Need Help Identifying a Epiphone by Gibson Guitar

I was wondering if you can tell me anything about this guitar? I bought it at a yard sale in the early 90's for next to nothing.
All I know is it says Epiphone by Gibson. I am curious about the model name,
the year it came out, where it was made, materials of body/neck/fretboard, maybe where to get the missing vibrato bar, and
what that little bit of hardware on the back of the headstock near the A string tuner is for. It's body
a hi-gloss black in color. Value? Any Info via comments would be appreciated.
Mucho Thanks in advance

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Gibson
• Epiphone
• ID
• Identification
• Electric
• Guitar

[blank9870]

is that a Kahler tremolo bridge?

[hifisapi]

Dont know about the bridge heritage. Its the original in the pix, some kind of floyd rose copy, but that bridge shattered one night a long time ago. I have since installed a strat fixed bridge int there so the guitar is no longer original. Whatever small value it had is nearly gone.

[06mgibson]

all epiphones are made by gibson.

it's like squire by fender

[hifisapi]

no, before gibson bought epiphone, epiphones were made by epiphone.

Even later, epiphones were only marked "by Gibson" for a short time.

[whyamihereyo]

Dude! clean that thing or I will hunt you down :p

[hifisapi]

its been cleaned up a long time ago

[xzb0b]

Settle down kids. This is a stock Epiphone S-800 , the bridge is a Matsumoku made "Bendmaster FT" (more commonly found on Westones) and was more commonly on the S-500 series epiphones. Most of the S-800's and S-900's I've seen have the Steinberger KB tremolos. The only difference beetween this S-800 and the S-900 is neck through body construction. These go for around $125-150 on ebay so hopefully you didn't get your hopes up.

[JYZProductions]

ok i laughed my ass off when I saw this on my craigslist like ok that has fake written all over it ... but than I came across this video ..

[OddTimeMan]

@legendsveil Uh, because that's what it is.

[xzb0b]

@vitovitale I had an s900 and It had a really nice feel and sound to it, the stock low end EMG passives did sound pretty good. 21 frets is a bit of an issue for soloing, the Steinberger KB was a pain. I'd get an Epiphone X-1000 over the s900. Some had regular strat-style tremolos and they can be rerouted for a kahler. I'm pretty sure X-1000 was the top model of the series. These are and were wildly unpopular guitars but the production was top notch for Korea. I wouldn't break the bank on one.

[legendsveil]

Who the Hell would put Epiphone by Gibson ???

[chopstix84]

I have this guitar, my neck is wood finish though. Got handed down to me, not complaining.

[RavenMadd9]

x-1000

[vitovitale]

@xzb0b .. Looks like you know your stuff.. do you have an S-900? i have a 635-i and a S-400.. would love to have an S-900.. wondering how it fares? in general i believe pickups need changing but the instruments are pretty good.. even though the S400 body is plywood.. it has good sound and excellent sustain. Would like your view on the 900 thanks

[l337n00b1]

@hifisapi no hes right...epiphone was a company started by gibson so that they could recreate their guitars but outsource the work to china that way they can have products in all price ranges however they wanted the "gibson quality" to remain the same....hense the different company

[AceOfHeart2012]

@xzb0b ...and the cream binding.

[AceOfHeart2012]

@Themrjamman1990 I'm not sure you're entirely accurate. I have an S-900. Black metal flake and cream binding all the way around. The S-800's (so far as I know) didn't have any binding whatsoever.