Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

HNGD! Casino

Swoop

By Swoop
in Epiphone Electrics

Recommended Posts

Swoop

Swoop

Posted
Posted

Picked up my Casino yesterday. Unfortunately I had to go to work pretty much as soon as I got it home, so never got a chance to play it aside from a quick 5min jam, and I've been at school all day today. I've had no class for an hour and a couple of mates came round to check it out, which was the first time I really got to play it much.

 

First impressions are that I love it. It sounds fantastic. A very nice clean tone, and you can really feel how resonant it is when playing it, and you can often hear what sounds like a rush of air coming out of it, which is great. It has a very nice acoustic tone too, sounds almost like a resonantor, but not as loud. Of course that's to be expected with the hollow body.

 

Sounds fantastic when distorted too, and really doesn't feedback all that much unless you're really close to the amp and have the gain and volume up excessively high. It's almost as though it's made for use with Peavey amps with the pre and post controls. With the pre at about halfway and the post cranked right up, it has a very nice kind of clear distortion. Each and every note is clearly audible. Really nice lows and slightly twangy, bright highs. Exactly what I was after. I'll have to play around with it some more to give a good review of the pickups individually, but it sounds fantastic in all positions, even with the bridge pickup, which I normally don't favour much.

 

The finish is gorgeous. The colour is a fantastic rich hue with beautiful grain. Not the kind of circular, spalted, plywood like grain I've seen on some, but nice curvacius lengths of grain, with a few little oddities here and there for character. The binding is perfect, both body and neck. The inlays are fantastic, a nice, even, but small amount of filler around them. The neck is a great colour and has nice grain too, and the profile is very comfortable. It needed a little adjustment to the action, was quite high on the bass side, but spot on on the treble side. Intonation is pretty well spot on. The tuners seem to hold their tune well with a lot of bending etc, even the high ratio 18:1 tuners on my Strat can't do that. Mind you that may be due to the trem as well. I haven't changed the strings yet, so no doubt it will need a bit of adjusting to suit the D'Addario half rounds I plan to use.

 

Anyway, here are some pics.

 

Casino02.jpg

Casino04.jpg

Casino06.jpg

 

And this one, which is my personal favourite. I took all these pictures myself and I love how they turned out considering I have nothing but a meer point and shoot digital camera.

 

Casino03.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Swoop

Swoop

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Cheers fellas. I have been listening to the Beatles all night, loving that light, fuzzy distortion. Although they weren't at all an influence in my decision to buy the Casino, I think I'll definitely learn a Beatles tune or two!

 

Got a couple of hours free tomorrow morning, so I'll get some good time in playing her then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Notes_Norton

Notes_Norton

Posted
Posted

HNGD Swoop!!!

 

It's a beauty, and you are right, the wood grain does have a nice personality.

 

Casinos are great guitars, the combination of the P90s and the hollow body make for a nice sound, whether you play it clean or distorted.

 

I hope your new guitar gives you many years of bliss.

 

Notes

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blueyonder

blueyonder

Posted
Posted

Odd coincidence, I just happened to be sitting here listening to the White Album on my headphones (wife is still asleep) when I came across this thread, and the song "Yer Blues" was playing. That's another tune you might want to give a listen to, being as (if I recall correctly) you're into the blues/swing kind of vibe. Gorgeous instrument you got yourself there, Swoop. My Casino envy is in full effect!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
old mark

old mark

Posted
Posted

Great guitar - a REAL Epiphone, not a copy of another guitar. I played one similar in the mid '60's and loved the neck - it's really fast and the strings are very easy to bend.

 

enjoy it.

 

mark

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Swoop

Swoop

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Cheers guys. It's just a regular old Chinese made one, from the QingDao plant. I really connot fault the workmanship, the finish, and of course the tone. It's spot on what I wanted. Even the set up wasn't bad, a quick action adjustment and she was all good, intonation is pretty well spot on, neck is straight, frets are level and well finished. All good!

