My serial number came up as unrecognised, what
gives?
Where/when was my Epiphone made?
My serial number came up as unrecognised, what
gives?
This usually occurs for two reasons:
1) Your guitar was made during the Japanese era
2) The factory designation in your guitars serial number is unrecognized. Epiphone
uses several OEM's to manufacture their guitars. Since 1993 each of these manufacturers
has been placing letters before the actual serial number representing the manufacturer
of the guitar e.g. SJ02121234 where SJ stands fo Sae Jung. A
handful of these manufacturers are known by name, for others only country of manufacture
is known but few unknowns are still out there. If this describes your guitar let
me know, I always adding new factories to the program.
Where/when was my Epiphone made?*
There are 4 distinct "eras" of Epiphone:
A) House of Stathopoulo (1873 - 1957);
B) Gibson Kalamazoo (1957 - 1970);
C) Japanese (1970 - 1983);
D) Korean (1983 - Present); (Note: China ... 2002 to Present. - Heliman)
The original Epiphone factory was in New York, when the company was owned and operated
by the Stathopoulo family. That was the era of the legendary archtops like the Regent,
Broadway, Deluxe, etc.
In 1957, Epiphone was tenuously clinging to existence; the company had been bought
out by the C.G. Conn company (best known for band and orchestral instruments), and
was all but out of business. Gibson President Ted McCarty (who recently passed away;
R.I.P., Ted) negotiated a deal to buy out Epiphone's upright bass business, but
when the equipment was moved to Gibson's Kalamazoo factory, McCarty found out that
*all* of Epiphone's equipment, tooling, and parts inventory had been included. That
led to Gibson building Epiphones in the Gibson factory; the first few years (1958-61),
Gibson used up all the old parts, and in the early 60's, used Gibson parts. This
worked well for both Gibson and Epiphone, because it allowed music dealers who couldn't
get an official Gibson franchise (which were *very* strictly enforced in those days)
to get an Epiphone (which had become a quasi-Gibson) franchise instead.
In 1969, Norlin Industries bought the Chicago Musical Instrument company (which
owned Gibson at the time), which heralded the "Dreaded Norlin Era" at
Gibson, in which the quality declined greatly. Epiphone production was contracted
to companies in Japan in order to cut costs. The Japanese Epis are good guitars,
but they suffered both the "Made in Japan" and "Norlin" stigmas;
they've always been under-rated as a result.
In 1983, around the time that Gibson was bought by a group headed by Henry Juszkiewicz
(now President of Gibson USA), Epiphone production was contracted to Korean companies,
most notably Samick (of which Epiphone/Gibson owns a significant percentage). With
some exceptions, Epiphones are made in Korea to this day. (Note: Bob wrote this
in early 2002 when all Epiphones were still made in Korea. Epiphone now has their
own manufacturing facility in China. - Heliman)
Most Epiphones can be dated fairly accurately by their serial
numbers. The exception to this is the Japanese-era guitars; the serial numbering
doesn't seem to have followed any sequential pattern from year to year, which makes
it *very* difficult to date them accurately.
Original Epiphones had a number of different serial numbering schemes, depending
on the year.
Gibson-built Epiphones followed the Gibson serial numbering scheme.
Korean-made Epiphones have a letter (manufacturer's ID code) and a 7 or 8-digit
serial number as follows:
First digit (7) or first 2 digits - Year of manufacture.
Next 2 digits: Month of manufacture.
Last 4 digits: Production sequence number.
* Excerpt from "EpiFAQ list - First Draft", March 7th
2002, Bob 'Skippy" Blechinger