several epiphone guitars have been produced in the united states after 1971. the epiphone spirit and special were produced in the early 1980s in kalamazoo. in 1993, three historic epiphone acoustic guitars, the texan, frontier, and excellente, were produced by gibson acoustic in montana. the paul mccartney texan was produced in 2005, and in 2009, the epiphone historic collection was created, beginning with the 1962 wilshire, built by gibson custom. several other models, such as the sheraton and john lennon casinos, were built in japan and assembled and finished by gibson usa.