Of each model’s features and changes over the years – with links to photos showing the described detail.
New martin guitar serial numbers serial#
10% of the estimated instrument production! – listed with model name, serial number, and approximate production year. Registry database: We have documented more than 5000 instruments and amps of the 1930–50s period – approx.Key achievements of our research in a nutshell: Since the launch of this project website in July 2014 the research data has constantly grown. players, collectors, dealers, luthiers and historians who own and appreciate Epiphone instruments. The Unofficial New York Epiphone Registry (NY Epi Reg) project aims to continue and deepen the research started by Fisch/Fred: by collecting additional data on surviving instruments, with the help of the worldwide "Epiphone community", i.e. Fred, authors of the outstanding reference book Epiphone: The House of Stathopoulo (Amsco Publications, New York, 1996) had started a list of documented instruments (serial number/model) – a few hundred in total. The only way to get more knowledge in this field is to gather and analyze information on as many surviving Epiphone instruments as possible.
New martin guitar serial numbers serial number#
Epiphone's serial number systems and the rationale behind them still bear some mysteries and the production year of an Epiphone instrument can be only approximately derived from its serial number. Therefore no "official" production figures are available for any of the original Epiphone models.
Why is that? Fact is: No Epiphone factory ledgers or other official production documents from the pre-1957 years are known to have survived. The new owners continued to produce Epiphone-branded instruments, first in Gibson's Kalamazoo MI factory and later in East Asia – to this day (read more about EpiphoneĬompared with other leading manufacturers like Gibson or Martin, there seem to be more gaps and puzzles in the history of Epiphone instruments of the NY era – especially regarding production figures. The era of the original NY-based Epiphone company ended when, after a long decline, it was sold by the Stathopoulo family in 1957 to Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) – the parent company of their main competitor Gibson. Many rate the quality of these instruments on a par with competitors of their time such as Gibson, D'Angelico, or Stromberg, to name just a few. Today these fine vintage Epiphone instruments continue to be of interest to musicians, collectors and historians. Over the following decades the quality of Epiphone's archtop guitars and other stringed instruments gained a high reputation, leading numerous top players to choose Epiphone instruments for performing and recording their music. The name "Epiphone" has been part of American music history since the 1920s when Epaminondas "Epi" Stathopoulo (1893–1943), the young president of a family-owned instrument manufacturing company based in New York, introduced a successful line of banjos with this brand, soon followed by guitars.
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