Epiphone Casino Cherry Review
PROS: Great fit and finish; fantastic neck; highly responsive and articulate P90 pickups.
CONS: None.
PRICE: $599 w/out case
- The Epiphone Casino Electric Guitar is the guitar that put Epiphone on the map. Ever since The Beatles purchased three Casinos back in 1964, this hollow Epi model has taken on a life of its own. Equipped with two, vintage P-90 single-coil pickups, the Casino still delivers those Beatlesque tones at a price every player can afford.
- The Epiphone Casino Coupe is an excellent guitar that comes at a very good price. It produces a fantastic sound packed in a compact size and offers a ton of great features ideal for both beginners and intermediate users.
The Casino has been around for decades, first brought to worldwide fame by the Beatles. Since then, Epiphone’s production has moved around the globe a few times, first from America to Japan, then to Korea and now China. While some aficionados maintain that the Korean-made Epis of the 1990s were better made than the contemporary models coming out of the brand’s Chinese facilities, this reviewer begs to differ. The production-line Casinos being produced today, in 2014, are perhaps the finest in the brand’s long history.
That brings me to the Current Epiphone Casino. Best guess is it will have a Gibson USA price, but the thing that Puzzles me about it is, like a lot of people said, why aren’t they making it in the the style of John and George’s Casinos, the most well known models. 4) Epiphone Les Paul-100 Electric Guitar, Heritage Cherry Sunburst Here is another excellent electric guitar option for those who are going to play the guitar for the first time. It is specially designed for the beginners and offers everything that a new player would need for a comfortable play.
Fit and finish are immaculate – the binding, the fret edges, the neck contour, the pickup routing. We were incredibly impressed by the aesthetics, even more so since it came in our preferred “natural” finish. What sets the Casino apart from other 335-style guitars is its completely hollow body (no sound block here like on the Dot) as well as its single-coil pickups (as opposed to Gibson/Epi’s standard humbuckers).
▼ Article continues below ▼ Those two factors alone give the Casino a lighter, more articulated tone. We greatly preferred the detail and clarity we heard when A/B’ing it against similar guitars with semi-hollow constructions and full humbuckers. Those sounded a bit muddier to us – and yes, while they had a louder output and will perhaps overdrive an amp quicker, the P90s (yes, the stock pickups) in the Casino are so incredibly versatile, we couldn’t fine a genre they didn’t fit into with ease.
The age-old problem of feedback was even a non-issue. We picked up a tiny bit of squealing just once, and never again; no need to stuff the sound holes. So all in all, if you’re in the market for a mid-range guitar that can pretty much tackle any job you throw at it, test-drive the new Casinos and fall in love like we did.
FEATURES
Epiphone Casino Cherry Red
- Body: 5-ply maple with basswood top bracing
- Neck: mahogany
- Neck Joint: 16th fret, Glued-in
- Fingerboard: rosewood with parallelogram inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets
- Fingerboard Radius: 12”, 24.75” scale
- Nut Width: 1.68″
- Neck Profile: SlimTaper “D”
- Pickups: Epiphone P-90T and P-90R
Epiphone Casino
Active 1962-1969
Description
The Epiphone Casino has double cutaways, hollow mahogany body featuring cream binding and a mahogany top with a pickguard. With a 24.75' scale mahogany set neck and a 20-fret maple bound fretboardfeaturing parallelogram inlays. The electronics include two P90 pickups, one toggle pickup switch, two volume knobs, two tone knobs, a tune-o-matic bridge with a trapeze tailpiece, three-per-side tuners and chrome hardware. Produced in Cherry (1967 to 1969), Sunburst (1962 to 1969) and Royal Tan (1962 to 1969) finishes.