Does gibson own epiphone
Epiphone guitars are owned and made by Gibson Brands. Take for example the Gibson Les Paul Custom, which was introduced in It was intended to be the luxury alternative to the standard Les Paul not to be confused with the Les Paul Standard, introduced later that decade that hit the market in Gibson may even prefer to save some instruments only for their most well-heeled customers as they might lose some allure if anyone could play a Les Paul Custom.
For guitarists looking for an affordable alternative to a true Gibson, these Gibson-endorsed inexpensive copies are a great option. CI and SI indicate Indonesian manufacture. The Gibson guitar company acquired Epiphone in , not long after the company had moved from New York to Philadelphia. Although today, Epiphone is probably best known as the affordable foreign-manufactured Gibson, the brand has a long and storied history of its own.
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Like the Casino, there are several key differences between these two to justify the vast gulf in pricing. Their entry-level guitars, aimed at beginners. Finally, Epiphone also produces mid-range to high-end Epiphone exclusive guitars. The guitar has high-end materials to suit its high price tag, including a solid Sitka spruce top and solid figured maple back and sides, Indian rosewood fretboard, traditional hand-scalloped X-bracing, and gold-plated Gotoh Keystone tuners.
Generally speaking, Epiphone guitars can be comfortably divided into three price ranges. Epiphone has remained a subsidiary of Gibson guitars ever since.
There are several key differences between the Chinese Epiphone guitars and their American cousins, most notably in pricing. The factory codes F, J, and T indicate Japanese manufacture. A musical instrument builder by the name of Anastasios Stathopoulos opened a business in in Smyrna, deep in the Ottoman Empire. However, for those willing to acquiesce to a few cost-saving measures, such as the location of the factory, quality of wood, and the name on the headstock, an affordable alternative to the Les Paul Custom is available.
The same goes for the neck of the guitar and its fretboard, although purists will be pleased to learn that modern Epiphone Les Paul Custom guitars feature an ebony fretboard just like the real thing, albeit not a single piece of ebony. That applies to both the broad categories of Gibson guitars, such as Les Pauls, SGs, Explorers, Flying V, and so on, as well as signature instruments, such as the various Zakk Wylde signature guitars that once adorned the Gibson and Epiphone production lines.
So the example above most was manufactured in December in China and was the th guitar off the line in the series. Many Japanese and Korean Epiphone guitars rival their American cousins for build quality. For a start, every inch of the Gibson Les Paul Custom is premium, while the Epiphone features cost-saving measures.
A Gibson Les Paul will be made from solid mahogany, while the Epiphone equivalent will be made from a few pieces of wood glued together in a Les Paul shape.
History of Epiphone guitars: secrets, myths and truths
The Epiphone Les Paul Custom comes with many similar, if slightly cheaper, appointments to the Gibson Les Paul Custom, all with a price tag under a thousand dollars. For serial codes containing only numbers, an eleven digit serial number will be encoded as follows:. Epiphone guitars, generally speaking, are priced according to their country of origin. To somewhat confuse matters, these three guitars also have Chinese-built Epiphone equivalents on the market.
Similarly, the potentiometers and pickup selector on the Gibson model are of higher quality and will be more durable than those in the Epiphone Les Paul.
The Cost of Buying an Epiphone or a Gibson
Fittingly for a company first founded in the Ottoman Empire, Epiphone guitars are made in factories all over the world. In fact, some high-end Epiphone guitars are even better than the lower-tier Gibsons!
This initial run of Chinese Epiphone guitars was supplementary to the main factories in Korea and Japan, intended to provide additional manufacturing capacity for, particularly large orders. Like the earlier comparison between Gibson and Epiphone guitars, this has as much to do with location-based overheads as with materials and construction. A B factory code means the guitar is from the Czech Republic.
Almost all Epiphone guitars are made in the Epiphone Qingdao factory in Qingdao, China, a major city in the Shandong province. Pre-Qingdao Epiphone guitars, as well as many made since can be reliably traced to their country of origin by their serial number. Gibson opened its own factory in Qingdao in , producing mostly Epiphone acoustic guitars, but a dedicated Epiphone factory opened in Epiphone occasionally returned production to the USA throughout its history, usually for a limited run.
The Epiphone brand adorns a wide range of guitars, from low-end Gibson variations to their own unique models. The Masterbilt Frontier also uses Indian laurel, rather than rosewood, for its fretboard material, which has lighter color. At first, the Stathopoulos instrument company produced traditional instruments like the oud and banjo, but in upon seeing increasing demand for guitars in the US, Epi started building acoustic guitars.