The history of Epiphone guitars starts in Turkey in 1873 with Anastasios Stathopoulos, who sold and repaired traditional stringed instruments, but Ron’s story starts after he moved to New York City and his son, Epaminondas who took over the business, renamed it Epiphone in 1928.
The golden years continued until 1957, when Gibson acquired them, and here’s the story in Ron’s words.
My family always spent the holidays at my Uncle Dan and Aunt Barb’s house. As kids we would sneak away to the basement and pull out this old blonde archtop guitar and take turns playing it. At some point, we questioned Aunt Barb as to why she had this cool old guitar. She casually said “oh, my father made it,” to which we replied, “but Aunt Barb, it’s an Epiphone.” She then replied, “my maiden name is Stathopoulo, and my dad Frixo, and his two brothers, Epi and Orphie owned Epiphone, and he built this one for himself.” She explained as a child, she was aware of the family business, but as she grew older and the company was sold, she was not familiar with the historical significance of the company. Aunt Barb, being an in-law, we were not aware of her maiden name, so of course, we were blown away, and let her know how important her family was in making guitars, basses, and other stringed instruments, in what was the Golden Age of guitar making.
Her family hit a bump in the road, and she wound up selling the guitar to collector Scott Chinery back in the late 90’s or so. At that same time, she was contacted by Jim Fisch for an interview for his book, The House of Stathopoulo, a great read, and a factual account of the Epiphone story. She shared that her father was a great innovator for the company, and was responsible for designing the Frequensator tailpiece so common on Epiphones. He also designed and built the floating pickups on his personal guitar. Aunt Barb is in her 80’s now and we still get to hear her great Epi stories every time we get together…she is a special lady for many more reasons than her family history, and we hold her very dear to our hearts. I only regret that I didn’t get the guitar!
Ron Rauso is a longtime member of the JSJBF and has played in many bands over his lifetime. His current band, The Burners, plays music in the style of the Mighty Burner, Charles Erland, and you can follow them on Facebook to see upcoming dates.