So why mess with success? Epiphone still offers the standard sized Casino, but for players who want something a bit more compact there is now the Casino Coupe a guitar that keeps all the essential design elements of a standard Casino but packages them in a smaller, ES-339 sized thinline hollowbody. Paul Weller and Matthew Sweet, the Casino has been popular with players for decades. First released in 1961 and initially made famous by Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles and used by numerous other artists including Keith Richards, Gary Clark Jr. The Casino is arguably one of Epiphone's best known models, and they're generally highly prized by their owners. 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.Classic Casino features in a smaller ES-339-sized body We picked up a tiny bit of squealing just once, and never again no need to stuff the sound holes. The age-old problem of feedback was even a non-issue. 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. 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 two factors alone give the Casino a lighter, more articulated tone. Read more guitar and amp reviews by Performer Mag right here. 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). We were incredibly impressed by the aesthetics, even more so since it came in our preferred “natural” finish. The production-line Casinos being produced today, in 2014, are perhaps the finest in the brand’s long history.įit and finish are immaculate – the binding, the fret edges, the neck contour, the pickup routing.

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. Since then, Epiphone’s production has moved around the globe a few times, first from America to Japan, then to Korea and now China.

The Casino has been around for decades, first brought to worldwide fame by the Beatles. PROS: Great fit and finish fantastic neck highly responsive and articulate P90 pickups.

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