Jump to content

The Epiphone Casino


travisbrowning

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Been looking at hollow bodies for the past few months now, I like my Jazzmaster a lot but I want something new.. most of my attention was on the Epiphone 339 and the Eastwood Tuxedo. But I've always picked up a Casino anytime I was near one and damn if they don't always knock my socks off (except for a Red one in the Pensacola Guitar Center which is the smallest (and probably the worst) GC in the world). Who here has a Casino? What amps do you love to run them through? What famous Casino sounds do YOU personally love. What pedals do you like to use (we all know feedback can be an issue). Also feel free to post Eastwood Tuxedo videos because that guitar also has stole my heart.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 66
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

Here's my casino. I believe it's a 1995 from the Peerless Factory in Korea. Only things I've done to it are replaced the nut and swapped the knobs. I play it through either my THD BiValve 30 or Hot Rod Deluxe. Sounds great running through the clean channel. If you tend to play more distorted, you will find yourself fighting the feedback. But, it's a light and great sounding guitar. Pick it up and it almost plays Taxman, Get Back, and Day Tripper for you.

 

 

 

fetch?id=31258066&type=full

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fetch?id=31258537

 

 

 

Mine is also from the Peerless factory in Korea, except it's a 2001 model. It is without a doubt one of my favorite guitars. I usually run it into a Princeton or an AC15, although I occasionally use other amps with it too. It's not a great metal guitar, but it's a lot better for rock than you might think given its hollowbody construction. Yes, feedback can be an issue at high levels and with lots of gain / dirt, but it's remarkably controllable and contributes a lot to the sound and sustain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not really sure I'd consider the Riviera as an upscale Casino. :idk: The Riviera is a semi-hollow, not a full hollowbody like the Casino. They're definitely similar in some ways (some Rivieras use P90 pickups although mini humbuckers are more common, and they do have the same basic body shape and similar tailpieces), but OTOH, a Casino is also similar to a Sheraton II; they also have similar bodies, although a different tailpiece and pickups. In fact, the Sheraton II and Riviera seem to have just as much in common with each other as either of them do with a Casino.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Travis, have you seen the Casino Coupe yet? It's a smaller sized (ES-339) body than a standard Casino. They're supposedly a bit more feedback resistant too from what I've heard.

 

fetch?id=31259564

 

I may try to see if they'll send us a review unit to check out... :idea:

 

Yes I have! But I've never seen one in person yet. I did manage to play the Epi 339 which was nice, but almost felt too small for some reason. Judging solely by the pics it seems as if the Casino Coupe is a bit deeper (top to bottom) than the Casino. I'd love to read a review if you manage to grab one, Phil! They're a bit cheaper too

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I think they're around a hundred bucks cheaper - something like that, I'll see what I can do on getting a review loaner - I really am curious about the smaller ES-339 style bodies, and being a Casino fan (and owner of a pretty darned good one), that might be a good introduction to them. I'm not a terribly big guy (5'8"), so I usually have no problem with smaller sized guitar bodies. In fact, for years I thought a 335 sized guitar was just too big and hokey looking when I played one, but the Casino won me over with its playability (slim neck, 24.75" scale) and sound - and if I know you, it really is a sound that will be instantly familiar and appealing to you. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a pretty good video I found that describes some of the differences between various Epi models. It doesn't cover everything, but it does give a good overview of the features (but unfortunately not the sound) of three different models - including the Casino and Sheraton.

 

[video=youtube;Q66CaEVs5gc]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

i have a eastwood tuxedo.

in one of the demo videos at eastwood the guy says the guitar is light. but once i held the guitar in my hand i thought he must be schwarzenegger or so...

 

this thing is heavy as hell, weights more than my '75 gibson les paul custom, and some say 70's gibbys are the heaviest guitars of all time...

 

from playability the neck plays fine. although the higher register above the 12 fret are hard to access cause the neck becomes really thick early (starting at the 12 fret)

 

soundwise the p90 are noisy and have a lot single coil hum. much more noise than the stock single coils of my CIJ 68's reissue strat.

 

the pickups are not what some call hot. i think they have rather low output, so you need to turn up the volume a bit more compared to others, but that increases the noise.

 

in the middle position the noise is gone cause of the canceling of the hum, but the output is even lower. has something to do with the wiring, which could be changed, but will also change the sound somehow, haven't done it so far

i don't like the sound of the middle position, so its useless for me

 

neck and bridge position sound ok, but the noise is annoying. and played really clean clean imho it sounds somehow sterile and boring

yes with a booster or an overdrive into an amp slightly before breakup it sounds great, but have i already mentioned the noise?

and yep you get feedback with it easily, but rather in a more controllable/good way

 

i like it, but i should have got a semihollow instead. it doesn't get much play nowadays, but so do my others currently, cause i almost play only my strat...

i will not flip it, and it is not easy to flip cause its a lefty, maybe i might sometime search for other pickups

 

maybe its just me and i'm not a p90 guy and our rehearsal room is really prone to single coil hum.

 

 

 

edit: oh and what i forgot to add, its not only heavy, but it is also a rather big guitar. from the pictures i got the impression it might rather be a smaller guitar, but in reality it is more like a gretsch brian setzer model and the body is rather thick, about the double size what a casino is.

 

damn i wish there would be es339 lefties or a lefty gibson midtown custom...

oh and right after i bought the tuxedo, gretsch released the lefties of their electromatic series *facepalm*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
fetch?id=31258537

 

 

 

Mine is also from the Peerless factory in Korea, except it's a 2001 model. It is without a doubt one of my favorite guitars. I usually run it into a Princeton or an AC15, although I occasionally use other amps with it too. It's not a great metal guitar, but it's a lot better for rock than you might think given its hollowbody construction. Yes, feedback can be an issue at high levels and with lots of gain / dirt, but it's remarkably controllable and contributes a lot to the sound and sustain.

 

 

Are those the stock dogear P90's? They look smaller than mine - otherwise, I too have a 2001 (IIRC) red casino without the guard :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I've got a Peerless from about 1997. Our other guitarist uses it with a Deluxe Reverb and a bunch of pedals. It's killer straight into the amp or through the Deluxe Memory Man. It works all right with the Fulldrive II, so long as you don't turn on the boost. Goose the FullDrive with the Big Muff and you wind up in feedback territory that's difficult to control.

 

Upper fret access is also a bit of a challenge. I play Teles, mostly, and find it harder to hit the highest notes on the Casino, despite the double cutaway.

 

That said, it's a handsome guitar that's lightweight, sounds fantastic and plays really well.

67e47845e94df0b720171072e00ac563.thumb.jpg.492bed71f28a008b29e57a798073a942.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Wow t_e_l_e' date=' the tuxedo sounds terrible. Thanks for saving me some money Seriously.[/quote']

 

it's not terrible. it just doesn't meet your expectation.

it really is more the big size gretsch brian setzer full hollowbody guitar (without the f-holes :)) if you after something like this it might be a great choice, yeah maybe mini humbuckers in there instead or some gretsch pickups....

 

but if you lust for something in the dimension of a es335 or even the smaller es339 category, the tuxedo is the complete opposite and wrong kind of guitar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...