I've owned dozens of Epi's over the years and think the Chinese are better. Epiphone's factory, new machinery and tooling, they control the whole process. Now they're turning out the guitars they've always wanted to. The workmanship is very good, and they're much more consistent overall. 1990's Koreans varied a lot, the quality of some just wasn't as good. The grover tuners that Epi's been using lately are excellent, tough and reliable, never had a problem with them. In comparison the 1990's Koreans usually had cheap generic tuners. There's no comparison between the upgraded humbuckers Epi's had the last couple years, to the cheap ones in Koreans. The electronics are better now too (many Koreans had mini-pots).
What concerns me about 1990's Koreans, besides the inconsistency and spotty quality, is that 1) a lot of them have serious fret wear; the fret metal isn't made to last decades, and refret jobs are expensive, 2) many have scratches, dents, dings, gouges, chips of finish missing, etc, and 3) the claims of Koreans being better are pretty much the realm of sellers as an excuse to jack up their prices. I've seen some flagrant examples of this on eBay, for guitars that aren't half as good as the current production Chinese models. As more players find out about the high quality and reasonable prices of the new models, they'll wise up and Korean prices will fall. I think just prior to the switch to Chinese production in 2003, the Koreans improved, for whatever reason, but they're still not any better than the Chinese ones. Another plus for 2000+ production (Chinese and Korean) is that there's been so many great limited editions, far beyond the 1990's.
I see Epiphone as continually improving their products, and that hasn't stopped.
Korean Epiphones - A Theory
in Epiphone Electrics
Posted
EXCELLENT post!!!