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The first patent filed in the long history of the Stathopoulo family was by founder Anastasios Stathopoulo for a “new, original and ornamental design for the Mandolin’ (Pat. No. 40,010). its most striking feature was the cello-style scrolled headstock with a carved animal’s head that would appear on several instruments. As listed on the patent, Anastasios was not yet a U.S. citizen and “a subject of the King of Greece, residing in New York”.
After Anastasios’ death in 1915, the newly christened “House of Stathopoulo” ushered in the second era in the history of the family’s growing musical instrument business headed by eldest son Epi Stathopoulo. In 1916, at the age of 23 and only a year after his father’s death, Epi had filed his first banjo patent (Pat. No. 1,248,196), followed by another in 1920 (Pat. No. 1,346,597), and was granted a fourth in 1929.
Epi was well aware of what instruments Americans wanted to play and with great foresight, Epi got the jump on their Michigan-based rival Gibson by diving into a new market for this uniquely American instrument, the banjo. Unfortunately, there was a lawsuit filed by William Lange (Paramount & Orpheum Banjos) against Epiphone for infringing on Lange’s banjo rim and resonator design. Some small news clips claimed it was eventually settled out of court.
By the 1930’s, Epiphone had all but abandoned the banjo market and were refocused on making some of their very best guitars. In 1937, Epiphone introduced the ‘Electar’ brand of electric guitars & amplifiers, including several patents for electric Hawaiian lap steel guitars. The first was the Electar Model M patented by Epi Stathopoulo (Pat. No. 105,351), which was a patented design, as it was not a new invention per se.
The second was a design patent by long-time Epiphone employee Herb Sunshine (Pat. No. 114,772), a variation on the basic lap steel, which became the ‘Century’ model.
Epi’s brother Frixo patented Epiphone’s first double-neck Hawaiian with was named ‘The Rocco’ model that first appeared in their 1939-1940 catalog. (Pat No. 2,222,959), that incorporated a new design for a new style pickup configuration.
Herb Sunshine also patented a new type of pickup (Pat. No. 2,175,325) that was used on Epiphone’s lap steels. In addition, he was the designer of one of the most recognizable Epiphone designs, the ‘Frequensator’ tailpiece that adorned all high-end Epiphone guitars starting in 1938.
Also in 1939, Epi patented his own design for the truss rod, opting to put the adjustment nut at the body end of the fingerboard, rather than Gibson’s truss rod that had it at the headstock. Epiphone incorporated this truss rod design into to all of their archtop guitars.
In 1944, Ben Moorehouse patented his own design for a plywood-molding machine. Although Epiphone had been using molded plywood components on their guitars since the late 1920s, this patent was assigned to Epiphone, as the sole owner of the design. This may have been the result of Epi’s death in 1943, and Frixo’s desire to build acoustic basses with large molded plywood components, which Epiphone had never done previously.
One of the most unusual patents was granted to Epiphone endorser and guitar player, George Van Eps who designed an adjustable height upright bass bridge (Pat No.2,455,452), and assigned all the rights to Epiphone.
