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Who makes Epiphone guitars ?


crust

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I have also seen Mr. CNC in Gibson factory photos [scared] . Handmade isn't what it use to be. The only way to mass produce any guitar now days is Mr. CNC. But Mr. CNC can't assemble. [flapper]

Exactly! A hand carved guitar would have an astronomical price tag and the consistency would be all over the map.

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I've always had mixed emotions on the term "hand made" regardless of the degree CNC is now used.

 

We have custom knifemakers, for example, who craft "hand-made" knives. But they have, or have access to furnaces and sometimes even liquid gasses at very low temperatues; various power tools, etc, jigs for power tools and/or CNC for various parts of the process.

 

Bottom line is that even a one-off of anything nowadays is not what was done 500 years ago but then... even 500 years ago they were working with tools that were relatively sophisticated too.

 

I'm just impressed that we can get instruments from Epi that are aquality that's generally outstanding and apparently constantly improving - as in the pups and electronics. Then figure if you get a $400 Dot, it's manufactured, shipped, wholesale and/or retailed at an incredible price tag for what you get.

 

m

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I've always had mixed emotions on the term "hand made" regardless of the degree CNC is now used.

 

We have custom knifemakers, for example, who craft "hand-made" knives. But they have, or have access to furnaces and sometimes even liquid gasses at very low temperatues; various power tools, etc, jigs for power tools and/or CNC for various parts of the process.

 

Bottom line is that even a one-off of anything nowadays is not what was done 500 years ago but then... even 500 years ago they were working with tools that were relatively sophisticated too.

 

I'm just impressed that we can get instruments from Epi that are aquality that's generally outstanding and apparently constantly improving - as in the pups and electronics. Then figure if you get a $400 Dot, it's manufactured, shipped, wholesale and/or retailed at an incredible price tag for what you get.

 

m

 

M,

we live 1/2 mile from Bear Cutlery, and usually attend the 2x yearly "open house" and B-stock selloff.

the bone handles are hand polished, everything else is automated.

ever tried a Bear knife?

we also live 1 mile from the origional Frost cutlery factory.....all automated too.

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"Les Paul is still our inspiration--how he worked in the Epiphone factory in Manhattan at night with the dream of building a new kind of electric guitar. If there is a better way, we at Epiphone want to discover it. We're always improving our instruments".

 

This statement says a lot about Epiphone's. [thumbup]

Les Paul was an Epiphone Enthusiast too. [thumbup]

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The links above shows pics of 'working employees' in both of their chinese factories

It's japanese or chinese - though the pics are 'international' [lol]

 

http://www.ikebe-gakki.com/web-ikebe/epiphone_GQ-EQ-factory-tour/EQ.html#stock

 

Second ^^ factory, opened around 2008/9, called Epiphone QingDao (EQ)

 

http://www.ikebe-gakki.com/web-ikebe/epiphone_GQ-EQ-factory-tour/GQ.html

 

First ^^ factory, opened in 2002/3, called Gibson QingDao (GQ)

 

 

good stuff here, interesting machinery. Woman workers seem to do a lot of the "hand work". I guess they are better at making things "look nice", then men...lol [biggrin]

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Nonetheless Ted McCarty made the deal (and millions of $) with him at Gibson [flapper]

 

 

"Epiphone" was Les Paul's experimental "platform", the guitar he envisioned was an Epiphone produced instrument. Money talks lol.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 4 months later...

I see my Epiphone guitars have been made in Korea, China and Indonesia. I often wondered to myself "who made this guitar" ? That "someone" is a person who obviously cares a great deal that their work was top notch. I wonder if Epiphone would ever "profile" their employees ? I think it would be interesting to know a little about the persons that make the guitars we all love (and hate), their luthier skills, if they own and play a guitar or 2 they or their friends might have built (can a person making an Epiphone guitar in China afford said Epiphone if they were inclined to obtain a guitar ) ? Just thinking out loud. How about the inspectors and USA set up persons. I wonder how many Epiphones, as recieved from the overseas factories, can't actually be "set up" properly. I wonder what happens to those guitars (if any), and if so, how does the USA set up and inspection person "get back" to the manufacturer, that there was an problem or anomaly . I do love my Epiphones, keep it up inspector #7. [thumbup]

