Help / Advice Please - Early G400R

[PermissionToLand]

the Korean G-400 with somewhat open book and dot inlays started in 1989...
around that time... the MIJ Orville by Gibson also started up...
so maybe the koreans decided to upgrade the G-400 to offer some competition...

I'm not sure why the G400r is even considered limited edition... limited production perhaps as it's run got cut short since by 1991? Gibson decided that the koreans couldn't have anything resembling an open book headstock...

It's considered a limited edition because it was never in any Epiphone catalog and only produced for a short time.

And I believe the reason the headstocks were changed was to deter copycats, because they also went after Samick's own Les Paul copy that same year, as well as many other copies you see changing their designs that same year. The Japanese only got away with copies in their domestic market because the laws in Japan allow it. Japanese brands couldn't sell copies in America, and Korean brands could sell copies in Japan (and they did). So it wasn't so much Gibson picking and choosing, but different laws in different countries.

 

[DrBGood]

It's considered a limited edition because it was never in any Epiphone catalog and only produced for a short time.

Maybe just semantics, but wouldn't a limited edition be a definite number decided in advance, contrary to a limited production that was cut short by market demand ?

... and in your case, the bound neck and trapezoid inlays.

So was the 2003-2005 Vintage. Though the Vintage has a long tenon and one piece neck.

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[PermissionToLand]

Maybe just semantics, but wouldn't a limited edition be a definite number decided in advance, contrary to a limited production that was cut short by market demand ?

So was the 2003-2005 Vintage. Though the Vintage has a long tenon and one piece neck.

View attachment 47160​

Well, ultimately we don't know anything about this run; why it was created or why it ended. Never mind whether it was actually limited to a certain number of units (unlikely though, because Epiphone is a mass manufacturer and even Gibson USA only rarely does that) or what markets it was sold in and so on. Basically all we know is that they exist and the serial numbers we've seen so far are from around 1989-1990. In fact, the supposed 1990 models may have been misread serials or built very early in the year, because that's when Epiphone changed the headstock. In short, it's anybody's guess what to call this run.

And you're right, I forgot about the G-400 Vintage.