In 1986, Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands, Inc. (2013) / Gibson, Inc. (2024) controlled the Epiphone name. Its 2 lines on record were built at Matsumoku and Samick Korea (Epiphone; city unverified) (Japan and South Korea).[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
A Epiphone guitar from 1986 belongs to whichever era was running on its product line that year. An era is a stretch when the company that controlled the name and the plant that built the line both stayed the same. If you know the line, the table below tells you which version of Epiphone you have. The name dates from 1908no source, 78 years before.
Epiphone Japan: a new era begins under Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands, Inc. (2013) / Gibson, Inc. (2024), built at Matsumoku[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
Epiphone Korea: a new era begins under Gibson Guitar Corp. / Gibson Brands, Inc. (2013) / Gibson, Inc. (2024), built at Samick Korea (Epiphone; city unverified)[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11]
Epiphone Japan: the 1970–1986 era ends (Norlin Corporation (ECL), Matsumoku)[1, 4, 13, 10, 11]
Epiphone Korea: the 1984–1986 era ends (Norlin Corporation (ECL), Samick Korea (Epiphone; city unverified))[1, 4, 13, 11]
Where Epiphone was built in 1986
Matsumoku and Samick Korea (Epiphone; city unverified). See every brand each plant built for, and every plant in the same country:
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 facts it was derived from. A fact marked “no source” has no claim attached yet.