I ordered new online from guitar center in Jan 2013 a 2012 Epiphone G-310 SG if I remember right or the 400 SG but I do know it was made in Indonesia and was the biggest POS I had ever put in my hands, I had picked up a new Epiphone Les Paul special with P-90's in it from Guitar centers store here in vegas for a B-day present for a friend who wanted to learn to play and I tell you what that being a $125 guitar was one of the best setup and awesome guitar's to play it blew me away and I know guitar center didn't set it up because it was still in a closed box, it was made in china. I took the Epi SG to guitar centers store and let them see how messed up it was, they gave me a full refund and I played a ebony 2012 Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro Limited Edition that was on sale for like $350, I took this one out of a factory closed box also, it's got the alnico 2 zebra pups, grover tuners,coil splitting, this is the model that they only made in ebony or wine red,( the real Limited edition model according to Epiphone ) it was made in China and was built with alot of pride and skill,If it had seymour duncan slash alnico 2 zebra pups in it you wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't a Gibson outside of the head stock shape and Epiphone label. Every Epiphone that has been made at the China plant in the past 4 years I have played has been an awesome guitar and every Indonesian has been crap in my experience. Couldn't tell you the guys name that built it at the China factory but he has skills and I think it would be cool to know who he is.

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epiphones have been made by saein co in korea since 1991 they opened a chinese factory in in 2001 owned by the same so they also produce shine guitars starting in 1997 they have also made lower end peavey's , ibanez &b.c. rich guitars for a long time i have lefty sg that is chinse made and it plays very well i had to set it up got it from guitar center so that explains no set up or check over i recieved no truss rod wrench instructions or the original box it came in. they just handed it to me i also own a shine es 335 copy that is a lefty with p-90's in it this guitar sounds and plays very well also bought it used from guitar center for $100.00 when they a=take in in used gear they just hang it on the wall. the guitar center herein okc has some good staff and some really sorry staff that if they sense your not gonna spend 4 grand they just walk away from you and blowyou off i recently bought a marshall used 4x 12 bottom cab for cheap they said it had a blown speaker when i took of the back all the speaker were loose from someone laying it down on it's back and travelling or crankin it really loud i just moved the speakers around an inch re-instaled the screws with a drop of wood glue on em an away i go. they don't take any time inspecting the used gear so you can really make a good steal from time to time if a good manager was in the place every piece of used stuff would be inspected then you can sell it for more$$= more profit but as with most big chain outfits they don't care they just wanna sell you a new les paul for 3 grand and run you out the door. type in saein co and see what you find.

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Every Epiphone that has been made at the China plant in the past 4 years I have played has been an awesome guitar and every Indonesian has been crap in my experience.

 

I have to say my experience has been the opposite regarding China and Indonesia Epi LP's recently so I'm sure they both can make good and bad guitars. My recently bought new online, old stock, 2012 Indonesian Epi Les Paul Std Plus Top Pro has surprisingly flawless quality control and workmanship compared to three recent Chinese made Epi Les Paul Tributes that I tried and sent back in the beginning of this year. Maybe I was unlucky and got into a bad run of Chinese Tributes but all of them had varying degrees of different quality problems and all had one awful thing in common: horrific, non existent fretwork, like playing on sandpaper, high frets etc. It felt like they were just happy to send the guitars out with the best hardware, pickups etc. that they could and skimped on everything else...like QC and even trying to polish or level the frets at all. The first one came broken from shipping so that's not China Epi's fault but the frets were still awful on that one. Just not a good experience with the other two either for what I thought were top of the line Epiphone LP's.

 

Anyway, I'm glad I gave Epi another chance because the 2012 Indonesian Std Plustop Pro is really well built and beautiful. I'd rather have it and upgrade the wiring and pickups than deal with the messy Tributes that cost $$$ more. Again, I may have gotten lucky with this Indonesian LP and unlucky with the Chinese Tributes (3 of them in a row) because the Chinese G400 that I recently tried was also way better QC and put together than the Tributes. (Although, I couldn't handle the big clubby neck and dive on that one).

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Come down to it, the problem with most of the "problem" instruments isn't whence they came, but the fact that they did travel to the store and/or end user.

 

The supposed strength of a local store, whether owned by a huge company or a tiny ma and pa, should be that each guitar they sell should be set up to factory specs - and should be sold with setup included. Period.

