From the moment in December 1927 when Epaminondas “Epi” Stathopoulo officially changed the name of his musical instrument manufacturing company from the House of Stathopoulo to the Epiphone Banjo Corporation (later shortened to Epiphone Inc. in 1935), the company seemed motivated to outdo their main rival, Gibson. The rivalry probably existed well before then, but as Epiphone eventually transformed its primary focus from building banjos and mandolins to guitars, the competition between the two companies became increasingly evident. Almost from the very beginning of Epiphone’s guitar production efforts in 1928, there was a synergy between the two brands—somewhat adversarial at first, but also with considerable admiration on both sides.
Epiphone’s guitar production expanded rapidly during the Art Deco Thirties, and the company quickly became known as a preeminent maker of jazz archtop guitars. Gorgeous and stylish, these instruments lived up to their big city, aristocratic names—Broadway, Emperor, De Luxe—in every way. The rivalry between Gibson and Epiphone significantly drove the evolution of archtop acoustic and electric guitars during this period. For example, when Gibson introduced the Super 400 in 1934, which featured an 18-inch body and was Gibson’s largest archtop at that time, Epiphone responded by developing the Emperor, which boasted an 18 1/2-inch body.
Epiphone also had a geographic advantage thanks to the company being based in the heart of New York’s vibrant music scene, where they had better access to the leading performers of the time than Gibson did in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Epiphone’s factory and showroom at 142 West 14th Street in Manhattan became a hangout for the city’s top players, who regularly turned up for Saturday afternoon jam sessions hosted by Epi and his siblings Orphie, Frixo and Minnie, who were also involved in the family business.
One of the guitarists who frequented the