RaSTuS Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I have 2 Epi's and was just wondering where they were made, they both have stickers of origin on them but I'm not sure how accurate they are. SG G-400 Custom: Serial No. EE07100xxxx, sticker says "Hand Crafted in China" LP Ultra II: Serial No. 0808211xxx, sticker says "Made in Korea" Cheers ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Who's buried in Grant's tomb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Yep, Epi is trying to pull a fast one on you. Your G-400 was made at the Qingdao Plant (Epiphone), China October 2007 Couldnt get a fix on the Ultra. Look at your SN again and make sure it's correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaSTuS Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 Thanx guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffy Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Yo dude, to my amateur understanding the EE plant is one of Epiphone's best plants in China; from which some great guitars have come. I have a couple and love them. Really nice guitars. Duffy Winfield, Pa. "Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be; wishful words of wisdom, let it be." +/- Fab Four Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyushPresley Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 A made in Korea should have some letters before the numbers start....it's only the ones made in china that doesn't have any letters in front (The latest ones) ..please correct me if I am wrong.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1999nbmZ1281734025 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 They switched to an all numerical format in the last part of '08. '09s have no letters in the s/n. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarxBros Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Yo dude' date=' to my amateur understanding the EE plant is one of Epiphone's best plants in China; from which some great guitars have come. I have a couple and love them. Really nice guitars.[/quote'] :-({|= ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) Great as in what, the worst we've seen ever of Epi imports? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffy Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 No Marxbro, not the worst. Both of mine are fine Epiphones, really quality examples of what they are, no problems at all. I've also read great comments about the EE facility from highly informed people. Nothing wrong with any EE Epiphone I've seen. I'll post some picks of mine one of these days. EE=Quindao Gibson, China Quote: Epiphone and Gibson personnel became intimately involved in facility layout, equipment design, training techniques and the establishment of quality control and by October of 2002, the Epiphone only Gibson Qingdao factory had become a reality. The effectiveness of combining Epiphone and Gibson expertise and experience with Asian production efficiencies ushered in a new era for Epiphone and brought about exceptional instruments at price points the average working musician could afford. That tradition continues today at Epiphone’s Gibson Qingdao (GQ) factory near Qingdao, China where only Epiphone instruments are crafted. Over the course of the past 4 years, Gibson Qingdao has continued expanding and improving and today, is one of the largest in China producing some of, if not the best guitars in the world. Epiphone recently spoke with two key employees who play a huge role at the Epiphone factory. Lloyd Williams serves as General Manager and Director of Asian Manufacturing Gibson China and Scott Lewis is the GQ Plant Manager. Unquote Peace, Duffy Winfield, Pa. "There's a purple haze upon my brain, lately things they don't seem the same. Actin' funny and I don't know why ........" JH +/- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gashole Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Who's buried in Grant's tomb? OOOOH! OOOOH! (raises hand high) I know! I know! It's Jimmy Hoffa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gashole Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 OOOOH! OOOOH! (raises hand high) I know! I know! It's Jimmy Hoffa! No no! Wait! I meant the Lindburgh baby! I always get that question wrong the first time.... I'm stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emetry Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Some older model guitars also don't have letters in from of the numerical part of the serial. My 1998 Special II has no lettering. It varies from plant/country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Some older model guitars also don't have letters in from of the numerical part of the serial. My 1998 Special II has no lettering. It varies from plant/country. Indeed. My 86' S-500 has no letters in it. All numerical digits. It was made in Korea - Samick factory...at least according to guitardater. But his SN didnt check out at all on GD. There are other sources, but I'm too lazy today. Marx, Thank you once again for your exemplary insight and wisdom. Also, thank you for no help whatsoever on the serial number question. As I am sure that these serial numbers were made just as cheaply as the guitars on which they accompany , there is no way that we, as rank noobs, could possibly expect a man of your knowledge and expertise to lend a hand with such a trivial matter. My hat is off to you, good sir. Again, bravo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emetry Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 I've never had guitar dater work. Ever. On any of my guitars. Usually I just call the manufacturer and have them run the serial for me. Ended up having a really awesome conversation with the guy who BUILT my S101. I don't put much faith in online data projects right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Yeah, I hear you. Its just a quick, easy way for fast info. I've found a couple other sources in the past that lay out the SNs in greater detail, but I never bookmarked them and I couldnt tell what they were for the life of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffy Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Unless I'm totally misled, that EE plant is the big time investment Gibson/Epiphone made in the manufacturing process in China, designed to deal with the communication barrier of dealing with contract facilities. The concept was a great one and my EE guitars are really nice sounding feeling playing looking guitars. My understanding is that the plan worked and the products produced are superior to many of the other production sites. Possibly Marxbro was slightly confused, which I can understand. I hope everything is well with him and he has everything straightend back out. The guy probably isn't half as bad as he comes off at times. I could be wrong, but I believe the vast majority of people are basically great people deep inside and that they feel good about themselves but have a problem sometimes letting that goodness show. Maybe they think they are helping but just don't know how and need a little help. I hope the guy gets the help he needs and sticks with the plan. He would feel better and our forum would be a better place for it. Let's try to get our forum together and get a brotherhood going, or at least a fairly respectful atmosphere that we can all be proud to share our Epiphone questions