Epiphone Guitars,

Epiphone Acoustic Guitars, Epiphone Electric Guitars

The Epiphone Company is a guitar manufacturer. Before being bought out by Gibson in the late 1950s, Epiphone was actually Gibson's main rival in the archtop market. Epiphone's  professional archtops, including the Epiphone Emperor, Epiphone Deluxe, Epiphone Broadway and Epiphone Triumph, rivalled (and some contend surpassed) those of Gibson. Aside from their guitars, Epiphone also made bass guitars, banjos, and other stringed instruments. However, Epiphone's weakness in the aftermath of World War II allowed Gibson to absorb it.　

The "House of Stathopoulo" was opened in 1873 and Anastasios brought his 17 year old son Epaminondas (or "Epi" for short) into the company to help him produce his highly sought-after instruments. In 1915, Epaminondas combined his nickname "Epi" with the Greek word for sound which is "phone" and the first instrument bearing the Epiphone name was born.

In the 1930's, with the guitar as the dominant stringed instrument, Epiphone and Gibson became fierce rivals in the "orchestra" and jazz guitar arena. During World War II, however, Epi died and Epiphone lost the prominence which it had during the prewar years.

After several years of mis-direction, Gibson's parent company, Chicago Musical Instruments, bought Epiphone and made it a division of Gibson. In 1958, Gibson introduced a revamped Epiphone line, made by Gibson workers in Kalamazoo, Michigan. These instruments immediately restored the respect and prestige of the Epiphone brand name.

Perhaps one of the greatest testimonials of this occurred in 1965 when a rock and roll group from Liverpool, England known as "The Beatles" purchased 3 Epiphone Casinos. Up until their breakup in 1970, The Beatles used their Casinos to record many classics including "Paperback Writer" and "Ticket to Ride. Their Epiphone Casinos were their primary instruments during their last tour of the US in 1966.
Additionally, Paul McCartney purchased an Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar. This Texan was used to record the most popular and most recorded song of all time - "Yesterday".

Today, from Epiphone's headquarters based in Nashville, TN., Epiphone is the world's number one seller of fretted musical instruments. With a wide selection to choose from including Epiphone acoustic, Epiphone acoustic/electric, and Epiphone electric guitars as well as Epiphone acoustic, Epiphone acoustic/electric, and Epiphone electric basses, fine archtop guitars and Epiphone bluegrass instruments, Epiphone amplifiers and PAs, no other manufacturer offers better selection, quality, and price.

from Wikipedia,licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.