For years, Walter Carter was the in-house historian at Gibson Guitars, before serving a similar function for well-known vintage guitar dealer George Gruhn. He has a new book out this month published by Backbeat Books, called The Epiphone Guitar Book: A Complete History of Epiphone Guitars. Its slick, glossy, 160-pages are heavily illustrated, with many photos in color.
With a legacy dating back to the 1870s and Greek luthier Anastasios Stathopoulos, the Epiphone brand name takes its name from two components — the nickname of Anastasios’ son, Epaminondas, and the word “phone,” which, in the 1920s when the brand Epiphone was launched, competed with the word “radio” to symbolize high-tech and modernity. (See also: Gramophone, the Radio Flyer, etc.)
Epiphone has had several twists and turns in its history. Until the mid-1950s, it competed neck and neck (pardon the pun) with Gibson for sales of arch-top jazz guitars. Ted McCarty, who built up Gibson as a music instrument powerhouse in the mid-2oth century, said that “when I came to Gibson, the biggest competition we had was Epiphone.” But the death of Epi in 1943, followed by squabbles among the surviving Stathopoulos family during the following decade, caused the value of their business to plummet. McCarty acquired Epiphone for Gibson’s parent company at a bargain rate, and production of Epiphone guitars switched in-house to Gibson’s Kalamazoo, MI plant, during the 1960s. The new brand name gave Gibson certain advantages: they could protect the exclusive arrangements their dealers had with Gibson, but sell Epiphone to nearby music dealers, positioning it as a slightly lower brand — the Buick or Oldsmobile to Gibson’s Cadillac.
In the mid-1960s, Epiphone models were played by a little-known cult act called the Beatles — “Everybody but Ringo,” as Carter told me. McCartney played an Epiphone Texan acoustic on “Yesterday,” George Harrison played his Epiphone Casino on Sgt. Pepper, and John Lennon played his own Casino on the rooftop of Apple Records during their legendary last concert at the conclusion of Let It Be.
In the early 1970s, Gibson sent production of Epiphone guitars overseas. Today, it exists, in part, as an entry-level brand for new guitarists (and as such, there are likely more Epiphones in circulation than Gibsons) and there’s some controversy between those who own traditional made-in-America Gibson guitars such as the Les Paul, and those who own Les Pauls and other models also sold under the Epiphone name.
Carter discusses all that and much more in our 21-minute interview. Click here to listen:
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This is great! I’m a Guild guitar fan. And Al Dronge, founder of Guild, began his company in Epiphone’s old Manhattan factory. It was 1952. Epiphone moved to Philadelphia because of labor problems. Dronge and his partner moved in.
And their early guitars shared some design features with the Epiphones.
For the past few decades Epiphone has been the economy brand of Gibson.
That’s a shame because before Gibson acquired it, Epiphone had a long and storied history of building state-of-the-art guitars.
some of the Epiphones aren’t that low end and they are still great music makers go check out the gibson site
I don’t know why my comment vanished. I’ll try again.
I look forward to this book. I am a Guild guitar fan. And Epiphone was instrumental (pardon the pun) in the Guild Guitar company being born.
Epiphone had been building its guitars in Manhattan. But it moved to Philadelphia in the early 1950′s because of labor problems. When Epiphone moved out – Avram “Al” Dronge, founder of Guild, moved into its old factory and began the Guild brand.
Today, Epiphone has been owned by Gibson for decades. It is thought of mainly as Gibson’s economy line. But as the author points out, their guitars have a long and storied history of building state of the art instruments.
It’s an ironic twist that Guild is now owned by Fender, Gibson’s long-time arch-rival.
Guild Bluesbird: One of the greatest, unappreciated pieces there is. Think slightly larger, chambered Les Paul. Beautiful construction & great tone. I never could figure out why there weren’t more of them out there.
I happen to own an Epi 12-string, which I purchased in about 1964. So what? Yeah, so what, but I think I’ll buy the book.
Electric or acoustic? The 335-ish-looking 12-string Epiphone Riviera looked like an interesting guitar (there’s a photo of one in Carter’s book). I bet the mini-humbuckers on it sounded better with the 12-strings than the full-size humbuckers on the Gibson ES-335-12.
Ed, if you thought that, you’d be right. The Epiphone Riviera 12 strings are a nicer sounding, more tonally versatile guitar than the Gibson 335 equivalent, chiefly due to the pickups.
If I recall correctly, the Riviera also had a slightly thinner top which aided resonance.
If I just had to choose only one 1930s prewar archtop guitar, it’d be an Epiphone.
(D’Angelicos are far too dear. Strombergs sound great but blow apart.)
Walter Carter is a treasure. Thanks for this.
Acoustic, Ed.
Fred.
I happen to own an Epi Riviera in tobacco sunburst that I bought new in ’65. So what? Yeah, it still feels like an old friend when I pick it up to play it. Still sounds good to when I run it through a Fender Blues Deluxe. Just sayin’. I might have to pick up the book too.
I can’t play any more, a condition called ‘trigger finger’, a type of arthritis. No big problem accept fingering a fret. I try to play a C, it comes out more like an F.
