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Epiphone continued to grow and wanted even more of the market share. In 1935, Epiphone introduced the Electar Series to compete with Rickenbacker's electric guitars. By the time 1937 arrived, Epiphone's sales had doubled. The rest of the 30's continued with Epiphone and Gibson competing against each other and both companies introduced similar types of Hawaiian guitars.
In 2008, the Epiphone guitar is still going strong and more popular than ever. Included in their recent line up is of course the great Les Paul guitars and also signature guitars from some of the greatest guitarists ever. Some of the artists immortalized with these guitars are John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Slash, BB King, Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde and Nikki Sixx.
Around this time, Epiphone was one of the top guitars in the world and some of the best musicians in the world were playing them. In fact Epi would open up his display cases on Saturday afternoons and let these famous musicians play the guitars.
A man by the name of Anastasios Stathopoulo began making his first musical instruments in 1873. In 1877, Anastasios and his family moved to Turkey to start a new life. By 1890 he had opened a factory, which made violins, mandolins, lutes and traditional Greek lioutos. In 1893, Anastasios' wife Marianthe, gave birth to their first child Epimanondas. By 1903, the Stathopoulo family was on the move once again. This time they moved overseas to the U.S. in a lower Manhattan neighborhood of New York
By 1983, production costs kept going up so Epiphone moved to Korea. Around this time, David Berryman, Henry Juszkiewicz and Gary Zebrowski purchased Gibson. Although Gibson was their main priority, Juszkiewicz saw potential in Epiphone and soon went out to Korea to figure out what to do. Soon the Epiphone guitar was selling well again.
In 1943, Epi passed away and left his brothers Orphie and Frixo to run the business. With Orphie looking after the financial part and Frixo looking after the mechanical part, Epiphone continued to compete with Gibson and things looked to be running smoothly. By 1948 this would be different. Orphie and Frixo weren't getting along and Frixo sold his share of the business to Orphie. The company continued to go downhill and in 1953, to solve a problem of a strike by the workers in Manhattan, the factory was moved to Philadelphia. Many of the company's talented craftsmen decided not to go to Philly and the result was a decline in the quality of their products.
The size war didn't stop there because in 1936 Epiphone produced wider versions of their Broadway, De Luxe and Triumph models by a whole inch to make them 3/8" wider than the Gibson's.
With the success of Epiphone's Recording Series banjos, Epiphone bought out the Favoran banjo company in 1925, to keep up with the demand. The sales of these banjos were so great and Epiphone's name was known so much for them, Epi changed the name of the company to the Epiphone Banjo Company in 1928.
Finally in 1928, Epi introduced a Recording line of guitars, mostly made of carved tops and a combination of spruce and laminated maple. The following year was the stock market crash of 1929 and the banjos that once sold so well were now rapidly going downhill. Epi decided that the company should focus more on selling its guitars and the Gibson Company was their main competitor.
In 1964, The Beatles discovered Epiphone guitars and John, Paul and George bought some of the Casino models. By 1965, Epiphone guitars were selling very well again, accounting for 20% of the total units shipped from their Kalamazoo factory. Epiphone was once again one of the top names in guitars.
The problems kept on getting worse in the 50's while the Gibson Company were getting stronger. Orphie called Gibson's general manager Ted McCarty and asked him if he would like to buy the Epiphone bass business for $20,000. McCarty agreed and Epiphone was taken over by Gibson in 1957. Initially Gibson had planned just to take control of the upright bass business but ended up revamping the whole Epiphone Company. In 1958, Gibson released a whole new line of acoustic and electric guitars and moved the production of these instruments to their own factory in Kalamazoo Michigan.
In 1917, Epi changed the name of the company to the House Of Stathopoulo and began to change the product line as well. The mandolins that they were making weren't as popular as they once were, so Epi concentrated on an instrument that was... banjos. He also got his first ever patent for banjo construction at this time.
The competition between Epiphone and Gibson in the 30's was very intense. In 1934 Gibson increased the body width of one of their existing models to compete directly with the Epiphone Masterbuilt guitar. The next year Epiphone returned the favor by releasing their Emperor model, which had an even wider body. They also created quite the buzz by advertising the new Emperor with posters of a half naked model playing the guitar.
This would continue until the end of the 60's, when foreign guitar companies started to produce cheaper models that were often very similar to the American designs. This cut into the sales of the Epiphone and Gibson guitars and the company decided to give the Gibson line more attention. This then led to moving the production of the Epiphone's to Japan in 1970.
In New York, Anastasios bought a place where he made and sold his instruments on the ground floor while his family lived on the floor above. Business was great for him at that time because it was at the height of the mandolin craze. Anastasios began marking his instruments with an "A. Stathopoulo, manufacturer-repairer of all kinds of musical instruments" and built his company a warehouse.
The Epiphone guitar officially got its name for the first time when it was registered in 1924. The actual company got its start many years earlier, so let's go back a bit further to see how it began.
In 2002, Gibson luthier Mike Voltz is moved over to Epiphone to take care of their acoustic guitar production and marketing. Voltz ended up reviving their acoustics with the new range of Masterbilt guitars. The demand for Epiphone guitars grew so much that in 2003 they opened a factory in China strictly for Epiphone. In 2005, Epiphone reintroduced Paul McCartney's 1964 USA Texan guitar.
The 90's ended up being a huge decade for Epiphone. They began to make almost every style of guitar at a decent price. They also opened up Epiphone's own office separate from Gibson, to provide a better relationship with their products and workers instead of the long distance communication they had in the past. The 90's also was the release of Signature models for Noel Gallagher, John Lennon and John Lee Hooker.
History Of The Epiphone Guitar
In 1915, Anastasios Stathopoulo died, leaving his son Epimanondas in charge. Epimanondas, whose nickname was Epi, was 22 years old when he took over the business. Epi turned out to be a great luthier and businessman.
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