Epiphone Serial Numbers Made In Japan

1. Epiphone Serial Numbers Made In Japan

Charlie, if this has been posted before please delete it or move it. There are 4 distinct 'eras' of Epiphone: A) House of Stathopoulo (1873 - 1957); B) Gibson Kalamazoo (1957 - 1970); C) Japanese (1970 - 1983); D) Korean (1983 - Present); The original Epiphone factory was in New York, when the company was owned and operated by the Stathopoulo family. That was the era of the legendary archtops like the Regent, Broadway, Deluxe, etc.

In 1957, Epiphone was tenuously clinging to existence; the company had been bought out by the C.G. Conn company (best known for band and orchestral instruments), and was all but out of business. Gibson President Ted McCarty (who recently passed away; R.I.P., Ted) negotiated a deal to buy out Epiphone's upright bass business, but when the equipment was moved to Gibson's Kalamazoo factory, McCarty found out that.all. of Epiphone's equipment, tooling, and parts inventory had been included. That led to Gibson building Epiphones in the Gibson factory; the first few years (1958-61), Gibson used up all the old parts, and in the early 60's, used Gibson parts. This worked well for both Gibson and Epiphone, because it allowed music dealers who couldn't get an official Gibson franchise (which were.very. strictly enforced in those days) to get an Epiphone (which had become a quasi-Gibson) franchise instead.

In 1969, Norlin Industries bought the Chicago Musical Instrument company (which owned Gibson at the time), which heralded the 'Dreaded Norlin Era' at Gibson, in which the quality declined greatly. Epiphone production was contracted to companies in Japan in order to cut costs.

The Japanese Epis are good guitars, but they suffered both the 'Made in Japan' and 'Norlin' stigmas; they've always been under-rated as a result. In 1983, around the time that Gibson was bought by a group headed by Henry Juszkiewicz (now President of Gibson USA), Epiphone production was contracted to Korean companies, most notably Samick (of which Epiphone/Gibson owns a significant percentage). With some exceptions, Epiphones are made in Korea to this day. Most Epiphones can be dated fairly accurately by their serial numbers. The exception to this is the Japanese-era guitars; the serial numbering doesn't seem to have followed any sequential pattern from year to year, which makes it.very. difficult to date them accurately. Original Epiphones had a number of different serial numbering schemes, depending on the year.

Gibson-built Epiphones followed the Gibson serial numbering scheme. Korean-made Epiphones have a letter (manufacturer's ID code) and a 7 or 8-digit serial number as follows: First digit (7) or first 2 digits (8): Year of manufacture.

Next 2 digits: Month of manufacture. Last 4 digits: Production sequence number. Epiphone hasn't released particulars of the letter ID codes at this point. A reference to Epiphone serial numbers is available at in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format.

Epiphone Serial Numbers Made In Japan

Epiphone's long friendship with innovator Les Paul dates back to the late '30s and early '40s when Les, working at night at the Epiphone factory on 14th St. In New York City, created one of the world's first solidbody electric guitars, “The Log.” Over the years, Les continued to work closely with Epiphone luthiers reviewing new product ideas and offering suggestions. Now, the Epiphone Les Paul “Tribute” Plus honors our friendship with Les by combining his classic design features with legendary Epiphone quality and value with the added feature of Gibson® USA ’57 classic humbuckers. If you are like most electric guitar players, you would love to have an original 1960 Les Paul. However two things probably stand in your way. First they are almost impossible to find, and second, if you find one the price will be so many thousands of dollars that almost no one can afford to buy it.

Well you are in luck, because the Epiphone Limited Edition 1960 Les Paul Standard V3 is true to the original in design, feel, and sound thanks to the Gibson BurstBucker pickups. I started playing guitar in 1958, so I was actually around when the original 1960 Les Paul came out.