Beneath is a general history of Epiphone
guitars and below that is a current listing of any
auctions of Epiphone guitars on ebay that are not
finalized. When you click on any of the auction links you
will find the ebay site opens in a new window. So you can
continue to browse this page of Epiphone guitars on ebay
while you look for more detail on the Epiphone guitars on
eBay's site.
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer
founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Anastasios
Stathopoulos moved to the United States of America in 1903, and
continued to make his original instruments from Long Island
City in Queens, New York. Anastasios died in 1915, and his son
took over.
In 1928, the company took on the name of the "Epiphone Banjo
Company" and also produced their first guitars. The name
"Epiphone" is a combination of the son's, Epaminondas, nickname
"Epi" and "phone", Greek for "sound". Epi Stathopoulos died in
1943.
Control of the company went to his brothers, who relocated
from New York to Philadelphia. The company was bought out by
Gibson in 1957. Before this, Epiphone's professional archtops,
including the Emperor, Deluxe, Broadway and Triumph were
Gibson's main rival in the archtop market. Aside from
their guitars, Epiphone also made bass guitars, banjos, and
other stringed instruments.
In the early 1970s, Epiphone began to manufacture
instruments in Japan. At least one model, the Epiphone Spirit,
was manufactured in the USA during the early 1980s in the
Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, MI.
USA produced Epiphones of this era bear standard Gibson
serialization and include the "Made in USA" stamp on the back
of the headstock.Headstocks of US models also use the Gibson
headstock shape.
From the 1980s, Epiphones were manufactured mainly in Korea
but also in Japan by contractors licensed by Gibson. One of
these contractors was Samick. These Epiphones were sometimes
built with different tonewoods from the original Gibson
versions, which often resulted in instruments similar to
the Gibson originals but having a slightly different tone. For
example, G-400 SG copies 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 exclusively. Epiphone is now a subsidiary of
Gibson, somewhat like Squier is a subsidiary of
Fender. However Epiphone still maintains its own line of
archtop guitars. Epiphone also manufactures its own line of
amplifiers.
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.The Casino is famous for being
used by The Beatles.
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.
Following is a listing of auctions of epiphone guitars on
ebay.
There is a listing of serial numbers on the wikipedia entry
from where this history came. Epiphone ( Dec. 29, 2008).
