One method of determining if your Epiphone guitar was made by Samick is its serial number. Not all were manufactured by Samick.įactory processes were assessed and refined and Epiphones own engineers took a hands-on role in the development of pickups, bridges, toggle switches, and fret inlays, as well as unique features like the metal E logo and frequensator tailpiece. Samick built Epiphone Joe Pass During this era, the new owners of Gibson opened up an office in Seoul to watch over manufacturing of their products. The new owners recognized the importance of the Epiphone brand and how the company could be pushed to match the success of other Asian guitar brands. By 1986 Gibson Guitars was acquired by Harvard MBAs, Henry Juszkiewicz, David Berryman and Gary Zebrowski, bought Gibson/Epiphone from ECL/Norlin.

In the late 1990’s, Fender offered DeArmond guitars for sale in the United States. Initially this brand was introduced in Europe. M-72 In the 1990’s Fender had acquired the brand name. Samick began production of Squiers in 1989. You can determine if your Squier was made by Samick was through its serial number that began with an “S” or “S9” followed by six digits. The first Squier guitars to emerge from Korea started as early as 1986. The Squier brand was developed in 1982 and early on all production was based in Japan. During these years, the Korean musical instrument industry had caught up to its primary competition, Japan, and due to lower construction cost had surpassed them. In fact in 1979, Samick was building the Schumann piano brand for US households. This was especially true in the piano market since costs of US made pianos had escalated. The lower production costs of Korean-manufactured instrument made them attractive to entry level buyers. To facilitate this, a branch office was opened in 1978 in Los Angeles California.

Samick’s thrust was the export market, especially the United States. Because Samick's early home-brand guitars were produced in such limited numbers and without serial numbers, it's. And in 1973 Samick was diversified in its production and changed its name to the Samick Musical Instruments Mfg.Ĭomic logo on Arched headstock. Hondo added and autoharps to their product line up.īy the end of this decadewas selling nearly 800,000 instruments per year. By 1974 the company’s electric guitars had gained a level of quality and became one of the largest selling entry level brands. Hondo initially produced a line of classical and folk guitars. Production methods to the Korean market, while taking advantage of the low-wage level in Korea to offer inexpensive, entry-level guitars. Hondo II SD Curlee The new company introduced modern U.S. Samick formed a joint venture with Texas-based International Music Company (also known as the Company). Hondo Guitars During this same period, the company began to step up the quality of its guitar production.

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