‘except’, that is
two musicians have come out with a new toy that fingers the chords for you, I just saw it on Huckabees show the other night, works real well and they mentioned its use for those with disabiling issues
I’ve only three acoustics. A rosewood D-16 and mahogany D-18 Martins from the early 90s. The third is a late 70s Japanese laminated Epiphone flattop that I bought second hand.
You know which one I like of the three? Yep, that Japanese Epi. Great sound and very playable.
Wasn’t Epiphone a leader in the making of the curved “plastic” backed guitars in the early 70s? I was always intrigued about that innovation which made hella sense in a time people were toting guitars around constantly.
You’re thinking of Ovation. Nice playing acoustics with rounded fiberglass bodies. Didn’t catch on I’m convinced because they slid off your lap when you played them sitting down.
I always thought Ovation didn’t go furher because you need a fairly flat stomach to be comfortable with it. That rounded back competes with a big belly for lap space. Just an observation.
Bought an Ovation mostly due to the fact it didn’t dig me in the ribs when I play seated. Another plus was the pinless bridge that allows for quick replacement of a snapped string. As for the problem with them sliding off your lap (actually your thigh); a 2″ x 4″ ovaled piece of black skateboard tape ensures it stays put. And if you contact the factory they’ll send you a piece to keep your guitar in place.
OOPS! Forgot the third reason: Same scale lenght as my Stratocasters. Watched some other musicians have problems when they switched guitars in a set.
Ah! Thanks. Memory gets tricky after all these yrrrs.
Another Ovation innovation was that instead of a single sound hole or twin F-holes, they hid several holes within decorative filigrees near the top of the body. A neat idea, but it made the instrument look rather bare … even “wrong” at first glance. This could’ve contributed to the guitar’s failure to catch on.
My very first guitar, well, the first one I bought. My dad bought a $15 nylon stringed Spanish guitar when I was 13 and didn’t want to spend any more until I showed him I was “serious.” Sigh.
However, the neck was too narrow and the frets were worn. I traded it in for an Ovation Glen Campbell (non-electric) that I still have today. @BlogDog, what that the brand you were thinking of? Ovation? They’re still made in New Hartford, CT, on the banks of the Farmington River. And it wasn’t for ‘toting guitars around.’ The sound bounced around internally and came out brilliant and clear. The beauty is now, more than 40 years later, it’s still brilliant and beautiful. And it’s a shallow-backed model, not the full depth.
I’ll have to pick up the book, too. I’ll listen to the podcast tomorrow morning on my stinkin’ one-hour-plus commute.
Thanks, Ed.
That’s Lennon’s Epiphone Casino all over Day Tripper, The White Album, and On Let It Be, Abbey Road and probably some of his solo stuff. He scraped the finish off of it ’cause he said it made the tone better. You can also spot one pictured on the Rolling Stones’ High Tide & Green Grass album.
An ES 330 without the wood reinforcement net running down the center of the body. ES I think, stood for ‘Epiphone Style’…I think.
P.Aaron -
I believe ES stands for “Electric Spanish.”
ES stood for Electro Spanish.
Cheers,
I had a friend back in the early 70′s that had an Epiphone acoustic dreadnought. Great sounding guitar and I believe it was one of the early Japanese made models. It wasn’t a Martin or a Guild or a Gibson Sunburst but still a good playing instrument.
Before all that silly electric stuff, Epiphone made superb archtop guitars and banjos too. And long before that, they made staggeringly beautiful bouzoukia in the orignal 3-course configuration. Athansios and Epaninondas both well understood both the building of acoustic instruments, and the selection and use of fine materials. The decline of Epiphone in the 1940s was a tragedy, but their previous accomplishments carved them out an impregnable position in the history of American instrument building.
Gibson J-55. Heaven.
When the Beatles played live as a band, the guitars most closely associated with them were George’s Gretch and John’s Rickenbacher, as seen in many videos. Paul can be seen playing his Epiphone acoustic when he performed “Yesterday” on the Ed Sullivan Show. Except for Paul exchanging his Hofner bass for the acoustic guitar in that case, the Beatles didn’t switch instruments on stage as so many do now. Just a year later George’s Ricky 12 string electric revolutionized the “folk-rock” sound of the Byrds.
I would say that overall Epiphone instruments were studio instruments for the Beatles.
great piece; book sounds great.
On the Beatles’ Casinos: story is while they were guruuuving with Sexy Sadie Maharishi in India, Donovan convinced John and George to sand the sunburst finish off their Epiphone Casinos cuz they would sound better…. that’s why John’s is blond on top of Abbey Road studio, but it was the same sunburst he played in concert and studio for three years before.. George’s son still has his, I think….
PS: for axe-heads, pretty interesting history with photos:
http://psychedelic-rocknroll.blogspot.com/2009/03/epiphone-casino-lennon-gibson-es-335.html
When I was a teenager, I thought the company’s name was pronounced similar to “epiphany,” as a bit of corporate wordplay. I might have been overthinking things.