RobinTheHood

It's most likely a PR735 or PR755. Those are the only Japanese guitars I could find with maple binding.

It most likely has a two way truss rod. Loose and floppy is center. Keep "loosening" it and it should start to tighten up again and put relief in the neck.

1995, Samick, Korea.

The only Riviera with p94s was the Nick Valensi model, but it had binding and didn't come in red. As a matter of fact, all Rivieras had binding. Dot studio has no binding.

You can see from the side of the fretboard there used to be a fret there. It looks loke someone removed it and put a chunk of wood in its place.

Epiphone serials from that time often did not have any manufacturing info contained in them. If they do, however, the first number would indicate the year. The 5 *may* indicate 1975, which could be interpreted as being built in 1975 for the 1976 model year...but it also may mean nothing. It's really hard to say. The good news is that it is most definitely Japanese from the 1970s. No doubt about it.

According to this website, your guitar was made in 1966. http://guitarhq.com/epiphone.html#serial

It's an Olympic in what looks like Inverness Green. I'm not sure about these older serials, but it was made between 1963 and 1970. There are websites that list old Epiphone serials with relative accuracy.

It would be helpful to know what type of guitar it is. A pic would be the best.

JI is one of those serials that Epiphone lost track of at some point. There are not many guitars with that designation, and we don't have it listed in the wiki. It's most likely a cousin serial to "J", which we believe is Jakarta, Indonesia. It would help to see the guitar to determine the year, but most likely it's a 1998. If it is a 1989 (first two digits) it will have the narrow open book headstock. If not, then 1998.

We would need to see a pic of the guitar to be able to identify it. I'm not familiar with the IC designation. There was UC and JC, but no IC that I am familiar with. Most likely the guitar was made in 1995 or 2005, as Epiphones were only bein made in Japan and Samick, Korea in 1985 to the best of my knowledge. Also, the only Les Paul guitars made in 1985 were the LP 1, 2 & 3 which were bolt neck "super strat" type guitars with a Les Paul body. Very 1980s. There was one other prototype or limited run from that era that was a flat top LP with a set neck, but those are pretty rare. A pic would really help alot.

Your guitar is a refurb. The serial label is from the company that refurbished it and doesn't contain any identifiable data to that guitar. The original serial is on the label under the refurb sticker. The most you can do is use a flashlight and try to see the first 4 digits of the original serial under th refurb sticker. I'm pretty sure the stringers on the neck indicate that its pre China, but I'm a little rusty with my Sheraton identification.

Thanks for the fast pics. Gibson truss rod cover, plus non-angled headstock logo tells me it's a 1996.

In the USA these are going for $150 -$200. The resale price has gone up exponentially over the past few years.

It's definitely not 1986 since the set neck Les Paul didn't come out until 1989. I'd need to see a pic to determine if its 1996 or 2006.

1996 S-310. There are a couple listed on ebay for around $175+shipping. I'm not sure if they will sell at that price or not, but that's what they are listed at.

You have a Les Paul 100. The serial number you gave looks shirt a couple digits. It should be on the neck plate. Your guitar was definitely made around 2006 or 2007 as per the markings on the headstock.

Yes, but there are no dedicated counterfeit threads or people dedicated to verifying Epiphone guitars. Too many wrong or non-answers here, like above. All of the people that were intimately familiar with sussing out fakes have moved to the forums I've mentioned. Ten years ago, this place was banging. People have moved on and I'm just trying to point him in the direction that will answer his question most accurately.

Thats a really weird thing to say for someone whose been here since 2007. China has been counterfeiting Epiphone guitars for a long time. It really ramped up with the move to Qingdao, china. Before that, they were few and far between. It became so much of a problem that both Epiphone and gibson have addressed this issue serveral times over the last 10 years. The Les Paul is the most counterfeited Epiphone, with the slash and zakk models being at the top of the list. However, many other models have been counterfeited as well. That being said, the stamped serial on this guitar is quite suspect. There were some models that had stamping like this, mainly the 59/60 standards and the Tribute models. I suppose it's possible that others did too, but they were all F-serials thatch am aware of. I could be mistaken though. This is a typical Qingdao serial format rather than the F type. I really don't know for certain, but you can send pics to Epiphone and they should be able to verify. You can also enter the serial number into google and check to see if this number is a known fake. Many times they will use the same serial on multiple guitars. There are other forums that focus on Epiphone guitars with dedicated threads to identify fakes. MyLesPaul and EpiphonetTalk have such threads. It might be a good idea to pop in over there and see what they say.

I know for certain there was no Epiphone by Gibson branding until the mid 1980s. Henry J bought Gibson in the early 1980s. 1981 or 82, I think. I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway, this branding was intended to link the companies and give Epiphone a more positive perception after the very low end sketchy guitars they were importing to the USA in the 1970s. I have a print ad somewhere that details this idea when it first rolled out. I believe it was a quote from Jim Rosenberg, the CEO of Epiphone after Henry took over.

1985 S-300. These weren't in any catalog that I am aware of and seem to have been a relatively small run prior to the full release of the S-300 in 1986. Not sure of the value. Probably around $200. Not sure though.

This thread is 11 years old and that person is no longer a member of this forum. However, I'm not certain that the info he provided is accurate. Epiphone has always listed the set neck Les Paul as having a mahogany body. Asian mahogany (lauan or nato), to be more specific. Epiphone was contracting out to many factories at that time, so th possibility of something like alter being used as a short term substitute for mahogany is possible, but not the norm. Epiphone never specifies anything other than mahogany for the set necks at any time, with the exception of some limited runs. Bouncing between mahogany, alter or maple was common on guitars like the Les Paul Special, LP100, junior and some other low end models. Some even had mahogany/alter laminated/ply bodies. This was very common for a time. But the set necks never had this type of construction and if be hard pressed to believe that they used anything other than Asian mahogany as the main body wood, again, with the exception of other substitutes when the mahogany ran out before the run was complete.

I'm cranky and unreasonable. Just ask Duane. Now get off my lawn while I yell at the clouds.

No and they never will. Tuners are an easy place to cut costs and easy for most people to upgrade. It's been like this for decades and will mist likely not change.

I get this as well but the notifications rarely go to the top no matter how much I mess with it.