RobinTheHood

My PR4-E acoustic was made in China. For a bottom of the line guitar, they did a great job on it.

Your serial number translation is correct...at least for the Korean, Indonesian and early Chinese models. Early Korean and later Chinese models have a different system...not sure about the early Indo guitars. I dont know much about them, I was thinking "Junior" for the J as well, but i'm not sure. Maybe "B" stands for Benton? as part of the pak? Just a guess... CH might mean "chrome" for the hardware. Another guess. But it would seem silly to put that much definition in the model number for a guitar that they made little or no variations of. Your video is really cool, BTW. Great work with the effects. I love how the amp spins around! The guitar sounds good too! Once I gather some specs for the Invader, I'll get it up on the Epiphone Wiki. I'll be sure to give you and StijnV mention for the research you've put into it. I know you started this thread to ask for our help, but thanks for YOUR help figuring this guitar out. I appreciate the time you've put in to it.

PAK-EEBJVSCH3 is the model number, so yes, its going to be the same on all alike Invaders. Usually the model number is descriptive of the guitar. Though I'm having trouble deciphering this one. We know what "PAK" means. VS stands for "Vintage Sunburst". EE stands for "Epiphone Electric". I'm not sure what BJ or CH3 stands for. Typically, the model number is limited to the model, color, fretboard, bridge and pickup configuration. Sometime just the model and color.

You rock! I've been seeing you around helping out with old guitars lately. Thanks a bunch! We really appreciate it. I'm not sure of the signifigance of the pic, but the headstock says Special instead of Invader. Not sure if it is a true Invader or a Special in a Players Pack labeled as an Invader.

That would be appreciated. Having the specs would be most helpful.

Nope. Not this time, unfortunately. The Invader didnt come up on the radar when I was making the wiki. But I'm making notes in my profile for when I get back into the wiki.

I've never heard of the Epiphone Invader. I have heard of the Gibson Invader, but dont know anything about it. Sorry I cant help, but you have helped me because now I have another guitar to research for the wiki. Hopefully someone has some info on this git.

I have at least five Korean guitars. Four of which are Epiphone, and one is a Kramer (still an Epiphone). And in some aspects, they werent all that great when they came out. They seemed to have a lot of the same issues with the early Korean guitars that they had with the Chinese guitars. Even throughout the 1990's, the Korean models had quality issues depending on the model and what you consider an issue. Sure, there were some straight shooters, like the G-400 and LP, but the Epiphone active pickups/preamps were not very good and it seems like Epiphone has revamped them since the move to China. Even when Epiphone first acquired Kramer, there were some issues. I have a first run 1999 Kramer Striker 422 (Epi/Samick). Great neck and body. A lot of people didnt like the quad-rail pickups because they were too hot and too thin. And the wiring in mine was mess. Cold solder joints and frayed wire everywhere.

The Samick Artist series ran from the mid 1980's thought the late 90's. The Epiphone guitars with the SAM SUNG pickups were in the early 90's, IIRC. Although its is possible your guitar has them. Have you taken them out to see?

So what you are saying is that it could very well be Samsung, but Korean translation split the syllables into two words?

I think someone in that thread I linked to had also mentioned Samsung P90s. One question not answered was - are these from the actual Samsung company that we are all familiar with? From what I understand the pickups are stamped SAM SUNG. Maybe it stands for Samick/Unsung???

The black pickups with the "i" were the i-series pickups on the super strats and the 1989 Flying-V. I'm going to guess that the Samsung pickups were either chrome covered or open-coil. The only other Epiphone non-active black covered pickups I know of were the Vantage pups in the early to mid 90's.

Or maybe here? http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/epiphone-les-pauls/28849-sam-sung-pickups.html

Yeah, man. I know why wires break. lol. I've screwed up many many wires with a variety of tools while trying to strip them. I'm just trying to help narrow down the problem.

I had this same problem with both of my Epiphone EBM basses. The first one was a bad wire to the pre-amp. The second was a bad wire to the jack.

Heh. Yeah, I guess the fretboard and inlays arent considered hardware. My bad. I guess thats what happens when I respond to threads from work. $600 and still a lot of work to be done? Ouch! I hope it is worth it. I really like the superstrats by Epiphone. I can only imagine the Gibsons are even better. You never see them for sale. I see S-series, Pros and i-series all the time. Well, she's a beauty. Hold on to her!

Apples and Oranges. Were not talking about one piece of similar hardware, though. There is no way Gibson/Epiphone is/was going to make the same composite fretboards and custom inlays in two different countries. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of making a guitar on a budget. Besides, Epiphone wasnt making guitars in Japan for the U.S. market in the late 80's. Your Gibson U2 is the equivalent to the Epiphone S-900 - which were also make in Korea. Nice guitar BTW. What is the price on one of those these days?...considering you can find one.

The same synthetic fretboard, chevron inlays, KB Tremolo and EMG Select pickups are on the Epiphone X-1000 superstrat. The X-1000 ran from 1986-1989, so the approximate year of this guitar is correct. The X-1000's were made in Korea. Since these have the (almost) exact same hardware on them, I'd bet they were most likely made in Korea as well. I could be wrong, but were talking about less than a handfull of guitar models with the same specialized hardware. Its unlikely they were made in different countries. Here is the Epiphone Spotlight Facebook page. They say Korea as well. Spotlight Facebook Oops...its the Google cached page. Sorry. Still works though. As far as the years they made them, the Facebook page says: 1986=Gibson 1987-89=Epiphone

Well, yeah. Where do you think those stickers and posters came from? From your G-310 and LP Jr, thats where. I'm just funning you, but its true. Seriously though, has anyone equated the fact that as trivial as it may be, when the guitar stores take the Epiphone goodies they are actually stealing from you.