 

I've gotten a cupla "mail order" (okay, internet catalog, telephone order) that arrived with horrid setups regardless the company's proclamation they'd been checked - and yet the strings were flat on the frets. I'd also seen the same at the closest guitar store to my relatively isolated community.

 

So... 99 percent of the time I don't so much blame the manufacturer, but the retailer regardless how one made the purchase.

 

The guy in England complaining about checking guitars in a store that had horrid setup, and ditto in the US, folks should consider whether their idea of "proper setup" is factory strings and factory specs, or if it's their own gauge strings and their own preferences. Or - the store didn't do a #@%^ thing after receiving the "lower price" instrument which would make me question their real affinity even to the customer of the higher-priced instrument.

 

m

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Milod is absolutely right on this - in fact, under the threat of internet competition, if high street stores are struggling to compete they need to be on the ball with set ups and customer services otherwise they're going to lose out to the internet guy with small overheads and the gest deals every time.

 

Fender and Gibson set their guitars up to 'factory spec' prior to shipping but, depending on a number of environmental factors, the guitars have often drifted by the time they're unboxed by the dealer. If the guitar doesn't sell quickly they often drift off again depending on the shop conditions. Dialing them back to factory spec is most of the time ten minutes work for someone who knows what they're doing, and shops really should be on top of this. The dealer I work for doesn't handle Gibson / Epi but I unbox a lot of Fenders every week and whatever level they are it's rare they don't need a few minutes tweaking. You get the odd headache guitar for one reason or another but in those cases it's doubly important to get them sorted before trying to sell them. Some of the copy brands out there, I'm a bit more dubious as to whether anyone checked the set up before shipping - we'll still set them up but we don't order twice if they show up with appalling fret work first time round.

 

When you do get a shop with properly set up guitars, you also get a much better impression about how consistant a lot of the brands are once you spend a little time dealing with setup issues and dead strings.

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  • 1 year later...

I see my Epiphone guitars have been made in Korea, China and Indonesia. I often wondered to myself "who made this guitar" ? That "someone" is a person who obviously cares a great deal that their work was top notch. I wonder if Epiphone would ever "profile" their employees ? I think it would be interesting to know a little about the persons that make the guitars we all love (and hate), their luthier skills, if they own and play a guitar or 2 they or their friends might have built (can a person making an Epiphone guitar in China afford said Epiphone if they were inclined to obtain a guitar ) ? Just thinking out loud. How about the inspectors and USA set up persons. I wonder how many Epiphones, as recieved from the overseas factories, can't actually be "set up" properly. I wonder what happens to those guitars (if any), and if so, how does the USA set up and inspection person "get back" to the manufacturer, that there was an problem or anomaly . I do love my Epiphones, keep it up inspector #7. [thumbup]

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I have also seen Mr. CNC in Gibson factory photos [scared] . Handmade isn't what it use to be. The only way to mass produce any guitar now days is Mr. CNC. But Mr. CNC can't assemble. [flapper]

 

Right.

There is of course nothing wrong with CNC manufacture. I would be more concerned about the absence of a CNC in a guitar workshop. Even small workshops with a couple of guys are using CNC today.

 

I operated & programed CNC machines for over 10 years (cutting aluminium, steel, titanium NOT wood). It’s the perfect method for a repeatable process.

 

Just to be clear, all guitars are handmade. CNC machines just produce the component parts.

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Right.

There is of course nothing wrong with CNC manufacture. I would be more concerned about the absence of a CNC in a guitar workshop. Even small workshops with a couple of guys are using CNC today.

 

I operated & programed CNC machines for over 10 years (cutting aluminium, steel, titanium NOT wood). It’s the perfect method for a repeatable process.

 

Just to be clear, all guitars are handmade. CNC machines just produce the component parts.

 

 

agreed

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Had an epiphany Les Paul it was cheap but I thought it sounded pretty good, for the price you can't beat them. I own a Gibson sg, explorer, and Les Paul. I'll put the epiphone up with them, true the action is not as good feeling but as far as tone it sounds fine.

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Any guitar I buy new I immediately restring and reset the action, cause when you go to the music store you see it all, little kids banging on them, people that have never picked up a guitar banging out smoke on the water etc. I take every one I buy all apart and reset everything I can.

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