It wasn’t until 1962 that a true equal to the Gibson ES-335 appeared in the form of the Riviera.

This model had the 335’s single-ply binding and nickel-plated (later chrome-plated) hardware, and although it had slightly better fingerboard inlays – parallelograms compared to the 335’s dots – it had the mini-humbucking pickups that kept it in line, a step below Gibson.

When a 12-string version of the ES-335 appeared for Gibson in 1965, Epiphone kept apace with a 12-string Riviera of their own. It would be the only 12-string electric among the American-made Epiphones of the 1960s, and it would last until Gibson moved Epiphone production to Japan in 1970 where in 2004, it would be reissued as a part of it’s Elitist Series.