Upon Epiphone moving its manufacturing operations to Japan, the Rivoli was discontinued and replaced with the bolt-neck EA-260 as part of the EA-Series line of instruments.

In 1969, Epiphone had abandoned manufacturing of instruments in America and started importing Epiphone-branded instruments from the Matsumoku company in 1970. These instruments were not based on previous Epiphone or Gibson designs, but were merely re-branded Matsumoku guitars already in existence.

The EA-260 was among these first imported Epiphone instruments. It had a maple laminate body, maple bolt-on neck and two doublecoil pickups. In 1976 the entire EA-Series was replaced by the ET-Series guitars and ET-Series Basses.

Models:

Model 5120/E (1970-1971) Model EA-260 (1972-1976)

Body:

Double cutaway body Select hardwood top, sides and back

Neck:

Bolt-on 3-piece adjustable neck Rosewood fingerboard with offset dot inlays 20 frets 15.75" body width 1.875" body depth 30.5" scale

Binding:

2-ply neck 3-ply top Single-ply back

Electronics:

Double-coil pickup with staple pole pieces 2 Vol. 2 Tone 3-way selector switch

Hardware:

Chrome hardware Deluxe tuners Adjustable "precision" bridge with mute Trapeze tailpiece Raised black pickguard with foil "E" emblem Black witch hat knobs

Colors:

Cherry Red