We’ve seen a lot of Epiphone guitars but not quite like the Futura series. Unveiled at NAMM 2026, much hyped ever since, and now officially launched and in stores worldwide, these take Epiphone’s Gibson-inspired electric guitar designs and take them… Well, into the future.
The Futura Series has the retro-futuristic resonance of some Atomic Age marketing term, the kind of thing they spoke about when the Jetsons was on the TV, but the only thing 1950s about these are the shapes themselves, the curvature of the single-cut Les Paul, the clean arrow-head symmetry of the Flying V, same as it was when it first came off Seth Lover’s sketchpad, or the devil-horned SG…
Epiphone has reworked these designs and more into a series that provides stainless steel frets as standard (hello, slinky feel), debuts an all-new electric guitar pickup design, the ProBucker Ignite humbucker, with an expanded control setup for coil-splitting and phase switching.
Article continues belowAnd there are playability and aesthetic upgrades, too. These come with with compound radius ebony fretboards, Chromashift finishes that colour-shift in the light, and Super 400-style pearloid inlays.
The Futura range comprises the Futura Flying V Custom, SG Custom, Les Paul Custom, ES-355 Custom, Explorer Custom and Firebird Custom – and the cult-classic RD Custom, which has never looked as good as it does in Midnight Ember Shift.
With the longer 25.5” scale length, the RD Custom – a model that is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year – is the one to choose for down-tuned riffs.
The finishes really are something. These really do look the part, with the Les Paul Custom arriving in Twilight Shift, which sort of looks like a deep metallic blue head-on, purple from an angle, the SG in Nitro Shift (metallic red-pink or yellow, you decide!).
The Dragonfly Shift Explorer is all kinds of green and green blue and shades in between.
The Solaris Shift looks like a colourific reversal of the Nitro Shift, and suits the Flying V aesthetic to a tee, while the ES-355 in Firestorm Shift is a familiar in a sense, but like nothing BB King ever played.
Finally, last but not least, the Futura Firebird Custom in Quicksilver Shift looks silver at first but it's more complex than that.
Epiphone is offering two finish options per model. You can see why Epiphone applied the custom livery – split diamond headstock work, the aforementioned Super 400 inlays, multi-ply binding… These finishes deserve it.
Elsewhere, you’ll find top-end Epiphone specs such as the LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and stop-bar tailpieces, plus the Posi-Lok strap buttons, and a set of Grover locking Rotomatic tuners with kidney bean buttons.
The necks have a mainstream Modern C profile across the board. Note that sculpted modern neck heel on the Les Paul [above]. These look fun to play.
Yup, this is a modernised range, and you can find out more over at Epiphone, where each model is priced £849/$899.
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