gearhead

Yep! Great guitar! Gibson 490R/498T pickups. Plus i love how the neck is set a bit further from the center of the guitar. A LOT better access to upper frets!

They are high output/ceramic magnet pickups.

Kind of what I thought. I've looked around and have only found pics of one other guitar with a finish like that. And I'm about 99% sure it's exactly like you said, a '98 from Korea. Thanks for the input!

Most likely the gold top finish.

Looks like a 2000 model made at the Fuji-Gen plant. http://www.epiphonewiki.org/index/Epiphone_Serial_Number_Decoding.php

That serial number sequence was used from 1970-1975.

I found my Epi serialization info, serial numbers from 810000-810999 were used in 1966, 1967, 1969. Hope that narrows it down for you!

The headstock looks a lot better in those pics. The logo looks right, Sits where it should, and yes, I think it's most likely a Korean made Epi. The pickups may not give any clues. I have an older Korean Special, headstock looks the same, the pickups are SAMSHIN, but have no adjustable pole pieces.

It looks legit. The first ones were made in Korea, with the gold colored Epi logo (2005), later ones were made in China, and I've seen pics of a 2011, it had the silver colored logo. Not sure when the logo changed or when production moved to China. Yours looks to be a Chinese variant by the serial number and inspection decal.

Well the headstock looks to be cut kind of offset, but it could be camera angle. The tuners look new, maybe replaced? And the truss rod cover looks to be the old style, late 90"s, early 2000's. You have any pics of the front of the guitar? And I would definitely like to see the rear of the pickups, and the inside of the pickup cavities. Missing the serial number is strange. But I'm not totally convinced it's a fake. Is it a LP Standard or what?

Nice guitar! I'm not sure how the serial numbers went on those guitars, but there is a 1966 Casino on Reverb, serial number 434125. 1966 Epiphone Casino And another with serial number 335787 that is listed as a 1965. 1965 Epiphone casino Quote from A history of the Epiphone Casino web page ( A History of the Epiphone Casino ) " During the time that Paul McCartney purchased his Casino in 1964 and John Lennon and George Harrison purchased their Casinos before the Revolver tour in 1966, fingerboard inlays changed from dot to parallelogram inlays and the tortoise shell pickguard changed to white. Pickup covers, which were nickel from 1963-1964, changed to chrome. " I would guess by your serial number, it's somewhere around a 1968 to early1970's.

I think, that unless you can find some kind of "mini" push/pull pots, that it will be an issue. You may have to install mini toggle switches. As far as extra shielding, I really doubt you would "need" it. But if you did add some shielding tape to rear of the pick guard, you could run a wire from the control cavity to the rear pickup route and strip the insulation so that it will get pinched between the pick guard and the body, making contact with the tape of course.

How about posting some pics? Headstock, logo, inside the control cavity, rear of the pickups.

Here is a pic of the serial number.

I bought my girl a Special II at GC for $75 for Christmas. Pretty straight guitar. But the finish is unusual. The only other guitars I have found pics of online with anything similar were some Special II's that came in player packs. I believe it is a 1998, it has one of those early serial numbers that won't quite decode. The neck plate has serial # 098031013. I think the first digit should be an "O" instead of a zero. And has "Gibson" on the truss rod cover. It doesn't have a Custom Shop emblem on the back of the headstock. Any ideas of what this finish is, or what years they used it?