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 The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Music Company, who also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market. Their professional archtops, including the Emperor, Deluxe, Broadway and Triumph, rivaled (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 Stathopoulo's nickname "Epi" and "phone", Greek for "voice".
[edit] History The history of Epiphone started in 1873, in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (now İzmir, Turkey), where Greek founder Anastasios Stathopoulos made his own fiddles and lutes (oud, laouto). 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 Stathopoulos died in 1943. Control of the company went to his brothers, Orphie and Frixo. Unfortunately, they were not as capable owners 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. In the famous "Dueling Banjos" scene in the 1972 motion picture Deliverance, actor Ronny Cox plays an Epiphone acoustic guitar. [edit] CasinoMain article: Epiphone Casino The most famous Epiphone model introduced by Gibson after taking over was the Casino. The Casino was made in the same shape and configuration as a Gibson ES-330 guitar. It has a very heavy sound and is a very good rhythm guitar due to its fairly thick sound when strummed. It is a genuine hollow body electric guitar with P90 pickups, which are of single-coil, non-humbucking construction.  The Casino is famous for being used by The Beatles. Paul McCartney was the first to acquire one and John Lennon and George Harrison followed suit soon after. Paul McCartney used his for the solo in Taxman and the Casino sound is very prevalent throughout Revolver and their later albums. John Lennon made his Casino one of his main guitars and used it for the rest of his time with the Beatles and into the 70s. Paul still uses his Casino in concert and studio today. [edit] 1970-presentIn the early 1970s, Epiphone began to manufacture instruments in Japan. From the 1980s, Epiphones were manufactured mainly in Korea but also in Japan by contractors licensed by Gibson. One of these contractors was Samick, which also built instruments under license for other brands and in its own name. Thus, a Korean-era solidbody Epiphone would have been built under license. 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 thought to have sometimes been built with different species of woods from the original Gibson versions; some players speculated that this resulted in the instruments bearing a visual and ergonomic similarity to the Gibson originals but having a slightly different tone, however this has always been suspected to be based on prejudice more than empirical fact. Samick has stopped manufacturing guitars in Korea. In 2002, Gibson opened a factory in Qingdao, China, which manufactures Epiphone guitars exclusively. With few exceptions, Epiphones are now built only in the Qingdao factory. 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: Korea
China
Japan
Czech Republic
Indonesia
Example: U8034853 U = Unsung, 8 = 1998, 03 = March, 4853 = manufacturing number. Several Epiphone guitars have been produced in the United States since 1971. The Epiphone 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. [edit] Imperial Series and ElitistDuring the mid 1990s Epiphone released a series called the Imperial Series. These were remakes of the classic Epiphone archtops of the 1930's and 40's. Each instrument was hand made in the Fujigen Workshop in Japan. This short lived series was discontinued in 1993, after only 42 Emperor's were made. Several other models, including De Luxe, Broadway and Triumph models, were also produced in varying quantities. Epiphone later released a series of guitars called the Elitist series (originally called Elite but changed to avoid confusion with Ovation's Elite model). These were made to very high specifications in Japan but some parts are made in other countries, including the USA and Germany. These guitars cost more than twice as much as Standard Epiphone guitars. Standard Epiphone and Gibson guitars have an open-book headstock, but Elitist models have a more curved style dating back to the Epiphone Masterbilt series of guitars. The Elitist series was discontinued in 2008, with the exception of the Casino model. [edit] Current statusEpiphone 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. Epiphone also manufactures its own line of amplifiers. [edit] Current productsMain article: List of Epiphone products [edit] AmplifiersGibson produced Epiphone amplifiers in the 1960s which were basically copies or variations of Gibson and Fender amplifiers. These amplifiers were of a tube design and some had reverb and tremolo. Gibson decided to launch a new line of Epiphone amplifiers in 2005 with many different models including the "So Cal", "Blues Custom" and the Epiphone Valve Junior. The Valve Hot Rod and Valve Senior were released in 2009. The Valve Hot Rod is a 5w amp just like the Valve Junior, but has a gain and reverb control. The Valve Senior offers 18w of power, with a full eq, gain, volume, reverb, and presence control. [edit] GuitarsThe following guitars are currently made by Epiphone: [edit] Gibson copies
[edit] Dedicated Epiphone models
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. [edit] Discontinued Models
[edit] Players Of EpiphoneMain article: List of Epiphone players [edit] References
[edit] External links
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