clwhitehead Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 First, many thanks to all members who provided substantial info on deciphering mfr. plant code locations. I own two Epi's, both Casino's, one natural from China, the other a cherry finish from the Peerless factory in Korea. Other than the unreal output level of the P90's in the Chinese-made natural finished guitar, I got lucky, and have/had no real problems. Someone recommended changing the nut from the plastic to a Tusq or GraphTech version, and I cannot emphasize how important an upgrade this could be. There is no amount of Nut Sauce or pencil graphite that will compensate for improperly cut string slots in a cheap plastic nut, not to mention the resonance issue of the material itself. Corian, as used in a large percentage of the Korean and Japanese-built Casinos, is a completely different matter and is tone-worthy(in my humble opinion). Now over to the subject of pickups, pots, etc. The P90's in my Chinese-made natural finish had a passive resistance of almost 12K! Someone mentioned in another post that their pups tested somewhere in the 14K range, and I have no doubt of it. I hope that I am not treading on any toes by saying that there has been WAY, WAY too much emphasis in pickup design for the last 20yrs(at least)in raw output, without due consideration for overall tonal balance and harmonics. Doesn't much matter to me whether Kent Armstrong's company or some other builds the Epi P90's, as long as they are balanced and properly potted. I can and have lived with the 12K output of the Chinese-built guitar's P90's, only because I use a compressor as a volume and sustain throttle. This pedal will make a guitar design that inherently "sings" to "ring" forever with musical sustain. The Peerless-built cherry guitar's pickups test just a smidgen over 8K, pretty much the benchmark for vintage P90 and soapbar types. These pups have the sweet and chimey top end overtones, and when played between the poles of the bridge pup and the saddles, nail the banjo intonation of "Ticket to Ride." I was told by my tech somewhile back that the cherry guitar's pups are actually USA-made by Gibson. No question about single-coils normally using a 250K pot, but P90's with their normal flat and longer bars are nowhere close to the design of a Strat or Tele pup. If you want to ensure you have a chance at more top end harmonics, it is likely best to stay with at least 350K pots if you can find NOS, but there is nothing wrong with the 500K's, which will typically be somewhere between 450K and up. .022uF Sprague, 215P Series, 400V rated Orange Drop tone caps are an excellent all around choice, far superior to "chicklets" or ceramic disk types, and nearly as good as the paper/oil-filled Bumble Bee's, Vitamin Q's, etc., but at a more reasonable price. Make sure you buy the 215's with the 400V rating; Vishay/Sprague makes two or three different series, and you need the mass of dielectric film in the 400V rated parts to produce the correct amount of treble "bleed" in a smaller sized cap like the .022uF. OD's, like wow, pretty simple here. Someone recomended the Danelectro Daddy-O, and I give it a solid thumbs up. And, I don't think anyone would take issue with the merits of a real TS9. My personal favorites are the Maxon(who builds the original TS9 for Ibanez) DSII with germanium diodes a la Hendrix/FuzzFace tones, and the Dunlop Distortion III for hotter pickups tones. Put those 12K hot P90's ahead of that Dunlop pedal, and you can product an incredible range of heavy overdriven and even metal distortion tones. The Maxon DSII, on the other hand, with a typical set of P90's like in my cherry Peerless-built Casino, will nail a "Mary Jane's Last Dance," or any similar Tom Petty/Mike Campbell tune(Mike uses the Daddy-O, BTW). I'm new to this forum, and hope some of my experiences and info will be helpful to others who want to get the most out of these excellent and unique guitars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyFingers Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 First and foremost I love a "clean sound"...I have Two Peerless Casino's that I have put GFS P-90's into...(I love the black pup's in my ebony Casino's)...However the suprise is in the sound I now get with the GFS pup's...it totally blows away a great pup that was already in my Casino's (the stock ones) in my opinon... For the price you simply can't beat them and the tone is as good as it gets in my books... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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