Epiphone Bich copy

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I lose count of the number of times I've seen eBay sellers trying to shift what they insist on calling a "RARE Gibson Epiphone STRAT". They always emphasize the RARE and the fact that it is a Strat but Gibson-made (which it isn't, it was made in Korea). The words "rare" and "mint" have little currency on eBay these days as they are bandied about with wild abandon and without any basis in truth or the seller having done a little basic research.
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The Epiphone "Strats" and "Teles" were quite a common sight in music shops in the late 1980s. They offered a fairly decent S or T-type guitar for the price in those days (they were budget-line instruments). Personally I always felt that the Explorer-like banana headstock looked slightly incongruous on those body shapes, but I guess Epiphone wanted to reference their parent company somewhere in the design.
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
Now this Epiphone copy of a B.C. Rich Bich (shown above) is a new one on me, but I'm guessing it would have come from the same period. It's probably rarer than the Fender-derived designs but I doubt it's particularly rare or of any great value. It's an interesting one, and certainly should be of consistent workmanship for an Epi of that period.
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
But as ever, if you know differently then please leave a comment!

G L Wilson

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