The Epiphone Company or Epiphone is a musical instrument manufacturer company founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. In 1957 Epiphone was purchased by the Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which was also an owner of the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Epiphone was Gibson's biggest rival in the semi-acoustic guitar market. His professional guitars including the Emperor, Deluxe, Broadway, and Triumph competed with (and some even outperformed) some of Gibson's guitars. In addition to guitars, Epiphone also manufactures bass, banjos and other string instruments. Anyway, a lot has changed as a result of World War II allowing it to be bought by Gibson. Epiphone is the only brand in the world to own approval from Gibson to produce replicas of some more iconic guitar models that have ever surfaced on the music scene. The name "Epiphone" is the combination of the nickname of the owner and founder's son, Epaminondas Stathpoulos "Epi", who took control of the brand with the death of the father in 1915, and "phone" (from the Greek "phon-", "sound"/"voice"), and also in the allusion of the meaning of the word "Epiphany".
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