The Epiphone Elite Series

Posted by The Guide in Epiphone Guitars

Ah, the Epiphone Elite Series. A cross between the pricey professional American-made Gibson brand and the Chinese-manufactured Epiphone brand.

The Elites have unfortunately been discontinued for now, so the only option is to get them on eBay or some other auction site. I will warn you that they are exceedingly difficult to find!

There was a gap in the market between Gibson (for profession players) and Epiphone (non-pros) so a compromise was struck: make Gibson-style guitars in Japan, put good hardware on ‘em, pay more attention to detail, and sell ‘em for about halfway between a Gibson and an Epiphone.

Well, it worked, and some pretty sweet axes were crafted.

Think about it: you’d buy a car made in Japan, maybe even over a US made car. But you generally think about stuff made in China as “cheap.” Same goes for guitars. While the Elite Series was made in Japan, the quality was “lexus-esqe,” [or "really really good"]

There’s even a rumor that the Elites were better quality than the Gibsons, and that’s why they pulled the plug on producing the Elites!

So yeah, you can’t easily pick up a new Elite model today, unless you want to order from the Japanese website! [shipping charges & waiting for your guitar make it hardly worth it though.]

But you can always:

Check Other Epiphone Guitars

OR

Check out Gibson Electric Guitars