Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

[ItsaBass]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Regardless of what the quality was or wasn't, the short answer is that they stopped making them because they were not profitable enough to bother making any longer. For whatever reasons that was the case (poor sales and/or low profit margin, for instance), it certainly was the case, or they would still be being produced.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Regardless of what the quality was or wasn't, the short answer is that they stopped making them because they were not profitable enough to bother making any longer. For whatever reasons that was the case (poor sales and/or low profit margin, for instance), it certainly was the case, or they would still be being produced.

There are lots of reasons besides profitability that could lead a company to stop producing a product. A few examples:

- Supply chain problems (a critical part becomes unavailable, for example)
- The factory that produced them is no longer available
- Corporate re-structuring
- Legal issues
- The whim of the executives

 

[guitarded]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

They were all pretty cool entry level valve amps.

 

[AudioWonderland]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

seemed like the amp everyone loved to buy and then sell, or buy and turn into something else.

it sort of started the lunchbox revolution, so it is a bit odd it's no longer part of the current crowd in production.

Not really that odd to me. They had a great idea and did nothing with it. Compare an Egnater Tweaker or a Blackheart Little Giant to a Valve Jr and ask your self which you would buy?

 

[Rick330man]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

I have a Galaxie 10 and a Galaxie 25. Both say "Made in Korea." I had a second Galaxie 10 which I gave to my brother. The output transformer on it fried and took out a few other components, too.

There was no product support for these. I called once to get warranty work done on one of mine. I was told that I had to pay to ship amp to their repair facility and that even if covered a repair might not be possible because they did not have surplus parts. I paid an amp tech in Miami to fix it for about double what shipping would have cost me back to Epiphone (Gibson).

My Galaxie 10 and Galaxie 25 have held up well since then. I took the speaker out of the Galaxie 10 and now use that amp exclusively as a head for bedroom volume practicing. The Galaxie 25 got a speaker swap. Out went the Celestion G12P-80 (too bright) and in went an Eminence Legend 122 alnico.

Epiphone seems to have had a good thing going, but it looks like they were not ready to support the amp line the way they needed to.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

They were piss-poor excuses for amps IMO.

I agree. Forum member Will S_T gave me one a few years ago. I remember being dumbfounded by some aspects of the circuit (more specifically, certain component values that were certain to seriously neuter the amp's performance), and I calculated the turns ratio of the output transformer, which proved it to be not particularly suited to either 4, 6 or 8 Ohm loads. Stock, it sounded way less than average, a seriously disappointing amp.

I read about various mods, and made some changes, bringing it more inline with traditional component values. I replaced the output transformer with something I had on hand that was eminently more suitable, and it made a lot of difference, but still the amp was pretty darned average, certainly nothing to write home about.

I ended up giving it back to Will, because i simply never used it.

 

[Rick330man]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Yet they seem to have almost a cult-like following.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Because they're cheap. Cheap rarely equates to 'good'. My s/s Vox Pathfinder has a far superior clean tone to the Epiphone, and that's coming from someone who has always used tube amps (45+ years).

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Arise ye thread of the ancients!!! Since its up, Ill add my worthless drivel.. Gibson (this is not meant as a bash) does not seem to budget in much support for it's aquired (sp?) brands. They want to make the sales that those brands may bring, but their focus is on the Gibson name. I was actually pretty surprised when the Epiphone branded amps came out. And TBH, was pretty tempted by the Socal (IIRC) model. Was a cool looking tube amp and many of the clips I heard weren't bad.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

In the current epi catalog there is a small elektar amp

 

[Drunken Bowling]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

I had one for a short time in summer '08. Thought it had a bad tube or something, because it sounded awful.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Some could ask why Gibson quit making amps too

hey guys I have a few Epiphones and they are far from bad guitars. My masterbilt acoustic is actually a lot nicer looking/sounding imho than a great deal of gibson acoustics priced at 3-4x the price of my epiphone

I would second that Epiphone does offer some great values. I had a Gibson AJ and an Epiphone Masterbilt AJ500RE (all solid wood, no laminate crap) and doing a blindfold test I chose the Epiphone over it.

I couldn't say the same for the Les Pauls I had though BUT the used price on Gibson Studios is much colser to Epiphones than the Acoustics.

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

I tried a Socal 50 and thought it was pretty good for an entry level tube 1/2 stack, not too far off from a Jet City (I have heard that Mike Soldano was in volved with the desigh, but can't confirm). Given a choice between something like a Blue Voodoo or Marshall MA and the SoCal, the SoCal would easily win. I did own a Valve Special, and after swapping the tubes and replacing the craptacular stock speaker with a Celestion G10 Vintage, it was a really good sounding amp that I wish I still had