April Issue of Guitar World - 50 Years of Epiphone

[arobatto]

FYI,

 

Guitar World has a great article on 50 years of Epiphone history. It was quite informative. What was of particular interest was that some of the Epiphones made in Japan during the early seventies were generic guitars with an Epiphone name slapped on it - having little in common with the traditional styles.

Also, according to this article, as far back as the 1950's, the Epiphone line was a marketing tool used to establish a market for future Gibson sales since Gibson franchises were only granted to one dealer per

territory. Dealers could sell Epiphone versions of Gibsons in the hopes of one day receiving the "coveted" Gibson franchise. However, this created a market of affordable Gibson made guitars but still have the distinction of a guitar with their own identity. Not too diiferent from what we see today - IMHO.

 

Alex

[Guest]

FYI' date='

 

Guitar World has a great article on 50 years of Epiphone history. It was quite informative. What was of particular interest was that some of the Epiphones made in Japan during the early seventies were generic guitars with an Epiphone name slapped on it - having little in common with the traditional styles.

Also, according to this article, as far back as the 1950's, the Epiphone line was a marketing tool used to establish a market for future Gibson sales since Gibson franchises were only granted to one dealer per

territory. Dealers could sell Epiphone versions of Gibsons in the hopes of one day receiving the "coveted" Gibson franchise. However, this created a market of affordable Gibson made guitars but still have the distinction of a guitar with their own identity. Not too diiferent from what we see today - IMHO.

 

Alex[/quote']

 

Those 70's Epiphones were made by Matsumoku who also made Aria guitars. When Gibson decided to out-source Epiphone production to Asia in 1971, the first instruments they imported were actually re-labeled Aria models even using the Aria model numbers and these *Epiphones* resembled previous Epiphone models in name only.. In the 50's when Epiphone was purchased the idea was to sell Gibson-level instruments through an expanded dealer network circumventing the "protected" status of the franchised Gibson dealers who paid for the privilege of selling Gibsons. It didn't necessarily create a glut of "affordable" guitars because there was actually little difference in price in those days (10%-15% at the very most more for Gibsons) though some comparable models such as the Riviera list priced for more than its ES-335 cousin. Because many of the Epiphone models had very similar equivalent Gibson models, the Epiphone line became an expensive redundancy and the Epiphone brand was then used on imported guitars to compete with the huge influx of cheap Asian guitars that was happening at the time.

 

...and Al's your uncle.

[arobatto]

Iconoclast wrote,

 

It didn't necessarily create a glut of "affordable" guitars because there was actually little difference in price in those days (10%-15% at the very most more for Gibsons) though some comparable models such as the Riviera list priced for more than its ES-335 cousin. Because many of the Epiphone models had very similar equivalent Gibson models, the Epiphone line became an expensive redundancy and the Epiphone brand was then used on imported guitars to compete with the huge influx of cheap Asian guitars that was happening at the time.

 

Hello Iconoclast,

 

That's what the author of the article of Guitar World inffered. Of course, I wasn't born yet, let alone able to make a comparison of prices of guitars that were sold in the fifties. Oh, market doesn't necessarily mean glut! Though, perhaps today's invasion of Asian guitars are very well that indeed! Thanks for your knowledgeable input!

 

Alex