max2343 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Fuji-Gen is an Great Maker of some Great Guitars for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Considering they're made for the Japanese market' date=' materials are hard to come by in English. Every review I've read simply says "mahogany." They're made in the Fuji-Gen plant. According to one factory tour I found, there's a large stack of Indian Rosewood. Here's a pretty good website showing some of the production... text is all Japanese, but I imagine you can recognise a CNC machine when you see it. Fuji-gen Tour A nice video tour on YouTube (again in Japanese, but you'll recognise many things) Everything I've found shows Ibanez and Gretsch construction, but there are always Epiphones to be seen in the background. Sorry to be slow, when you say Japanese you are referring to the Epiphone Elitist Guitars yes? If so, a fan here. Great quality axes! Yes, Gretsch's professional line are Japanese made. Brian Setzer raves about them and takes them on tour. My Brian Setzer Grestch kicks butt LOL It is almost the story of legend now how The Japanese Fender bought Fender USA to their knees "Back in the USA, in an effort to rediscover what had made Fender's reputation, the company went to vintage dealers and took measurements from pre-CBS production instruments. They even spent $5600 on buying a '57 Precision bass, '60 Jazz bass and a '61 Strat. Both the US factory at Fullerton and Fender Japan set about producing vintage reissues- in fact the Japanese were the first to succeed and the superb quality of their instruments resulted in the famous quote by Dan Smith, Director of Marketing, Electric Guitars at the time :"Everybody came up to inspect them and the guys almost cried, because the Japanese product was so good - it was what we had been having a hell of a time trying to do." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pohatu771 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Sorry to be slow' date=' when you say Japanese you are referring to the Epiphone Elitist Guitars yes? If so, a fan here. Great quality axes![/quote']I was referring to the ones made for sale in Japan, with the Gibson headstock and nitro - but the Elite/Elitist series are made under the same roof. I can't link to U-BOX items, but if you enter the inquiry numbers at the link below, you'll see some examples: Les Paul Junior 316502404-6 EB-3 326130601-17 http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box/e/ They pop up on eBay from time to time, a few Epiphone forum members have them. Here's one: Les Paul Junior - eBay That says it has a Japanese pickup... I was under the impression they were Gibson pickups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdntac Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Be it an Epi or a Gibson....buy what you can afford, enjoy what you have and rock your ballz off with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matiac Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 So,if I understand this correctly, the fact I own an Epiphone makes me "cheap"? I'm not posting this to pick fights or anything, but I got mine because at the time, it was what I could afford. Unlike Mr. Conman, I don't earn a upper 5 digit income, I'm scraping by weekly. I did own 2 Gibsons (SG Standard, Les Paul Classic), but had to sell them because I needed the money. I wasn't going to sell the Epiphone, because even stock, I wouldn't have gotten what I have into it, and as far as modifying guitars, I've heard of PLENTY of people tweaking Gibsons too, so I don't know what his statement was about there. Cheap...hmm...I happen to think my "cheap" Epiphone is one of the better guitars I've owned, and in 40 years of playing guitars, I've owned a few. Stock out of the box it was very playable, I did what I did to it because I could, and the goodies were available relatively "cheap". I dunno, the "cheap" crack was a little off base from a guy who's usually pretty level-headed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Plains Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I know I'm a little late on this but I would like to point out that Gibson pots and caps are also junk. The ceramic caps in your Classic are often referred to as tone suckers. Gibson USA, Gibson Custom Shop...doesn't matter, they use crappy pots & caps on all their models. Reason is, Gibson knows people will upgrade them. Cold' date=' hard fact;You WILL be replacing pots and a switch on an Epi because they are junk. Problem is, the control cavity may be too small to fit a good Gibson pot - get out the grinder.[/quote'] A good Gibson pot? No such thing. There's a reason a lot of people buy aftermarket pots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boston004681 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 That's not bad for Gibson Copies made in China They're not chinese are they? NO NOT EPI TOO!!! WAIT' date=' THIS IS GIBSON'S FAULT! AAAAAAAAA!!![/size'] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boston004681 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I think everyone on this forums knows how i feel about cheepies, but i've turned around after i played my buddy's Epi. (Here i go again) I'm never going to shut up about this... You really can't beat the overall quality of a Gibson. The Epiphone is the way to go when your either short on cash, or just starting. There isn't much more i can say. That's it. Here is an Ultra II. Real nice I wished Gibson added these to it's line-up. I think they are hard to beat and are a good deal even with the cheep hardware. Those look pretty good' date=' but you still can't beat the real Macoy. :- That's not bad for Gibson Copies made in China They're not chinese are they? NO NOT EPI TOO!!! WAIT, THIS IS GIBSON'S FAULT! AAAAAAAAA!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max2343 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Epipy's, Yea Made in China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmeds Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 When I was growing up as a child, I remember the phrase: “Made in Japan” was a joke that meant the product was cheap and poorly made. Today however, it means quite the opposite for just about anything produced in Japan is associated with precision, integrity and innovation. The same seems to be true with “Made in Korea” as they seem to be catching up in the world market. I wonder how long before we come to realize that “Made in China” will have the same status enjoyed by these nations. Perhaps, once they crack down on counterfeiting name brand products and focus on originality and quality, we might start thinking differently about guitars “crafted” there. I happen to like my “Made in China” Epi Custom, but maybe I was just fortunate to find a good one and maybe it's because it is a bonafide subsidiary of the guitar giant we all love. As was mentioned before, Epiphones have a specific target audience and Gibson wants it that way. Pretty smart marketing if you ask me. If we can accept the fact that these are not Gibbys and never will be nor are intended to be rivals, then it might make it that much easier to include one or two in our stable of guitars. It's the same principle why many of us might wear a well designed Seiko wrist watch for everyday use and take out the Rolex for special occasions and bragging rights. Play On! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Thanks for the links, pohatu771. Interesting stuff. Here's a pretty good website showing some of the production... text is all Japanese' date=' but I imagine you can recognise a CNC machine when you see it.[/quote'] Err...actually I hadn't a clue about what a CNC machine looked like! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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