THE UNION OF EPIPHONE AND GIBSON
While Epiphone's problems got worse as the 1950s progressed, Gibson was going from strength to strength. Its main competition now came from the California-based Fender Company, creator of the Telecaster and Stratocaster models that had been released earlier that same decade. If Gibson had a weakness, it was that their upright bass production had stopped before the war and never started again. So when Gibson's general manager, Ted McCarty, received a call from Orphie asking whether he'd be interested in buying out the Epiphone bass business (still a hugely respected division of the company, despite its troubles), he didn't need asking twice. McCarty paid the $20,000 asking price and Gibson took control of Epiphone in May 1957.
Gibson's original intention was to harness the reputation of the Epiphone bass line. By 1957, this plan had been scrapped. Instead, McCarty wrote in a memo that year, the Epiphone brand would be revived and a new line of instruments created. These Gibson-made Epiphones would then be offered to dealers who were keen to win a Gibson contract, but still earning their stripes (the right to sell Gibson models was hotly contested between dealerships at this time). It was the perfect solution. Dealers would get a Gibson-quality product, without treading on the toes of the traders who already sold the real thing. The Epiphone operation was relocated to Kalamazoo (the same city as Gibson HQ) and work began.
