Genesis
The Epiphone Genesis was an
unfortunately short-lived model,
produced in Taiwan from only 1979
to 1981, despite its forward thinking
design and lofty ambitions. It was
created by Gibson’s Director of
Marketing, Jim Walker, in the hopes
of rebuilding Epiphone’s reputation as
an industry innovator. The company
began to flounder under assault from
overseas competition, and it really
needed a flagship model to set a
course for future success. To that
end, the Genesis was designed with
the player in mind, featuring a short-
horned double-cut mahogany body
and set mahogany neck, Tune-O-Matic
hardtail bridge, a pair of open-coil
humbuckers, two volume controls, a
master tone knob, and most notable for
the era, a switch for coil-tapping. Its
body shape recalled both the Gibson
Les Paul and Yamaha’s pointier double-
cut SG Series guitars. All these features
made for a very versatile instrument
that looked both classic and quite
modern at the same time. The Genesis
was a cult favorite for many years, but
has recently been reissued by Epiphone
as the Genesis Pro, with the further
addition of a maple cap and expanded
coil-tapping capabilities.
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