and expertise on, even stupid questions. Some of the stupid sounding questions are the ones we are all avoiding to ask. Peace, Duffy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabar Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Au contraire. Marxbro is adding a great deal of content, experience and knowledge to this forum. The man is opinionated (nothin' wrong with that), as are many of the rest of us, but his opinions are based on considerable experience and familiarity with many guitars, history and industry exposure. He's provided some hard facts along with his opinions, and I for one welcome his contributions to help offset some of the poorly-informed (and just plain wrong) information I've seen posted here. As the kids would say, "Just keepin' it real, yo!" And I've personally checked out at least a dozen Epiphones from Qingdao, several different models. Most were perfectly fine and playable, a few were really crappy, but not one measured up to the best Samick or Peerless made Epiphones I've played when taken as a whole. That's been my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emetry Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Someone please correct my serial prefixes if they are wrong: Korea I = Saein U = Unsung S = Samick P or R = Peerless K = Korea China DW = DeaWon EA = Gibson/QingDao EE = Gibson/QingDao SJ = SaeJung BW = China Japan F = FujiGen J or T = Terada Czech Republic B = Bohemia Musico-Delicia Location Unknown to me SI = Samick I think there are 1 or 2 more in China, plus the SI, which I THINK might be Indonesia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffy Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Parabar, The corporate plan for the EE plant was to produce better guitars thru improved qc, improved communication, etc. It is a relatively new plant. The company has high expectations for the plant and its productivity, as noted in my earlier quote, has not gone unnoticed. I don't doubt your observations and comparisons. I had heard the Samick plant was an outstanding plant as well as the Cort facilities. Marxbro flatly dismissed, quite summarily the EE plant as producing some of the poorest examples of Epi's. I can't accept that as being solid factual info. I'm sure poor examples have come from the other plants as well. The man may have some knowledge to share, although I haven't seen much of any. Most of his and Nelson's posts, possibly one and the same person, have been caustic to say the least. Real crude turn offs to people. You won't catch me defending his knowledge because whatever helpful info he produces is overwhelmed by the insults and extremely negative personal attacks and so forth that he aims at people. Haven't you seen that? Do you know what it's like to have these insults directed at you? It is not pleasant. I don't see a lot of that at other forums I go to. This is a great forum, as it should be, for sharing our Epi concerns. We should be able to do it wihout fear of posting a stupid question or being flammed and insulted, anyone reasonable would agree with that. A consistent pattern has been extablished by these guys and it is predictable. There is room for them on the forum, no doubt. I think they should be more cordial and polite. They can still make their points but why the derogatory tone and sour notes? I just ask for a little more civility and that they lighten up a little, from my limitted perspective. I have been visiting this forum for years and recently started to come back in on a regular basis and found the atmosphere to be quite appalling, in some cases. People are really up tight and I think it can be easily traced to the antagonists. Most of us are not thrilled when we get insulted and treated poorly. A lot of us come from backgrounds where mannerly behavior and respectful communication is either demanded or expected. I dropped my beef with these guys. It is pointless. Let them roll down their own paths. But to say that the Gibson/Epi plant in China is making some of the worst Epi's seen is a broad accusation. I don't think all the facts on this plant and the quality of its products have been credibly idenified in casual comments. I have read reports from people that visited the plant and lots of other reports that sound very encouraging. My EE guitars are very very nice. I just worked on one tonight, a black Epi Studio, real nice guitar with nice replacement pups. Different people have different criteria by which they select guitars. As we have said before, money is tight for a lot of people right now. Factories are competing vigourously just to stay in business. Can you imagine how competitive the guitar business is. They are surely mass producing price leaders to make the necessary profit, guitars that the designers and management know are not up to the quality that they really really want to make, but survival is the name of the game. I was an industrial designer, working closely with the designer/owner and I know how bad they feel about having to mass produce basically "junk" products to bring in the cash. I don't doubt that Marxbro and Nelson have some perspective that they can relate to and they judge their worlds by their experience. Like you said, a lot of kids and so forth don't have that experience. Useful knowledge is very important and can make the difference between buying a junk expensive guitar and a great expensive guitar. Getting that info across in an acceptable and useful way takes some tact and expertise and practice. You shouldn't just be crude and offensive, that turns people off and shouldn't be generally accepted unless it is, of course, warranted. I'm sure you know what I mean. These guys are probably your friends or close associates on the forum; but to returning guys like me and to newbies, we don't know how to take these guys and we get turned off. Lots of people have just plain been turned away, Epi owners that should be able to post questions and get some decent advice, etc. That's the problem. You don't see it this way and it probably is because you have been around the forum a long time and know the ins and outs. A more peaceful atmosphere wouldn't hurt anything. It would make it a better place for us to be. Feedback is really needed, but insults are another thing. I burried my hatchet. I'm going to try to be the best member I can be and share my amateur experience with those who may be able to appreciate my knowledge. Anyway, if you look further into the EE plant I'm sure you will find some really astounding things gong on that you may not be aware of. Peace, Duffy Winfield, Pa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstruck507 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 it was also my understanding the EE epis were among the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 My '06 EE G400 was almost perfect right out of the box. I played it first at GC before buying it. I upgraded the wiring, replaced the pup switch, and put in new caps (a minimal cost). The rest I have left stock and couldn't be more pleased with it. Yes, I wish they used better wiring, caps and switches, but for the price, I think it's a fantastic guitar. I will own this guitar until I no longer exist. And then somebody will probably have to pry it from my cold, stiff hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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