Hey there ... I can’t believe no one has responded to this post. Anyway, your Epiphone acoustic appears to be one that was refurbished by MIRC in Franklin, TN. MIRC stands for Musical Instrument Repair Corporation, and they buy broken instruments from Epiphone, Fender, Gretsch, Samick, and other low-cost manufacturers, for pennies on the dollar. They fix them and then sell them at very discounted prices to dealers and/or anyone else that wants one. You can Google them and find their company website, and their address in Franklin, TN. You can even go there personally and check out their showroom and buy one onsite, if you wanted to.
What gives it away is the sticker that goes over the original Epiphone serial number. That white sticker where the original number was is the sticker that MIRC puts on all of their refurbished instruments. The manufacturers they buy from either remove or erase the original serial numbers, and then MIRC puts that sticker where the original serial number would have been. There are plenty of guitars all over the country (but especially in Tennessee) that have been refurbished by MIRC. The repairs can be anything from broken necks and headstock to simple minor finish repairs ... and most of the time they do a very good job. But the value of the instruments go way down from their original value.
I hope this helps. But more importantly, I hope you didn’t trade an instrument that was worth much more than about $100 ... because that’s what this one would have sold for at MIRC.
Best of luck ... Gatorgabe
