasios died in 1915, and his son, Epaminondas, took over. After two years, the company was known as The House Of Stathopoulos.

Just after the end of World War I, the company started to make banjos. The company produced its Recording Line of Banjos in 1924, and, four years later, took on the name of the Epiphone Banjo Company. They produced their first guitars in 1928. Epi Stathopoulo died in 1943. Unfortunately, control of the company went to his brothers, Orphie and Frixo, who were not as capable an owner as Epi. In 1951, a four month long strike forced a relocation of Epiphone from New York to Philadelphia. The company was bought out by their main rival, Gibson in 1957. People hate these guitars well at least the rich people do. They make crappy remakes of like the les paul and the sg i dont know why they do that it sucks

Casino

Main article: Epiphone Casino

The most famous Epiphone model introduced by Gibson after taking over was the Casino. The Casino was made in the shape and configuration of a Gibson ES-330 guitar. It has a very heavy sound and is an impressive rhythm guitar. It is an actual hollow body electric guitar with P90 pickups.

The Casino is famous for being used by The Beatles.In 1963 George Martin, their producer, gave John,Paul & George their Casinos as gifts.All three were sunburst finishes, George's, the only one with a Bigsby tremelo arm.^{[citation needed]} These can be seen in pictures of their famous 1964 Shea Stadium concerts in the U.S.^{[citation needed]} George Martin knew what he was doing as these guitars were responsible for many of the unmistakable guitar "riffs" for many years to come.("Day Tripper" for example)^{[citation needed]} Lennon continued to use his during the remainder of his time with the Beatles. He customized it in 1968. Lennon used his customized Casino in the last public appearance by the Beatles -- an impromptu concert in January 1969 on the rooftop of Apple Records in London, footage of which was included in the film "Let It Be". Harrison stopped using his Casino in 1967 and began using the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster lines of guitars. Paul still uses his Casino in concert today.^{[citation needed]}

1970-present

In the early 1970s, Epiphones began to be manufactured in Japan. From the 1980s, Epiphones were manufactured mainly in Korea by contractors licensed by Gibson. One of these contractors was Samick, which also built instruments under licence for other brands and in its own name. Thus, a Korean-era solidbody Epiphone would have been built under licence. The brand was primarily used to issue less expensive versions of classic Gibson models, in a manner similar to that of the Squier brand by Fender. These Epiphones were sometimes built with different tonewoods from the original Gibson versions, which often resulted in the instruments bearing a visual and ergonomic similarity to the Gibson originals but having a slightly different tone. For example, bodies of the G-400 SG copy were made with either mahogany or alder body, depending on the availability of the wood.

Samick has stopped manufacturing guitars in Korea. In 2002, Gibson opened a factory in Qingdao, China, which manufactures Epiphone guitars and no others. (e.g. the G-400 SG and the Les Paul)

Unique Epiphone models, including the Emperor, Zephyr, Riviera and Sheraton, are built to higher quality standards than the company's "Gibson copy" line. Epiphone also produces a range of higher quality instruments under the "Elitist Series" moniker, which are built in Japan. The "Masterbilt" acoustics are manufactured in Qingdao.

According to several forum entries, current Epiphone serial numbers give the following information:

An "I" at the beginning means manufactured by Sae In (Korea); "U" means by Unsung (Korea); "P" means Peerless (Korea); "S" means Samick (Korea);

"R" is manufactured by "Peerless Guitars" of Korea.(guitardaterproject.org)

DW = DeaWon (China); EA = Gibson/QingDao (China); EE = Gibson/QingDao (China); MC = Muse (China); SJ = SaeJung (China); BW = China

"B" (found on some Korina G-400 is Bohêmia Musico-Delicia (Czech Republic);

SI = Samick Indonesia

F = Fujigen (Japan)

Example: U8034853 U= Unsung 8= 1998 03 = March 4853= manufacturing number

Current status

Epiphone is now a subsidiary of Gibson, somewhat like Squier is a subsidiary of Fender (the chief difference being that the Squier line of guitars was created in-house by Fender; in other words, there is no such thing as a "pre-Fender" Squier guitar). Because of this subsidiary relationship, many of the instruments look the same as the more expensive Gibson versions. However Epiphone still maintains its own line of archtop guitars.

Current products

Amplifiers

Epiphone entered into the premium amplifier market in 2006 with many different models, from their "So Cal" and "Blues" Custom amplifiers to the small "Valve Jr." The Epiphone Valve Junior is a small 5 watt tube amp released both as a head and combo.

Guitars

The following guitars are currently made by Epiphone:

Gibson copies

The Explorer
Several Versions of the SG guitar Including G400, G310 and SG special.
Around 20 versions of the Les Paul
The Dot (and the Dot Studio), similar to the ES-335
The Flying-V
The Firebird
The Thunderbird
The Blackbird

Dedicated Epiphone models

Several versions of the Sheraton
Several versions of the Casino
The Riviera in 6- and 12-string versions
The Broadway
The Emperor
Several versions of the Zephyr
The Supernova
The Wildkat
The Les Paul Jr.
The Viola Bass

In recent years Epiphone introduced a series of acoustic guitars named Masterbilt after a line of guitars of the 1930s. Today's Masterbilt guitars are manufactured in China.

Discontinued Models

Epiphone Genesis Electric Guitar
Epiphone Supernova
Epiphone Demon

Players Of Epiphone

John Lee Hooker - Epiphone Sheraton.
Ernest Tubb, country singer.
Django Reinhardt acquired an Epiphone Zephyr electric archtop to play during his American tour with Duke Ellington in 1946. He used the guitar for the rest of his career.[1]
Paul McCartney acquired a blond Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar in 1965. He used it extensively for writing and he performed the song "Yesterday" on it. [2]
Noel Gallagher's Epiphone use has increased the visibility of the guitar maker. During the height of Oasis' popularity in 1995-96, Epiphone introduced the Noel Gallagher Union Jack Supernova semi-hollow guitar (discontinued in March 2006).
Lars Frederiksen (Rancid) uses an Epiphone Les Paul as his primary instrument.
David Rawlings, who almost exclusively plays a 1935 Epiphone Olympic archtop when performing with Gillian Welch.
Wayne Static uses an Epiphone Flying V Signature guitar.
Nick Valensi of The Strokes, who plays a Riviera which he customised by fitting Gibson P-94 pick-ups.
Zakk Wylde plays Gibson guitars but has three different Epiphone signature models called Bullzeye, Camo & Buzzsaw.
Pete Doherty uses various Epiphones, one being the epiphone coronet.
Ace Frehley of KISS uses an Epiphone Les Paul with Dimarzio humbuckers.
The Edge of U2 uses an epiphone casino among his dozens of guitars.
John Connolly and Vince Hornsby of Sevendust have both been Epiphone endorsees for several years.
The Beatles acquired several Epiphones, specifically casinos. Paul ordered his first, George and John soon followed and the guitars featured prominently in their late live performances and on the album Revolver
Tom Delonge, Former Blink 182 vocals and guitarist. Currenrtly in the band Angels and Airwaves.

Collectible status of Epiphone guitars

The original Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar was made in the early 1960s as a cheaper version of the Gibson J-45 model, and was available with blond or sunburst finish. Although cheaper than its Gibson counterpart at the time of manufacture, vintage period Texans in good condition can currently change hands for around the $3,000 mark. Furthermore, the company has actually released a limited run of Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar replicas marked with the legitimate signature of Paul McCartney to the retail price of $1,949.00 - $1,949.99.

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