The Epiphone Forum

That vintage Epis got a forum of their own!

This has been something I have thought about doing for years. Well, I finally got around to organizing some ideas and figuring the forum thing out...

I hope this will become a place where we can come together and share/build knowledge for many years to come.

Thanks for coming - looking forward to seeing fellow vintage Epi fans on here!

-AV

RAB here...I am a big vintage Epiphone fan, owning and gigging them for many decades (gulp!) The first Epi I owned was a 1964 Casino. Then I had a '64 Sheraton. Been thru a bunch of vintage Epis since then. Current main squeeze is my '62 Riviera augmented by a '63 Wilshire. I am looking forward to sharing information and stories about them on this new blog and appreciate its creation! "Talk" with you all soon! Best, RAB

Very glad to have you here!

I've always been a music lover, and grew up listening to a variety of things as a kid in the 60's (I just turned 60). Started playing around 1970, got my first guitar in 1975 when I was in college (! late starter), and started getting interested in blues and jazz. Got into the finer vintage Gibson archtops and semis a few years later. My first really nice guitar was a '64 Barney Kessel Regular that I bought in 1981 for $600. Used to wheel and deal a lot, when guitars and amps could be had cheap from newspaper want-ads and such. I've been very fortunate to own many great Gibson archtops over the years. Perhaps I'll post some photos if a relevant thread comes up under "other guitars".

I play and enjoy a variety of music styles (mostly blues and jazz), but my main emphasis has been jazz for most of the years I've been playing. Non-professionally.

I owned a couple of Epi Century guitars (a '62 and a '63) that I bought for $50 each at a flea market back in the 80's, and those were the only Epi's I ever owned until I realized that I needed a Sheraton about five years ago. I wish it hadn't taken me that long to realize it.

Great to have you here, Jim!

We'll get plenty of people joining here, I am confident, once the forum gets indexed by Google. Whenever someone thinks "I wonder if there is an Epiphone Forum?", and Googles "Epiphone forum", I hope (and think) that they will find this forum. Which I think is the beauty of the domain name EpiphoneForum.com

I first played an Epi acoustic somewhere along HWY 1 between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay around 1968. It belonged to a guy we picked up hitchhiking and he let me play it until we parted ways. It left a strong impression on me. I loved the neck and how easy it was to play. Probably a Texan.

A few years later I was playing in a country-rock band and was playing a Les Paul with P-90's. The complaint by my bandmates was that it had "too much sustain." Uh, it's a Les Paul... Anyway, I came upon a lovely mid-'60's Es 335 at a local music store. When I got some money together to buy it, it was gone. After playing everything 335 like at that music store, I hit every music store in the bay area. I was at Dean Markley Music in Santa Clara and he had three Epi's he got from a store that went out of business. One was a Cherry '66 Epi Riviera. After checking it out, it went home with me. It's been my companion ever since. In the '80's I had a stop tailpiece installed. It improved the tuning, and in my opinion, didn't change the tone at all. I played it on countless gigs and it was my only electric for many years. I can't see ever parting with it.

I tried to post some pictures, but I got a message that it was too big. I'll take some more and post them when I can.

Thanks for putting this forum together! Few people know about Epiphone's history and the fine guitars they made, both in the Gibson era and before.

There is something cool and wonderful about playing a vintage Epi. It takes a special player to appreciate them, to even know what they are! I mean anyone (with enough cash!) can play a 1959 dotneck 335, right? Play on Epiphone brothers and sisters!!