The name Epiphone has been on guitars since 1908no source. Over that time it has had 4 controlling companies and has been built at 13 places, 10 of them outside the USA. Which version you hold depends on the year and the serial number.
Facts with no start year, not drawn
Pick any bar on the neck. The card shows the dates, the quoted passage behind them and the source, and any rival version of the same date.
Each decade is a fret. The top strips show who controlled the name. The strips below them show where each product line was built, one group per line.
Hatched strips with a country stamp are plants outside the USA. Outlined strips are versions of a date that sources disagree on; they sit in the same place as the version they compete with.
The stamp on a card is the grade of the sources behind the dates, from primary company documents to community posts. Every card shows the passage it rests on.
Every plant on record, overseas ones first, with the product lines each one built. Press play to watch the brand move: lit plants were building that year, faded ones had already been left behind.
Showing every plant on record. Press play to watch Epiphone change hands and move, from 1908 to today.
13 plants, 10 outside the USA
An era is a stretch of one product line where the controlling company and the plant stay the same. These rows are computed from the dated ownership and production facts, never typed in. 21 eras
| Line | Years | Controlled by | Built at | Grade · sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | 1908 – 1920 | Epiphone, Inc. (Stathopoulo family) | no plant on record | communityno source |
| Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | 1920 – 1953 | Epiphone, Inc. (Stathopoulo family) | Epiphone NYC factory | community[17] |
| Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | 1951 – 1957 | Epiphone, Inc. (Stathopoulo family) | Epiphone Philadelphia factory | community[17] |
| Epiphone Kalamazoo | 1957 – 1969 | Chicago Musical Instrument Co. (CMI) | Kalamazoo Parsons St / Eleanor St (Epiphone) | community[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 18, 17] |
| Epiphone Kalamazoo | 1969 – 1970 | Norlin Corporation (ECL) | no plant on record | community[6, 3, 7] |
| Epiphone Japan | 1970 – 1986 | Norlin Corporation (ECL) | Matsumoku JP | community[6, 3, 7, 20, 21] |
| Epiphone Japan | 1986 – 1987 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | Matsumoku JP | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 20, 21] |
| Epiphone Japan | 1987 – 2018 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | no plant on record | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4] |
| Epiphone Japan | 2018 – now | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands parent: KKR-led creditor group (Gibson) | no plant on record | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 14, 15] |
| Epiphone Korea | 1984 – 1986 | Norlin Corporation (ECL) | Samick Korea (Epiphone; city unverified) KR | community[6, 3, 7, 21] |
| Epiphone Korea | 1986 – 2002 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | Samick Korea (Epiphone; city unverified) KR | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 21] |
| Epiphone Korea | 1995 – 2018 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | Other Korean contractors (Epiphone; unverified) KR | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 21] |
| Epiphone Korea | 2018 – now | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands parent: KKR-led creditor group (Gibson) | Other Korean contractors (Epiphone; unverified) KR | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 14, 15, 21] |
| Epiphone China | 2002 – 2018 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | Chinese contract factories for Epiphone (Daewon, Muse, Saein, Zaozhuang Saehan) CN | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 1] |
| Epiphone China | 2004 – 2018 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | Gibson Qingdao CN | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 1] |
| Epiphone China | 2018 – now | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands parent: KKR-led creditor group (Gibson) | Chinese contract factories for Epiphone (Daewon, Muse, Saein, Zaozhuang Saehan) CN | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 14, 15, 1] |
| Epiphone China | 2018 – now | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands parent: KKR-led creditor group (Gibson) | Gibson Qingdao CN | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 14, 15, 1] |
| Epiphone Indonesia | 2000 – 2018 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | no plant on record | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4] |
| Epiphone Indonesia | 2018 – now | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands parent: KKR-led creditor group (Gibson) | no plant on record | community[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 14, 15] |
| Epiphone Japan special models | 1987 – 2018 | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands | Japan special-model builder (Epiphone; FujiGen named generically) JP | unverified[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 21, 23] |
| Epiphone Japan special models | 2018 – now | Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands parent: KKR-led creditor group (Gibson) | Japan special-model builder (Epiphone; FujiGen named generically) JP | unverified[6, 8, 9, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, 14, 15, 21, 23] |
Notable models by year introduced, and what a part was made of on a line and when that changed.
| Year | Model | Line | Grade · sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Broadway · archtop | Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | unverified[17] |
| 1931 | Triumph · archtop | Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | unverified[17] |
| 1931 | Deluxe · archtop | Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | unverified[17] |
| 1936 | Emperor · archtop | Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | unverified[17] |
| 1942 | FT-79 (New York) · acoustic | Epiphone New York/Philadelphia | community[19] |
| 1958 | Texan · acoustic | Epiphone Kalamazoo | unverified[19] |
| 1959 | Rivoli · bass | Epiphone Kalamazoo | community[33] |
| 1970 | 5102T / EA-250 · electric | Epiphone Japan | community[20] |
| 2004 | Masterbilt · acoustic | Epiphone China | unverified[17] |
Pick the year your Epiphone was built to see who owned the name and which plant built each line that year.
Every numbered marker on this page points here: the document, its grade and the passages relied on. An era is computed, so it cites the ownership and production facts it was derived from. A fact marked “no source” has no claim attached yet.