Epiphone Guitars

Epi Stathopoulo was Epiphone's founder. He started making jazz guitars when everyone else was playing mandolins and banjos. He started guitar production and got into making guitars. At 24 Stathopoulo got a patent for a truss rod design that would change the way guitars are made. The extension truss rod design, the first pick-up with individual pole pieces, and the Tonexpressor - the precursor to the modern day "wah-wah" pedal.

Epiphone today is known for high quality lower cost versions of the Gibson line. For instance their Dot Studio is based upon the Gibson 335 but at a much lower cost. Of course it’s not a 335 but does have a great semi-hollow body tone very similar to that of the original.

The company was started in the late 1800’s in Turkey by Anastasios Stathopoulo. At the time he made violins, lutes, and other stringed instruments. Epaminondas took over the business in 1915. Epaminondas is where ‘EPI’ came from. In the mid 1920’s the company was called ‘House of Stathopoulo. They mainly manufactured banjos. Around 1930 or so the name changed again to the Epiphone Banjo Company, They started making archtop acoustic guitars in the late 20’s. In the 30’s they made their Master built line which were arched top acoustics with the classic ‘f’ holes. It was in 1935 that they again changed their name to Epiphone Inc.

At this time they where competing with Gibson and had started manufacturing electric archtop (hollow body) guitars and amplifiers. This original series of guitars and amps where called ‘Electraphone’ but was later shorten to ‘Electar’. The guitar amps where designed by Nat Daniels (Danelectro Founder) while the guitars where non-cutaway archtops. Epiphone also made lap-steel guitars which where very popular at the time.

By the early 40’s there where three main electric models: the Century, Coronet and the Zephyr. These guitars where used by jazz guitarist who needed more volume to keep up with some of the larger bands especially. These guitars, as with all archtop electrics at the time, had feedback problems which where caused by the guitar archtop resonating from the amplifier. They where basically hollow body acoustic guitars with a simple single coil pickup attached to them. There wasn’t any internal bracing so feedback would happen if the amp was too loud. Solid body guitars haven’t yet been invented so there was a great need to create a louder more powerful pickup that would give the guitar more volume without feeding back.

Many of the earlier electric archtops came with large oval shaped pickups which would later be modified to become the first pickup with adjustable pole pieces. The adjustable pole pieces gave the guitar a more balanced sound. This was achieved by moving the metal rods (poles) closer or further away from the strings. Depending upon the pickup design each string would put out a different amount. The poles would be used to even out this difference in volume so one string wouldn’t be louder than another string.

In 1948 made its first single cut-away hollow body electric (arched top). These where made from the same acoustic archtop versions, the Emperor, and the DeLuxe. Later in 1949 these guitars used the new Epiphone ‘Tone Spectrum’ pickups.

The 50’s found Epiphone trying to keep up with the times. Especially with Gibson and Fender. They experimented with solid body guitars but with no production models. They introduced there first archtop with the DeArmond pickup which was one of the last models Epiphone put out as an independent guitar manufacturer. Gibson purchased Epiphone in 1958 and moved the company to Kalamazoo Michigan. They added solid body electrics to the Epiphone line as well as dual pickups on the archtop models. The solid body guitars where very similar to the Gibson single and double cut away designs. The one most distinguishable part of the new Gibson made Epiphones is that they had neck set-in to the body as opposed to glued in.

Gibson also reworked the earlier Epi archtop models and created ‘Thinline’ models. These Thinline models were sometimes more that half as thick (body depth) as the originals. This is what gave rise to the ES-335 and Century models. This body design gave the electrics more volume before feedback yet keeping the sound closer to the acoustic versions. P-90 single coil pickups (Gibson designed) where put on these earlier Thinlines (Sheraton models) as where the humbuckers in the late 50’s. The humbucker is what really gave these early hollowbody electrics there start. They a lot more output than any single coil pickup.

One thing you may have noticed about many of the earlier Epi guitars is the headstock. There where quite a number of different styles and types used. Some of the major changes from Gibson where as follows:

1958 – Century Archtop was reworked into a Thinline model with a single P90 pickup

1959 – The Sheraton Thinline was introduced with dual humbuckers, later with double cutaway. Solid body Electrics became popular. The Crestwood model reworked with a more rounded body and ‘ New York’ pickups. Also in 59 a new model, the Wilshire, was added. This was basically a Coronet with two P90 pickups.

1960 – The Olympic model, a single cutaway, which came with either one or two pickups. Some of the models had the newly designed Flat-spring vibrato.

1961 – The Maestro vibrato was used. The Sorrento a Thinline double cutaway was introduced. It had two mini-Gibson-Designed-Humbuckers.

It’s worth noting here that the Thinline guitars where becoming very popular that Paul McCartney used the Casino model in the early Beatle recordings. You can see some photos of the band using Epiphones and most notably was the album ‘Revolver’.