The Unofficial Epiphone Wiki:About

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Epiphone Wiki Archive
Epiphone Wiki Archive

Contents

General Information


These pages are a modified siterip of the 2016 Unofficial Epiphone Wiki and are no longer able to be updated.
This archive has been uploaded to provide continuous access to the information previously contained in the Unofficial Epiphone Guitars Wiki. All relevant information and links should be present and functional.

This website is intended for educational and research purposes only in helping to accurately identify Epiphone brand guitars of the past and present.

The information contained in this website may not be 100% complete or accurate.

This website is not affiliated with the Epiphone Company or Gibson Guitar Corporation in any way.


What the Epiphone Wiki does

  • Provides a comprehensive list of Epiphone Intruments and other products.
  • Provides specifications for Epiphone instruments and products.
  • Provides Information to help identify Epiphone products.
  • Provides serial and model number decoding information for Epiphone products.
  • Provides images and accurate representations of Epiphone products.
  • Provides brief histories and facts pertaining to Epiphone products.
  • Links to arcticles on Wikipedia for related keywords and products.


What the Epiphone Wiki does not do

  • We do not buy or sell musical instruments or products.
  • We do not help to locate discontinued parts or products.
  • We do not evaluate or assign monetary values to instruments or products.



About the Epiphone Wiki


The Original Epi-Wiki

Epi-Wiki 2010
Epi-Wiki 2010

The original "Epi-Wiki" was started in 2008 by two Australian teenagers with a love for Epiphone and a desire to make a comprehensive list of products and specification relating to the Epiphone company. As an open wiki, the original Epi-Wiki was available for editing to anyone that was a member of the related forum. Due to a lack of interest from most forum members, the Epi-Wiki didnt recieve much content but provided motivation and the basis for the current incarnation of the Epiphone Wiki.


Despite this, the original Epi-Wiki recieved much praise as a potential source of information from Epiphone fans across the inernet. After almost two years with little in the way of content, an apparent lack of funding, as well as interest, forced the Epi-Wiki to close its doors sometime in 2010.




The Epiphone Strat & Telecaster Guide

Epiphone Strat & Telecaster Guide
Epiphone Strat & Telecaster Guide

In 2009, I began a project called the "Epiphone Strat & Telecaster Guide". Compiling information from the Epi-Wiki, catalogs, websites and other sources, I created a website specifically designed to catalog information about the Epiphone S-Series and T-Series instruments. Included in this was a spec sheet from the 1998 Epiphone catalog as a means to help support some of my information. Later additions included Epiphone E-Series guitars and the S-Series headstock guide.


At the time, there were many questions on a variety of message boards asking about the Epiphone S & T-Series guitars. Many people had never seen them before and others thought that they might be fake or counterfeit Epiphone products. Queries about these models were cropping up on a weekly basis, and many people were left with questions unanswered. Realizing this, I decided it was time to research these models and put the information on a website for everyone to see. The Strat & Tele guide was a success and people were able to gain information about their mysterious Epiphone Strat & Tele-like guitars. With nearly 50,000 unique hits, the Strat & Tele Guide went offline for good in November, 2013. Currently, the Epiphone Wiki covers all of the information in the Strat & Tele Guide with more accurate and updated specifications.



The Epiphone Wiki

- In the Beginning

Epiphone Wiki 2011 Epiphone Wiki 2012
Epiphone Wiki 2011
Epiphone Wiki 2012
Epiphone Wiki 2013
Epiphone Wiki 2013
Epiphone Wiki 2014 Epiphone Wiki 2015-2016
Epiphone Wiki 2014
Epiphone Wiki 2015-2016

Sometime around late 2009/early 2010 we started seeing signs that the Epi-Wiki was in trouble. The owner, at the time, was asking if anyone was interested in taking over and continuing the project. Myself and another person expressed our interest, but never got word from the Wiki owner on whether or not he was ready to pass it on to us. Sometime in early 2010, the Epi-Wiki went offline never to return without a word from its owners.

Shorty after this, I painstakingly searched for, and saved, every cached page from the Epi-Wiki that I could find. My thought was that even if the Wiki was gone, I still may be able to answer some guitar related question with the remnants of the website. The Strat & Tele Guide was still going strong and saw an increase in traffic as the Epi-Wiki cached pages started to disappear from search engines. During this time I tossed around the idea of starting a new wiki where the old Epi-Wiki left off. Myself and fellow forum member & friend, Greg Fitts (R.I.P.), bounced ideas back and forth for several months before taking any actions. Greg had his own project of compiling a database of info and links to anything guitar related, but was instrumental in setting the direction of the wiki project and provided much encouragement to get things off the ground. We decided that the best course of action was to contact another individual (that previously showed interest in taking over the original Epi-Wiki) to partner with me for this project.

