Odd Twelve string its a Epiphone but it has a truss rod cover that says gibson its a beautiful sounding one and its MADE IN THE USA!!.

[Ian Supplee]

Is it special or is it a custom model what is it lol other than a awesome sounding, USA made, 12 string acoustic.

[Frank Ford]

Sorry, but I'd say that's a Asian-made instrument.  Gibson is the owner of the Epiphone trademark, and they used "Gibson" only on the imported ones.  Deceptive, yes.

[Paul Verticchio]

Can you give us a shot of the label, neckblock, the back to the headstock and the edge of the sound hole (from the side) Ian?

It's definitely NOT USA made.  If it's not a MIJ FT series (avoid them like the plague) , my initial guess is that it's Korean.

[Ned Knepp]

Google an Epiphone 212 12 string and take a look at the truss rod cover. 

[Ian Barker]

Paul - I'm keen to know what's so bad about the MIJ FT's.  I bought my spruce/mahogany FT147 new in 1972 and has been exposed to every climate, it's still structurally near-perfect, and is finally needing a neck reset (and replacement of the crummy adjustable saddle).  Like most MIJ's of that era, conversion to bolt-on is probably the only option. What horrors am I missing?

[Paul Verticchio]

Ian B.:

I should have said the FT's with bolt on necks.

Check the forum's archives.  It seems as if for a while there was a discussion on the poorly designed neck block on those models.  Specifically, the neck block fails and it takes part of the top with it.  There are tons of pic's that accompany the discussions.

I owned 3 MIJ FT's in the early 70's and had nightmarish experiences with them, as in 2  of their necks twisted within 6 months and the other simply got passed over in QC when it should have hit the dumpster.

Hope that helps clarify.  Glad to hear that yours is doing well as they didn't sound too bad at all.

Best of luck (:

[Ian Supplee]

well i saw in the sound hole now it says koria but hey my koria guitar sings it is shit that for sure but its odd though it has a gibson truss rod cover like the cover says gibson.

[Ian Supplee]

Also it has inlays like thisand a gibson like inlay on the headstock like this.

[Ian Supplee]

but it says  epiphone on it not gibson.

[Ian Barker]

Paul - all is clear!  I've now found refence to two different companies building MIJ FT-series Epiphones - FujiGen and Matsumoku.  The white label ones (FujiGen?) are the inferior bolt-ons, mine is a blue label and definitely a keeper.

Ian S - FWIW, there's a thread elsewhere about fake Epiphone Les Pauls being sold on Ebay.  Maybe just coincidence? 

[Paul Verticchio]

Ian B.:   Glad to have been of assistance. Good work on the research.   

Those were unusually poor quality instruments from FugiGen. Their later Ibanez, Fender Japan & Orville lines were extraordinary guitars, but that was a few years later.

I’ve had a few of the forgery Gibsons come across the bench. They are made to outright deceive people by having Made in the USA stamped into the back of the headstock. The "dead give aways” are: the truss rod cover and the neck binding near the nut. Otherwise, they are visually indistinguishable from USA made Gibsons. Personally, I rate the build quality higher on the fakes than the current real deals! Granted, the hardware is junk but....they’d make good stage guitars with a few upgrades. Their existence, nonetheless, is deplorable. BTW: the person behind their sale & exporting got 3 years in a Chinese prison for selling fakes in the US.

Ian S.:

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out the point of your post. Can you put your thoughts into a, or a series of, questions?

Here's a little history and a short answer on what you have:

Gibson bought the Epiphone brand name in the 1957. They used it as their "less expensive" line. Epiphones were built on the same production line and were just as well crafted as the Gibsons of the day until 1970 when production was moved to Japan. These were not like the high quality Japanese instruments that we see today. They were low-mid quality.

After Japan, production moved to Korea then China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia etc. The post-1977 Japanese models and the Korean models are considered high-grade imports. They hold no collectability value other than being good utility grade instruments.

In Summary: The pictured guitar is a copy of a Martin D12-28. It was made in Korea. It's branded as an Epiphone. Gibson is the parent company.

So, now that you’re armed with that information; what’s your question?

Best of luck guys (-:

[Ian Supplee]

my question is it a speciel run 12 string cause it sounds good really good.

[Ned Knepp]

Ian S.,

 I've seen some pretty low end guitars that played and sounded good. I doubt it was a special run, if you like how it plays and how it sounds, consider yourself lucky to have found it. 

I have a friend that plays a Seagull 12 string. He tested about 8 different guitars in different stores before finding the one that he like, all of them the same model. How we like the feel and sound is very subjective and I've developed a bit more sophisticated ear then he has but I like it too. It reminds me of a Takamine that a friend of mine bought when we were still young. That guitar still sounds very good to me even though it is not a high dollar guitar.

 I guess the short of what I'm saying is that it doesn't have to be part of a special run for any individual guitar to be "special". I have an old Kay archtop I rebuild that I like just fine but my daughter always asks me to get out a "good guitar if you're going to play". She clearly doesn't like the Kay. Oh well.