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Epiphone Les Paul from Bohemia Plant in Czech Republic. Any information out there?

_Dangerbird_

By _Dangerbird_
in Electric Guitars

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Funderbunk Newbie

Funderbunk

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I found this snippet on The Gear Page forum:

The Guitar Dater Project website says:

Bohemia Musico-Delica Plant

 

Not much is known about this factory, guitars made here are only sold in Europe. However, the production quality at this factory is said to be superior to its Chinese and Korean counterparts.

 

I got mine in '97, and it still rips.

 

Chris

 

The Guitar Dater Project website they refer to is at:

 

http://www.guitardaterproject.org/epiphone.aspx

 

As a side note, I also found a list of Epiphone factory codes, based on the first letter of the serial number -

 

 

 

SI = Samick - Origin - Indonesia

S = Samick - Origin - Korea

SJ = Saejun - Origin - China

SM = Samil - Origin - Samil,Korea

U = Unsung - Origin - Korea

UC = Unsung - Origin - China

Z = Zaozhuang saehan - Origin - China

J = T Terada - Origin - Japan

O = Choice - Origin - Korea

P/R = Peerless - Origin - Korea

FN/N = Fine Guitars - Origin - Korea

I = Saein - Origin - Korea

K = Korea Ins - Origin - Korea

F = Fujigen - Origin - Japan

EE = Qingdao - Origin - China

EA = Qingdao - Origin - China

MC = Muse - Origin - China

DW = Daewon Origin - China

B = Bohemia Musico - Origin - Czech Republic

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_Dangerbird_ Newbie

_Dangerbird_

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I found this snippet on The Gear Page forum:


The Guitar Dater Project website says:

Bohemia Musico-Delica Plant


Not much is known about this factory, guitars made here are only sold in Europe. However, the production quality at this factory is said to be superior to its Chinese and Korean counterparts.


I got mine in '97, and it still rips.


Chris


The Guitar Dater Project website they refer to is at:




As a side note, I also found a list of Epiphone factory codes, based on the first letter of the serial number -




SI = Samick - Origin - Indonesia

S = Samick - Origin - Korea

SJ = Saejun - Origin - China

SM = Samil - Origin - Samil,Korea

U = Unsung - Origin - Korea

UC = Unsung - Origin - China

Z = Zaozhuang saehan - Origin - China

J = T Terada - Origin - Japan

O = Choice - Origin - Korea

P/R = Peerless - Origin - Korea

FN/N = Fine Guitars - Origin - Korea

I = Saein - Origin - Korea

K = Korea Ins - Origin - Korea

F = Fujigen - Origin - Japan

EE = Qingdao - Origin - China

EA = Qingdao - Origin - China

MC = Muse - Origin - China

DW = Daewon Origin - China

B = Bohemia Musico - Origin - Czech Republic

 

 

 

 

mhm, i know that bit of information. there is one on ebay, and try to find out more before bidding. looks great so far, kind of "vintage", compared to my 2006 plastic-shiny China Epi..

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tiltsta Newbie

tiltsta

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I heard the Bohemia-Misco factory is well known for making accordions. The made the Harmonika brand Czech stuff...which I heard was pretty good quality, as far as accordions go. I know nothing about accordions, so I can't judge that statement. I also heard the same company makes upright electric bass guitars for Ned Steinberger designs.

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_Dangerbird_ Newbie

_Dangerbird_

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I heard the Bohemia-Misco factory is well known for making accordions. The made the Harmonika brand Czech stuff...which I heard was pretty good quality, as far as accordions go. I know nothing about accordions, so I can't judge that statement. I also heard the same company makes upright electric bass guitars for Ned Steinberger designs.

 

mmm, accordions :D

 

by the way, this is the guitar:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150318264937

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cavpilot Newbie

cavpilot

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I just don't think of that part of the world making great things. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

 

Yes, you are wrong.

Beer.

Babes.

Cars that are not Yugos.

Sports.

and what I thought was the most beautiful city in Europe. (MY opinion...YMMV)

 

 

disclaimer: Prague's Harley-Davison dealership sucks wet monkey balls...but it's not as bad as one of the ones in Paris. Worst dealership on earth.

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Funderbunk Newbie

Funderbunk

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I just don't think of that part of the world making great things. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

 

Well, it depends, particularly in the countries that were under Soviet rule. If the factory was making items for the military, or items considered by lord-knows-who to be important, quality could be quite good - after all, in a non-capitalist economy, if your focus is quality you can do well when the final cost and deadlines aren't the priority. If the factory was making things for the general masses, well, they could churn out crap, because they had no competition and no motive to improve.

 

There's a kit car manufacturer from Utah who started building aluminum bodied replicas of Cobras in a former MiG aircraft plant in Poland. He has said getting started almost made him crazy because they were such perfectionists - doing things like temperature stabilizing this massive frame jig, and running it under an enormous milling machine to get it square to thousandths of an inch.

 

Similarly, my cousin is a candy scientist (side note: I seriously went into the wrong field - she gets paid to be Willy Wonka) was telling me that more candy manufacturers are moving production to Poland because there's a large workforce of affordable labor that is highly educated and tends to take pride in quality.

 

They can make good stuff in that part of the world - but they can also make crap.

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MaxW Newbie

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On 12/30/2008 at 4:19 PM, _Dangerbird_ said:

Well, you always read about the eternal Korea-China Battle, when it comes to Epiphone Les Pauls.

But what about the Bohemia Plant in the Czech Republic? Its "B" in the Serial.

How is their quality compared to the Koreans?

Quality is terrific. Guitar is quite heavy but plays heavenly. Got one with handmade pickups (Steff Peire) for quite some time now and is my favourit by far. Leaves Korea far behind and word goes around that Czech built guitars are (almost)  equal to Japanese built ones 

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