After taking over his father's business, Epaminondas Stathopoulos named the company 'Epiphone' as a combination of his own nickname 'Epi' and the suffix ' -phone' (from Greek phon-, 'voice') in 1928, the same year it began making guitars. Electric, acoustic, archtop & resonator guitarsĮpiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908.