No more Epiphone Elitist?

It seems Epiphone just discontinued Elitist series

Does anyboy know what's going on?

ganzua said:

Does anyboy know what's going on?

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They discontinued them.

marcusnieman said:

ganzua said:

Does anyboy know what's going on?

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They discontinued them.

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yes :lol: but it is just the Elitist series or there will be no Epiphone Japan anymore?

Oh I'm sure it's just the Elitist series. Probably cost them more to make than was worth to them.

marcusnieman said:

Oh I'm sure it's just the Elitist series. Probably cost them more to make than was worth to them.

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What I think is that there is no Epihone Japan or Korea anymore. All production is being made in China. Is this true?

ho epiphone japan were stopped before. When Yamano was dropped by Gibson.

The Elitist seem to be at the Gibson Japan site

http://www.gibson.com/jp%2Djp/Divisions/Epiphone/Elitist/Les%20Paul%20Custom/

japanstrat said:

The Elitist seem to be at the Gibson Japan site

http://www.gibson.com/jp%2Djp/Divisions/Epiphone/Elitist/Les%20Paul%20Custom/

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Maybe they didn't update the web but it is a bit of hope

Even the wiki says that the line is discontinued, here at the end of the article;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphone

There are 2 parts to the Elitist guitars. There are Elitist guitars made to be sold in Japan and then there are Elitist guitars made for export. The export Elitist guitars don't have a open book Gibson like headstock because Gibson keeps that for Gibsons and it doesn't allow any other company exporting guitars to the USA to use it and it doesn't even allow it's own Japanese made Epiphones that are for export to use it. Japanese made guitars made for the Japanese market can use the open book headstock because they are able to legally get around it and the Orvilles/Elites/Elitist guitars were/are competing with open book headstock Burnys and Tokais etc so Gibson probably let the Orvilles/Elites/Elitist guitars that were/are for the Japanese market have a open book headstock. If the Orvilles had been exported from Japan (which they weren't), then the exported Orvilles would not have had an open book headstock.

The whole point of the Orvilles/Elites/Elitist guitars was for Gibson to cut into Greco and Burny and Tokai etc LP copy sales in Japan in the same way Fender did in Japan against Tokai Burny and Greco etc. One of the funny things about Fender Japan is that whoever won the Fender Japan contract had to stop their own Fender copy production so in 1982 the Greco strats were stopped as the owners of Greco were a part of Fender Japan so Fender got rid of the competing Grecos from the start and the same thing happened when the Fender Japan contract went to Tokai so Fender Japan wins in the marketplace. The Elites and Elitist series were exported only as an afterthought. The Orvilles took over a lot of the market from the Grecos and the Greco LP copies fade away by the mid 90s and Gibson won in the marketplace against the Grecos but there still are Burnys and Tokais etc to compete with for market share. Maybe Gibson will favour the faded line rather than the Elitist line as their lower priced guitars sold in Japan, I don't know. The Japanese guitar market sales are worth a lot of money and that's why Fender and Gibson are in Japan. It's just boring business stuff really.

All this was when Yamano Gakki were controlling the distribution in Japan up to 2007 I think and I don't know if the open book headstock thing has changed since then. Yamano Gakki were distributing open book headstock Elitist guitars in Japan and Gibson or it's cooperating distributors were distrubuting Elitist guitars that did not have an open book headstock outside of Japan. Gibson might be cutting back on the exported Elitist guitars but might still be keeping the Elitist guitars going in Japan. I do not really know. There doesn't seem to be anything about the Elitist series being discontinued in the Epiphone news http://www.epiphone.com/news.asp?ShowAll=1
The Elitist Casino still seems to be around http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=302&CollectionID=1
The trouble with wikis are that anyone can write anything. The headstock info is wrong and what are the parts made in the USA and Germany. The Elitist guitars are made by Fujigen and Terada in Japan. Are the parts made in the USA and Germany pickups or what and then they just say the Elitist's are discontinued with no info.

