Epiphone Guitars

Epiphone 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.　In the early 1970s, Epiphone began to manufacture instruments in Japan. From the 1980s, Epiphones were manufactured mainly in Korea and in 2002, Gibson opened a factory in Qingdao, China, which manufactures Epiphone guitars exclusively with few exceptions.

The name “Epiphone” is a combination of proprietor Epaminondas Stathopoulo’s nickname “Epi” and “phone”, Greek for “voice”.