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jerrymac

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About jerrymac

  • Birthday 06/01/1951

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  1. Here's what Blue Book says: "...available in Natural or Vintage Sunburst finishes, mfg. 1982-1992 (as Emperor), 1993-94 (as Emperor II), 1995-current (Joe Pass Emperor II) . In 1994, Heritage Cherry Sunburst was introduced. In 1995, silk-screened Joe Pass signature added to pickguard. In 1996, select Spruce top replaced laminate maple top; Metallic Gold and Wine Red finishes were introduced. In 2000, Metallic Gold and Wine Red finishes disc." They don't distinguish the MIJ Emperors from the MIKs, which explains the 1982-1992. I always thought Joe Pass became an Epiphone endorser in September of 1993, so I was surprised by the 1991 ads with him. I just checked and found the origin of the confusion. Joe wrote a letter in September 1993 stating: "I endorse Epiphone Emperor for Gibson but play ES175 they made for me last year - a great guitar." There's no mention of when he started endorsing the Emperor in the letter, but I guess people assumed that the letter corresponded with his endorsement. Here's an actual scan of the letter: Hope this helps you out. Thanks, and take care.
  2. Yep, that looks like a 1999 Spruce top to me. "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes
  3. Sure thing, but no guarantees. Actually, I was trying to tell from the photo of the guitar you posted, but there's not enough detail to distinguish the grain pattern. Spruce is the most common top on an acoustic guitar, and typically it has straight line grain pattern like this: Maple is usually not that uniformly straight grained: So if you can get a good photo of the grain, we'll take a look at it and see if we can figure it out (no pun intended).
  4. 57 CH G are the standard PAF style pickups used on Korean Dots. F & R = front and rear. There was also a 57 HOT-G used for LP bridge pickups. The CH indicates chrome covers (I think). Honestly, I don't see the problem with the serial #, 00 = 2000, 04 = April, 0006 = guitar #6 that month. Samick declared bankruptcy around 1996, and Epiphone subcontracted with many Korean manufacturers to handle their needs. Even the major factories like Unsung, Peerless & Saien could not handle the volume, at one point Epiphone was the largest selling brand and Samick made over half of the guitars in the world (I think they still do). The fact that there's no factory code might just indicate that it was made by one of the other Korean factories Epiphone would use on occasion.
  5. Here's a quick rundown of the Korean Emperors as I understand it: Prior to 1993, it was just called the Emperor. Joe Pass endorsed the Emperor in 1993 (September I believe), moved the switch moved from the lower horn to the upper bout and it became the Emperor II. Joe died in 1994, and in 1995 the Joe Pass signature was added to the pickguard & TRC and it officially became the Joe Pass Emperor II. An original Emperor should have the switch on the horn, so we know yours is an Emperor II. Maybe it's a really early Emperor II, possibly manufactured before the Emperor II was announced in 1993. I'm sure Epiphone had anticipated the endorsement and wanted to have the new model ready to ship when the announcement was made. And as far as the signature, I wouldn't be surprised if Epiphone upgraded their existing inventory with the new pigkguards to make them current. It wouldn't have been difficult. Here's a good way to decipher the clues. The original Emperor IIs had maple tops, they changed to spruce tops in 1996. My guess is that JP wanted spruce but they decided to use up the leftover maple Emperor bodies. If yours has a maple top, it's one of those crossover models. If it's a spruce top, you're serial # makes no sense at all. We tend to think of the serial # as an absolute, at least I do. A guitar isn't made on a particular day, and a production run of Emperor bodies might have taken months to finish. And what started off as an Emperor might have ended up an Emperor II. And that run could have supplied Epiphone for a couple of years. Just to make things more confusing, and just to demonstrate that things are not always as they seem, look at this interesting ad that is on the excellent Epiphone Wiki page: This wording of this as implies that Joe Pass was still alive, and it's an original Emperor (note switch) with a signature pickguard. I assume this was a really early ad, and they wanted to sell off the original Emperors before rolling out the Emperor IIs. I don't think I've ever seen an Emperor with that particular signature pickguard.
  6. Thanks, but I'm getting so old I think it actually stands for "Mack Grand-Daddy"! The effort you've put into EpiWiki is much appreciated.
  7. Absolutely, the distributor in Japan handled American Gibsons and Korean Epis in addition to MIJ Epis & Orvilles. I was only addressing the fact that it wasn't MIJ as the OP suggested. FYI, the 1998 Epiphone on line catalog did list Alder / Mahagony: LP-100 Studio Features & Benefits Scale Nut Length: 24.75" Nut Wide: 1.68" Specifications Pickups 2 Humbuckers Hardware Chrome Scale/Nut width 24.75" / 1.68" Neck Joint Bolt Neck Material Mahogany Fingerboard/Inlay RW / Dot Body Material Alder / MahoganyTop Alder / Maple 1998 Epi Catalog
  8. Peter is correct, the LP-100s are Korean. All the Japanese LPs are high end set neck models made by Fuji Gen (hollow bodies were made by Terada). Also, I'm pretty sure that there weren't any Epiphone LPs made for the Japanese market at that time, they were Orville by Gibson (or just Orville) to distinguish them from the Korean Epiphones. The Orville brand was used from 1988 - 1998, and when the Orville brand was discontinued, they started using the Epiphone brand on the MIJs. The domestic Japanese models can be distinguished by the headstock which was the same as the Gibson open book headstock. When Epiphone Japan created the Elitist line for export, they designed a unique headstock to distinguish them from the JDM models. That's a rough history, hope it helps. Why not post some pix?
  9. U9908 is Unsung factory (Korea) 1999 August. Since it was sold as a USED item, the production numbers were scratched out because there's no factory warranty. A new serial number was issued on a sticker and placed over the original number.
  10. Methinks it's I 7031126 not 1 7031126. That would make it an older Epi made at the Saein factory in Korea, March 1997. The Limited Edition could refer to the factory installed Bigsby.
  11. Thanks, it's getting better all the time. I'm playing again, taking it easy, working out the kinks.
  12. 1986 - 1988. 1986 was the first year, 'by Gibson' was dropped by 1989. Made by Samick in Korea, great guitar.
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