Epiphone had also released a guitar series called Elitist (originally called Elite but changed to avoid confusion with Ovation's Elite model). These were made to a very high specification in Japan, unlike the USA made Gibson guitars, but some parts of the guitars are made in other countries, such as the USA and Germany. These guitars naturally cost more, sometimes twice as much as Standard Epiphone guitars. Standard Epiphone and Gibson guitars have an open-book looking headstock, but Elitist models have a more curved style referencing back to the long discontinued Epiphone Masterbilt series of guitars.
This series was discontinued in 2008.

On this forum someone says they phoned Gibson and the Epiphone Elitist are discontinued but they might be still going in Japan. http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?p=4794483

I didn't know that any Epiphones used the Gibson headstock shape, I thought they all used the older type elongated Epiphone headstock shape? The Casino certainly did.

Mike

Very interesting post Japanstrat

Epiphone had also released a guitar series called Elitist (originally called Elite but changed to avoid confusion with Ovation's Elite model). These were made to a very high specification in Japan, unlike the USA made Gibson guitars, but some parts of the guitars are made in other countries, such as the USA and Germany. These guitars naturally cost more, sometimes twice as much as Standard Epiphone guitars. Standard Epiphone and Gibson guitars have an open-book looking headstock, but Elitist models have a more curved style referencing back to the long discontinued Epiphone Masterbilt series of guitars.
This series was discontinued in 2008.

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I was referring to these series. I thought Elitist were the only Epiphones that currently were being made in Japan.

Here a couple of threads more;

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/epiphone-les-pauls/13354-les-paul-epiphone-elitist-gibson-ltd-ec-1000-sds.html

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/my-other-guitars/18820-wtf-epiphone-masterbuilt-discontinued.html

Here's a Japanese Epi LP Jr. that's been on eBay for months.

cashcow said:

Here's a Japanese Epi LP Jr. that's been on eBay for months.

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First time I've ever seen an Epiphone like this one

Therefore, now we have Chinese Epiphones, open book japanese Epiphones for the internal market, no more japanese Elitist series and no more korean Epiphones. Right?

ganzua said:

cashcow said:

Here's a Japanese Epi LP Jr. that's been on eBay for months.

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First time I've ever seen an Epiphone like this one

Therefore, now we have Chinese Epiphones, open book japanese Epiphones for the internal market, no more japanese Elitist series and no more korean Epiphones. Right?

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Too confusing for me. FYI, open book Epi's have been around a long time.

cashcow said:

Here's a Japanese Epi LP Jr. that's been on eBay for months.

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I have one like this. With the good pick up upgrade they are fantastic guitars. This one I'll never let go!

I didn't know that any Epiphones used the Gibson headstock shape, I thought they all used the older type elongated Epiphone headstock shape? The Casino certainly did.

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The Gibson-based models (eg Les Pauls, the 335 'Dot', SGs, etc) used either an open-book headstock (for the domestic/Japanese market) or curved top headstock for the export instruments.

The Casino had a 'proper' Epiphone headstock because it was an actual original Epiphone design (albeit one twinned with the Gibson 330).

As regards the future of the Elitist line, it would be shame if it is no more. I have a Dot which is great in all respects. I am sceptical regarding the Elitists being made in China in the future, as their status as a premium product range is their biggest asset.

The Epiphone Japans on eBay were part of the Limited Lacquer range and have seemingly come to the end of their run, as close-out deals were around for a while and the supply seems to be running out.

I currently have one of these special lacquer series les pauls in cherryburst...these are 2 piece solid top plain and 2 piece back and real gibbo headstock...Just purchased a white custom from the same line and should receive shortly...these have a very long neck tennon and the weight of both guitars under 9lbs ....Iam told from a friend in japan these are no longer being made since 07..

hello hunter. after you got the custom show your 2 epi japan
lacquer series here. they are very nice but only made for a few years.....
the epiphone japan lacquer series man. we miss those good ones really.....

Hello Joe ....be happy to post pics later in week..will try to take better pics next time .....