Epiphone has just refreshed its acoustic guitar lineup for 2026 with the Inspired By Gibson range, and what’s new there? Gibson’s designs have forever been an influence on Epiphone’s range. But this is a little different.
Like the Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom 2025 range, these new models are closing the gap with their US-made counterparts – and at a more accessible price. This is the collection that offers a Hummingbird with an all-solid build and a rosewood fingerboard for just £849/$899.
And it’s the same story as you go across a range that comprises the cutaway Hummingbird Standard EC, the J-45 Standard and its J-45 Standard EC cutaway version, and the small but perfectly formed L-00, which is arguably the star of the show here, all dressed up in Vintage Sunburst with that tortoiseshell ‘guard.
It’s a 21st-century instrument. As per the series specs, it’s decked out with a Fishman Presys VT preamp and Sonicore undersaddle acoustic guitar pickup to make it stage-ready. But it doesn’t look a day over, well, 91 years old, bringing us that 1934 vibe for £749 street.
Again, it’s all-solid. Here we have a solid spruce top, solid mahogany on the back and sides, and a one-piece mahogany neck carved into a Rounded (read: old-school) C profile. Bravo.
Other details include the 12” radius rosewood fingerboard, with, like the J-45 dot inlays. The two Hummingbirds offer a bit more bling with those split parallelogram inlays – and of course the decorative pickguards.
Across the board, we have Grover Rotomatic tuners; nickel plated Mini Rotomatics on the L-00, regular Rotomatics on the J-45s, and you have the Kluson-esque Epiphone Deluxe tuners on the Hummingbirds.
If the L-00 is the quintessential parlour guitar – this looks every inch the couch buddy you’d spend hours noodling on – the J-45 offers us that classic slope-shouldered dreadnought power that Gibson’s best-selling acoustic is famous for. Your Bob Dylan songbook could get a work out with this one.
Once more we have the spruce/mahogany tonewood cocktail, the rounded profile on the mahogany neck for that vintage feel. And over time, considering these J-45s – this entire range – is all solid, we can only look forward to hearing how they sound some decades down the line.
Epiphone is offering the non-cutaway J-45 in Vintage Sunburst, while the cutaway EC variant is presented in Vintage Sunburst and Honey Burst.
As for the Hummingbird, the O.G. non-cutaway Hummingbird Standard is resplendent in Cherry Sunburst, with multi-ply binding on the top of the body, plus the bound fingerboard and gold hardware… It’s a looker.
The cutaway has a Cherry Sunburst option, too, but we’ve got to say it looks good in Natural. Whether a Gibson or Epiphone guitar, the Hummingbird always looks good.
These Inspired By Gibson acoustics are available now, and a premium gig bag is included in the price. Head over to Epiphone for more details.
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