Epiphone B-4, c.1949

A sunburst Epiphone B-4 made in New York ca. 1949. It features all laminate construction, with spruce top veneer, maple back and side veneer, and a maple neck/scroll. It carries the original rosewood fingerboard, Epiphone tailpiece with badge, and Kluson tuning machines. An increasingly rare instrument in good condition!

The history of Epiphone is a twisty one that begins in 1917 when Epaminondas “Epi” Anastasios Stathopoulo inherited the family business of making mandolins. In 1928, the business was renamed to the Epiphone Banjo Co. and by 1929 he had added guitars to his line of offerings. Throughout the 1930s a war between Gibson and Epiphone ensued for a majority share of the guitar market, and in 1935 Epi changed the name of his business (once more) to Epiphone Inc., moving production from Queens to Manhattan. In 1941, Epiphone introduced a lineup of five double bass models in response to the Gibson lineup of violin-family instruments, and the Epiphone B-line was born. 

World War II halted production between 1942-1945 and Epi died in 1943 before the war ended. Following several years of leadership upheaval and financial stress, production of Epiphone instruments was moved from Manhattan to Philadelphia, and by the mid-1950s the company had seemingly lost the battle with Gibson. In 1957, Gibson acquired Epiphone Inc. and moved production to Kalamazoo, MI, where they continued to produce double basses through 1963.