was purchased by Gibson, its main rival in the archtop guitar market at the time.
From the 1930s through to the early 1950s, Epiphone produced a range of both acoustic and (later) electrified archtop guitars that rivalled those produced by Gibson and were the instruments of choice of many professionals a smaller range of flat-top guitars were also produced, some designations of which were later continued during the Gibson-owned era for the company. After taking over his father's business, Epaminondas Stathopoulos named the company 'Epiphone' as a combination of his own nickname 'Epi' and the suffix ' -phone' (from Greek phon-, 'voice') in 1928, the same year it began making guitars. Electric, acoustic, archtop & resonator guitarsĮpiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908.
