Epiphone
Epiphone has been an American trademark for plucked instruments since 1928 . By 1957, Epiphone was an independent company, which since the 1930s quality especially for its range of archtop - guitars was known. In 1957, Epiphone was affiliated with the competing musical instrument manufacturer Gibson Guitar Corporation . Since then, Epiphone has been a subsidiary and brand of Gibson, under which guitars in the lower to medium price segment are primarily offered.
Company history
Epiphone as an independent company
The history of Epiphones goes back to the 1870s, when the Greek-born musical instrument maker Anastasios Stathopoulo began making violins and Greek lutes in the Ottoman city of Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey ) . In 1893 his son Epaminondas, later called "Epi" for short, was born there, who later gave the company Epiphone its name. In 1903, Anastasios emigrated with his family to the USA and initially settled in the New York borough of Queens . In 1907 the family moved to downtown Manhattan . There he continued to make musical instruments and expanded his range to include the mandolins, which were in great demand at the time . After Anastasio's death in 1915, the company was taken over by the son Epaminondas "Epi" Stathopoulo, who initially named the company House of Stathopoulo . After the First World War , the company program was expanded to include banjos , and in 1928 the company name was changed accordingly to Epiphone Banjo Company .
In 1928, Epiphone began making guitars that would become the company's flagship product during the 1930s. The first guitar model was an archtop - acoustic guitar with a round sound hole , followed by several models with sound holes in the for archtop since 1923 typical guitars f shape. In 1935 the company's name was changed to Epiphone, Inc. Epiphone guitars with model names such as Coronet , Zephyr and Century had become serious competition for the guitars of the market leader Gibson Guitar Corporation . In the mid-1930s, the two companies tried for a while to surpass each other with the body sizes of their acoustic archtop guitars. The results of this competition were Epiphones top model Zephyr Emperor Regent with the unusually large body width of 18½ inches (about 47 cm) and the Super 400 model introduced by Gibson in 1934 with an 18 inch (about 46 cm) wide body. Both the great Gibson guitar models and the large-format Epiphone- archtop -Akustikgitarren with challenging model names like Emperor and Triumph were at that time by many guitarists in jazz - big bands played. In the second half of the 1930s, the company presented its first electrically amplifiable guitar models with pickups and its own range of guitar amplifiers with the model name Electraphone .
When Epaminondas "Epi" Stathopoulo died of leukemia in 1943 , his brothers Orphie and Frixo took over the company, and Epiphone continued to produce successful acoustic and electric guitars through the 1940s. Epiphone's market success collapsed in 1951 when a strike in New York City interrupted the company's production for four months. In response, Epiphone left New York and moved to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania .
Epiphone as a Gibson subsidiary
The death of Frixo Stathopoulo in 1957 also meant the end of independence for the Epiphone company. In the same year, made possible by its board member Orphie Stathopoulo, the Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) group, to which Gibson also belonged, bought Epiphone including its product portfolio. The purchase price was US $ 20,000. The original motive for the purchase was the Group's interest in Epiphones double bass models, their market share and the means of production required for the manufacture of string instruments . However, shortly thereafter, Gibson managing director Ted McCarty decided to keep the entire Epiphone product range and thus also the brand. Corporate headquarters were relocated to Gibson's Kalamazoo , Michigan facility, and the Epiphone branded musical instruments became a subsidiary of the Gibson brand as a by-product line. As early as 1958, Epiphone appeared as a Gibson subsidiary with a product range expanded to include several acoustic and electric guitar models. The brand's new top models were the Sheraton, introduced in the same year, and a slightly modified version of the Emperor, both electrically amplifiable semi-resonant guitars with a flat body.
In the first half of the 1960s, Epiphone branded musical instruments made up about a third of Gibson's total production. After the Norlin Company took over Gibson in December 1969, the 14% share of sales made by Epiphone models in Gibson's total sales was found to be insufficient, and the production of the brand's instruments was relocated to Japan and Korea in 1970. Epiphone is now a subsidiary of Gibson Guitar Corporation , which produces musical instruments in several, mostly Asian countries, and sells them worldwide.
