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While we may not be seeing much going on in the Gibson branded archtop world, they do continue to do some under the Epiphone name. Here is one of the latest, done as a 150th anniversary model. The pickups are even done to look much like the NY Tone Spectrum pickups of the 1950s, although these are actually mini humbuckers. What do you guys think?
Epiphone | 150th Anniversary Zephyr DeLuxe Regent
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07-18-2023 11:21 AM
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Very cool to see this. Any idea where it is made?
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Aren't Epiphones made in China now? At $1,200 it's not going to be US made if that's what you're getting at.
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It might be Korean made. The neck construction looks to be a lot like guitars from the Guild Newark Street collection. Those are made in Korea, or at least they were at some point.
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Very cool go Epiphone !
Since Gibson owns Epiphone maybe they are testing the archtop market before they put their toe in the water again.
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Dude, if you think that I might think a 1200 dollar archtop is going to be US made, you underestimate me at your peril (and that is how I like it.
Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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My question is pretty much Korea vs. China and I am betting that it is from China. But if it is Korean made, it could be a fine guitar for the money. If it is Chinese made, IMO it will need some more money thrown at it to be right.
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Just came here to post about this. Very very cool. Would be cooler if it were USA made and the parts/specs were more vintage correct. But still awesome. love the cloud inlays.
If this were made by Gibson Custom shop luthiers, I'd have already bought it.
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Made in Indonesia. Sweetwater has a bunch in stock. They look nice.
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I heard rumblings they were making something to compete with the L5-style Loars; I guess this is it.
Good news for me, since I was digging for a messed up original to have made with a pair of TK Smith's Bigsby pickup replicas, in the manner of Hank Garland's "Sugarfoot" guitar.
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My experience is that the Indonesian guitars are a bit better than the Chinese made guitars, but not on a par with the Korean made ones. Originally Posted by vinnyv1k
The Japanese made guitars can exceed the quality of US made. It would be cool if they made some Japanese made Epiphone archtops again.
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Originally Posted by slabboardsam
Wouldn't that be the Broadway reissue from Spring?
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My experience has been that the Chinese Qingdao guitars are the highest build quality from Epi outside of Japanese stuff. And I despise China as a nation on so many levels, so if anything I am heavily biased against anything they make. As always though, the electronics in these guitars are more or less complete junk not fit or trustworthy for bandstand or money making use, it doesn't matter where they are made in terms of korea, indonesia, and china. The nuts are often plastic on the lower end models, so I find that must be rectified. The guitars themselves make a great lower cost base for someone on a budget to modify. I have handled more than a few that were the beginning of a lifetime quality instrument but you'll often dump more than the guitar originally cost getting it there. The upside is it's still a reasonable investment compared to a lot of instruments when you finally reach that point. You just can't get your money back on the used market when you do that. Originally Posted by Stringswinger
This might be interesting to someone. From about 2017. They have a real nice facility over there. 700 guitars a day. Average employee has been there 10 years. Average employment length of QC workers, 12 years. The laminate body pressing machines appear to be pretty state of the art but what do I know.
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Just noticed that puppy has a multi piece neck! Sick! Been wondering why they can make a Sheraton with a five piece neck for less money but the more expensive Broadway is some half assed looking arrangement. Dig the cloud inlays too. Nice guitar!
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I think it's time to stop putting countries of manufacture into a strict pecking order. Tonewoods, electronics, build quality - so many variables that generalizations are just what they are. It's my understanding that, despite low wages, Asian operators also possess the latest manufacturing technology. Understandably, Gibson wants to stay US-made. Making archtops, after a long break, with antiquated machinery and US wages/ancillary costs is a challenging proposition. Good quality Epiphones made wherever to affordable prices are more than welcome.
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Would have liked the look more if it had a Frequensator tailpiece.As far as it being made in Indonesia, i have a limited edition PRS se from there and the guitar is made very well.
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I like that they kept it at a 25.5” scale. Even though the pickups are cheap mini humbuckers, I can’t help but think they may still sound better that the original NY pickups did. Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
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maybe they didn't want to deal w/the usual eventual cracking of the Frequensator or maybe it was just too expensive @ this price point. Originally Posted by nyc chaz
I know that those control knobs are in demand so that's probably good news for some if they can be had sans guitar.
what's w/ the skewed bridge angle? maybe that particular one wasn't set up yet.
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Love to see Epiphone doubling down on their more original designs rather than just cheap Gibson models.
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Couldn’t agree more. It’s all about the specs. Great (and bad) guitars can be made anywhere nowadays. First folks opened up to Japanese guitars being good, the Korea, now Indonesia is getting there. Originally Posted by Gitterbug
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Really, really love that they're doing this and the refreshed Broadway. I hope that they're getting closer to bringing back the 175 and Joe Pass too.
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Well they put the Frequensator on their Riviera model and that is half the price of the Zephyr.Regardless it looks like they did a nice job but the thing that matters most is how does it play and sound. Originally Posted by wintermoon
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While I think it's absurd to despise a nation or nationality and it's equally inane to choose your guitar purchases for political/global trade reasons, I think it's clear that differences in guitar quality among countries are influenced by domain-specific craftsmanship, cultural traditions, expertise, resources, and budget management. These disparities follow statistical distributions. While Country A may generally produce better instruments than Country B on average, it doesn't mean that a guitar made by Country B is incapable of surpassing 80% of Country A's offerings.
A guitar produced in indonesia by a group of inexperienced factory laborers who do not have the same exposure to jazz music (an american artform) likely won't be of the same quality as one produced in the USA by a small guild of workers who have passed traditions and standards along for generations. This isn't the laborer's fault, the decision makers who are employing these laborers to build guitars abroad at the lowest cost possible are as american as our archtop luthiers. Maybe even more so, in a profit-maximizing, global-fordist sort of way.
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If you want an instrument that's created by experienced hands belonging to people who've been in the trade for generations you're not going to find that from any big manufacturers. You're going to have to go completely custom and spend tens of thousands of dollars getting a meticulously crafted guitar by a single luthier. Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
Take a look at Gibson's job openings, for example. None of the machining or finishing jobs have any sort of previous experience requirement. At this point companies are just happy to have people applying for manufacturing roles considering the low pay and exhausting conditions. For most of these workers it's just another factory job.
I'm happy to support US labor but let's not pretend that there's something magical about guitars made in the US. In the end we're either going to be getting a guitar that came out of a CNC machine in China or a CNC machine in the US. If Chinese factories were given the same quality wood, hardware, and nitrocellulose lacquer used in US factories no one would be able to tell the difference.
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Yeah I agree; I think you're reading positions into my post that I didn't express. I don't think US production is inherently magical by any means; I'm just saying that there are distribution skews. You won't find the same number of master archtop builders outside of the US and parts of Europe. Not because other countries are incapable, just because the expertise doesn't exist at the same scale. So yeah, I'm talking more about the small-batch boutique and luthier builders. I have no experience non-custom shop US-made gibson; i.e. those assembly line gigs at the bozeman "plant". I don't have reason to believe it's any better or worse than Epiphone (other than an dislike of polyurethane on guitars). Originally Posted by Arcoril
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Yeah, that's fair. The general demand for archtops has been pretty dismal so it's no surprise that the remaining expertise is concentrated in small areas. That said, China and Indonesia make a lot of flattop acoustics and they have experience working with laminates. If archtop demand ever comes back I imagine they'd be able to jump right into that market. Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
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