Greg M

You can believe what you want. A very long time ago when I was a cabinet maker I learned that properly glued joints are actually stronger than the virgin wood. The character of the wood is much more important to tone - glued or not. At the end of the day it's about how it sounds, how it plays, and reliability. Not what's on the headstock or in a product description. I really like Sweetwater and have done a lot of business with them. Most of their product decriptions are straight from the vendor spec sheet or web site - and that's OK. Make some music. Greg

Single piece necks are another myth. Taylor doesn't make a single guitar with a single piece neck. I It would be hard to argue that Taylor doesn't make good guitars. As long as the neck is "live" it doesn't matter. Also note that a neck being single piece does not mean it will be live and resonant. I guess I will reiterate what I said in my earlier post in another way. Especially with mid an lower end guitars the QC can be pretty variable. There will be Casinos with good tuners and others not. Some will have good pick-ups and others not. You might get one where everything is good and another where nothing is good. Each one needs to be evalutated on its own merit. This true of all production guitars from all companies that I know of today. Some are just a bit better (or worse) than others. My Casino is one of my lower end guitars and I am very happy with it (post modification) for what it is. Thanks, Greg

I've had my Natural finish Casino now for about 3 years, but it wasn't my first. My wife bought me a Cherry Red Casino for my birthday that year and it was impossible to do a proper/standard setup on that guitar. The guitar was just not properly made and should never have passed QC (although it looked beautiful). So I returned it for the Natural one. The Natural one setup easily and played well. However, it wouldn't stay in tune, the bridge rattled, the guitar was producing way too much sound from behind the bridge, and the P-90s didn't sound like P-90s. The P-90s were way overwound and measured 16k ohms passive resistance (about double what they should have been). My Natural Casino was MIK. I replaced the tuners (real Kluson's), bridge (now a roller bridge), tailpiece (now a Bigsby B7), and the pick-ups (Kent Armstrong P-90's). This Casino is now a very good guitar. Here's my point. When it comes to guitars, each guitar will be different even if they are back-to-back off of the assembly line. Each guitar will need to be evaluated individually, not by model. Some are really bad (like the Cherry Red Casino my wife bought me) and some are near perfect. Generally, the lower you go in price, the more you have to worry about QC. For instance, you are less likely to get way off spec pick-ups from a Gibson than an Epi - but you still might. On the other hand, you can find some real jewels in low and moderately priced guitars. For the money I put into my Casino plus what I paid new, I have a very, very good guitar. Another example is my son's Mexican Strat. I paid $300 for it new about 8 years ago. It played very well stock. I changed the pick-ups and saddles. His Mexican Strat now plays better and sounds way better than my American Standard 50th Anniversay Strat. The wood in his Mexican strat is way more resonant than my Strat. If you get a Casino, just make sure it is made/put together well and decide what you need to upgrade, if anything, afterwords. Good luck, Greg