History Of The Epiphone Guitar

Epiphone Guitar

The Epiphone guitar was officially registered in 1924, but the actual company started many years earlier. Anastasios Stathopoulo made his first musical instruments in 1873. In 1877, Anastasios took his family to Turkey to start a new life. He then opened a factory in 1890 which made mandolins, violins, lutes and traditional Greek lioutos. In 1893, Anastasios’ first child, Epimanondas, was born. The Stathopoulo family moved once again, this time they moved overseas to the U.S. in New York.

In New York, Anastasios bought a place where he made and sold his instruments on the ground floor while his family lived on the floor above. Business was great for him at that time because it was at the height of the mandolin craze When Anastasios died and his son, Epimanondas, whose nickname was Epi, took over the company in 1915.

In 1917, Epi changed the name of the company to the House Of Stathopoulo and began to change the product line as well. The mandolins that they were making weren’t as popular as they once were, so Epi concentrated on an instrument that was… banjos Banjo production began at the end of World War I and the company became more prosperous than ever..

In 1923, the House of Stathopoulo was very successful and Epi became the president and general manager of the company. The following year, Epi changed the company’s name once again to Epiphone, which was the combination of his nickname “Epi” with the Greek word for sound “phone”.

Finally in 1928, Epi introduced a Recording line of guitars. Epi decided to focus more on selling its guitars. Gibson dominated the marketplace, and Epiphone had no endorsements from musicians. Epiphone released its Masterbilt series in the early 1950s to rival Gibson’s Master Model series, and one of the biggest music industry rivalries was begun.

THE AQUISITION

The competition between Epiphone and Gibson in the 30’s was one of the grandest competitions of the time, and continued until World War II. Epi died of leukemia in 1943, leaving the company in the hands of brothers Orphie and Frixo. While competition with Epiphone continued their competition with Gibson and things looked to be running smoothly, but  the brothers did not have a good relationship.

Frixo sold his share of the business to Orphie. The company continued to go downhill and in 1953, to solve a problem of a strike by the workers in Manhattan, the factory was moved to Philadelphia. Many of the company’s talented craftsmen decided not to go to Philadelphia. The quality of their products declined.

The problems kept on getting worse in the 50’s while the Gibson’s reputation had grown stronger. When Orphie offered their bass department to Gibson for $20,000, they agreed and Epiphone was absorbed by Gibson in 1957. Gibson ended up revamping the whole Epiphone Company.

In 1964, The Beatles discovered Epiphone guitars and John, Paul and George bought some of the Casino models. By 1965, Epiphone guitars were selling very well, became once again one of the top names in guitars.

They began to make almost every style of guitar at a decent price. Epiphone guitars now became quality instruments that were sent to dealers who hadn’t won a contract to sell actual Gibson’s. The Epiphone guitar is still going strong and more popular than ever.