HippyHollow
Thanks for coming back to the thread. (I was wondering what happened to you).
I believe every Epiphone guitar has “Gibson” printed on the truss rod cover plate.
(It’s sort of like Ford downplaying the fact that they also make the Lincoln Continental.)
The Epiphone Special II looks like a very good inexpensive guitar. Good luck with it and if you want to rewire it, remember to go to the GuitarNuts website.