Agreeing to take on the project, my new partner Sjael and I quickly began to formulate a plan to create a new Epiphone related wiki. On January 14, 2011, I bought the epiphonewiki.com domain. Sjael provided the hosting and set up the wiki program shortly afterward. Our original idea was to use the information from the original Epi-Wiki as a starting point for the new wiki. Quickly learning that the information structure was different than what we had in mind for our own website, we scrapped that plan and started from scratch.

- Moving Along

Greg Fitts 1960-2012
"Animalfarm"
Greg Fitts 1960-2012

Very little info from the original wiki ended up being used for the website you see today. Much of the info was readily available from other sources. As well, these other sources were more accurate and complete. The Epi-Wiki cached pages became mostly a supporting reference guide for cross-checking information and listing some specifications that we hadnt yet obtained from other sources. Today, little, if any, information from the original wiki can be found on the current Epiphone Wiki website. Much of it has been corrected, added upon or deleted altogether.

On January 15, 2012, our good friend, confidante, inspiration & motivation for the wiki, Greg Fitts, known on the Official Epiphone Forums as "Animalfarm", passed away due to lung cancer. His project of compliled guitar and guitar-related information now takes up permanant residence here on the Epiphone Wiki.


On January 14, 2013, on the two-year anniversary of the Epiphone Wiki, we suffered a major server meltdown and lost about 75% of the information contained in the wiki. Between old backups, cached pages and the Wayback Machine, we were able to recover about 80% of the info that we had lost. We spent a solid three months putting the pieces of the wiki back together. During this time, we decided to bring another friend onboard who is knowledgable in Epiphone guitars and related products to help expedite the recovery. This proved to be a good move and the recovery was mostly completed in a timely fashion. With few exceptions, the Epiphone Wiki is back to its original state. Some pages ended up better than they were previously, and other small details have yet to be re-included to the wiki. This does not, however, take away from the vast resouce of information that is the Epiphone Wiki. As the remaining older details slowly make their way back to these pages, new information, corrections and additions are being discovered all the time. We welcome any info that anyone wants to provide, but some info may take a little longer to add as we attempt to prioritize our duties.

- Epiphone Wiki 2016

As of 2016 the Epiphone Wiki contains over 3000 pages of Epiphone guitars and guitar-related content with over 10,000 supporting images. The wiki has acquired almost 2,000,000 pages views, with over 131,000 on the main page. As our traffic continues to grow, so does our desire to add more useful content to the pages of the Epiphone Wiki. Recently, we've added serial number decoding, model number decoding, guitar cases and rare & uncommon Epiphone catalogs, along with a couple pages of Epiphone color reference charts. We answer questions in multiple internet forums on a daily basis, as well as personally answer email queries from Epiphone owners and fans from across the globe. As the popularity in Epiphone products grows, we are honored to be a part of the Epiphone community in providing people with accurate information about their Epiphone brand instruments. Though there are only three of us currenty maintaining and updating the wiki, the popularity, accuracy and breadth of information contained in these pages wouldnt be nearly what it is today if not for the multitude of people that contribute information, additions, correction and overall positive support for this project through internet forums, facebook and emails on a daily basis. I would like to personally extend our gratitude to anyone and everyone that has contributed informations of any kind to this project and especially those who see fit to extend their own gratitude and kind words to our endeavor.


- Epiphone Wiki 2017

Due to various reasons, the Epiphone Wiki went offline in March of 2017 indefinitely.



- Epiphone Wiki Archive 2019

In 2019 the Epiphone Wiki was hastily ressurected from a site rip as a static website and renamed to The Epiphone Wiki Archive. From this point there will be no updates to the information contained on this website.



Thank you to Jim Rosenberg


Jim Rosenberg
Jim Rosenberg

I would also like to extend my own gratitude to Epiphone CEO, Jim Rosenberg for making Epiphone what it is today. Under Mr. Rosenberg's guidance, Epiphone has once again become a great company, as well as a leader and innovator in the guitar market by not only constantly improving the qualilty and functionality of Epiphone products, but also by asking questions and listening to input from his customers. Without everything that Mr. Rosenberg has done, the extent of this wiki would not be necessary, or quite possibly (this wiki) may not even be necessary at all. The direction and guidance of Jim Rosenberg has once again brought fans and fanatics back to the Epiphone brand and that is really what this Epiphone Wiki website is all about.


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