The Epiphone product range
Epiphone's current product range includes a wide range of acoustic and electrically amplifiable plucked instruments. These include acoustic guitars in various designs, semi and full resonance electric guitars, solid body electric guitars, acoustic bass guitars and electric basses . The company also manufactures mandolins, resonator guitars and ukuleles . Many of the plucked instruments offered by Epiphone are cheaper, licensed copies of the original models from the parent company Gibson. Various guitar amplifiers in transistor and tube design are available for electrical instrument amplification . The product range also includes various accessories for playing ( picks , shoulder straps, instrument cables , metronomes ) and for storing plucked instruments - cases, bags ( gigbags ), tripods and wall hangers.
Epiphone instruments in music
Some of the most famous musicians who used Epiphone guitars include John Lennon , George Harrison and Paul McCartney . The three Beatles members bought the same Epiphone model in 1964 (McCartney) and 1966 (Lennon, Harrison), the Epiphone Casino thinline electric guitar (a copy of the Gibson model ES-330 ). Lennon and Harrison played this guitar, among other things, in the last live performances of the Beatles in 1966 and on the studio album Revolver , released that year . In the late phase of the Beatles and during his subsequent solo career, John Lennon in particular mainly used his casino , which he had modified according to his own needs. At the end of the 1990s, Epiphone Lennon dedicated a special model, the Casino Revolution ; so named after the Beatles piece Revolution 1 on the 1968 album The Beatles , on which the guitar can be heard in an outstanding way. The Epiphone Casino Revolution is modeled on Lennon's modified guitar in every detail. Another notable player on Epiphone guitars was blues guitarist John Lee Hooker . In the later years of his career, Hooker preferred to play the semi-resonance model Epiphone Sheraton and had himself featured on the cover of several of his music albums , including the albums Mr. Lucky (1991) and Boom Boom (1992). Among the younger guitarists who play Epiphone instruments is Noel Gallagher of the Britpop band Oasis . Gallagher plays, among other things, a signature model of the Sheraton , decorated with eye-catching Union Jack graphics.
literature
- Tony Bacon: Guitar classics - all models and manufacturers . Premio Verlag 2007. ISBN 978-3-86706-050-9
- Tony Bacon, Dave Hunter: Totally Guitar - the Definitive Guide (Guitar Encyclopedia, English). Backbeat Books, London 2004. ISBN 1-871547-81-4
- George Gruhn & Walter Carter: Electric Guitars and Basses . Presse Projekt Verlag, Bergkirchen 1999. ISBN 3-932275-04-7
- Dave Hunter, Deirdre Cartwright: Guitar Facts - The Essential Reference Guide . Backbeat UK / Outline Press 2006, ISBN 978-1-87154-778-8
Web links
- Official Epiphone website (accessed Feb. 18, 2013)
Individual evidence
- ^ Tony Bacon, Paul Day: The Ultimate Guitar Book. Edited by Nigel Osborne, Dorling Kindersley, London / New York / Stuttgart 1991; Reprint 1993, ISBN 0-86318-640-8 , p. 34.
- ↑ a b c Bacon / Hunter: Totally Guitar , p. 334
- ↑ a b c d Epiphone company history ( memento from July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on epiphone.com
- ↑ a b c Hunter / Cartwright: Guitar Facts - The Essential Reference Guide , p. 15 ff.
- ↑ Gruhn / Carter: Electric Guitars and Basses, p. 85
- ↑ Gruhn / Carter: Electric Guitars and Basses, p. 83
- ↑ a b Gruhn / Carter: Electric Guitars and Basses, p. 216
- ↑ Gruhn / Carter: Electric Guitars and Basses, p. 87
- ↑ Gruhn / Carter: Electric Guitars and Basses, p. 217
- ↑ Product range on the Epiphone website (English)
- ^ Hunter / Cartwright: Guitar Facts - The Essential Reference Guide , p. 16
- ↑ Hunter / Cartwright: Guitar Facts - The Essential Reference Guide , p. 17
- ↑ Illustration of the album cover by Mr. Lucky on the review page for the album from allmusic.com
- ↑ Bacon / Hunter: Totally Guitar , p. 343 f.