 

Bought it from one of my local music stores called the 'Rockshop'. They have 12 months interest free finance as a special 'Rocktober' deal, so I couldn't say no really! The two guys I dealt with were very helpful, the guy at the store out of town in agreeing to include a free case with it, (which is absolutely HUGE!) and organising it to be sent to my local store, and the guy locally was knowledgeable about all aspects of the finance etc. A good experience overall! He was also pretty impressed that I was buying a Casino, as were a lot of people in the store when I whipped it out of its case for a quick nosy.

 

Funny story though. I rang the store to see if it had come in yet, and the guy said he'd check with the courier and ring me back in about an hour. He rang back about half an hour later and said 'guess what?' I said 'has it arrived yet', and he said 'no the courier van crashed and caught fire'. I damn near crapped myself, until I realised he was just joking! Guess I was a bit tense, just wanted to get it already!

 

Oh, and blueyonder, 'Yer Blues' is a song I singled out as one of my favourites during my time listening to The Beatles last night. Also 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' is another kinda bluesy one, and 'Octopus's Garden' has some of that nice fuzzy Casino distortion.

 

I'm taking the day off today, so I'll get to play her a plenty, and I'll probably put those new half round D'Addarios on her. Should be good!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blueyonder

blueyonder

Posted
Posted
Funny story though. I rang the store to see if it had come in yet' date=' and the guy said he'd check with the courier and ring me back in about an hour. He rang back about half an hour later and said 'guess what?' I said 'has it arrived yet', and he said 'no the courier van crashed and caught fire'. I damn near crapped myself, until I realised he was just joking! Guess I was a bit tense, just wanted to get it already![/quote']

 

I probably would have went into the shop, smacked the guy across the cheek, and then started laughing. "Ha ha, pretty funny huh? You almost gave me a heart attack, you @^$%#!".

 

Oh' date=' and blueyonder, 'Yer Blues' is a song I singled out as one of my favourites during my time listening to The Beatles last night.[/quote']

 

Pretty heavy tune, eh? I love that one too. Speaking of funny stories - unlike the rest of the songs on the White Album, that song was more or less a live recording of the entire band playing together in small room off in one of the wings of Abbey Road rather than the main studio, which helps explain it's raw "organic" sound. Rumor has it the track was originally 28 minutes long (!), but was subsequently pared down to 4 minutes later out of a mix of 17 (?) separate takes. Just a little useless trivia (man, I read way too much). More useless tidibits - It was the first and probably only known time they ever did a mix down of a Beatles tune using the master tape rather than a back up, and Ringo's lead in to the song was actually recorded a week after the song was finished. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about a particular song, but I love little "inside baseball" history like that, and the White Album is of particular interest to me being my favorite Beatles album. :P

 

Anyway, enjoy your Casino, you lucky dog! I have vowed that is the one and only expensive guitar (A '65 Lennon, Inspired by Lennon or Revolution) I'm going to lay the cash down for before I take a dirt nap. Yes, I am actually that infatuated with the instrument. Unhealthy obsession? Maybe. Worth the mental anguish of not being able to acquire one right away? You bet your a..... It'll make it that much sweeter when I finally do get my hands on my precious!

 

BTW, you take some darn good pictures for a point and shoot camera. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The_Buffalo

The_Buffalo

Posted
Posted
...It's just a regular old Chinese made one...

 

I've seen some really sad examples of Chinese craftsmanship lately, when I've tried out some EJ-160Es in the stores (they don't come close to the quality of my MIK EJ-160E), but the MIC natural Hummingbird I bought a couple of months ago plays, sounds & looks just terrific. I also compared a "Special Run" MIC Casino (with Bigsby) to a MIK ES-295, and without the labels on the back, I couldn't tell which one was made in Korea, & which one was made in China - the quality of the Casino was that good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Swoop

Swoop

Posted
  • Author
Posted

^ That sounds fantastic.

 

I've never really had any issues with Chinese craftsmanship. My SG is a DaeWon built guitar and it too is excellently made and beautifully finished. I guess I just have good luck. I have some experience with Korean built Epi's too. My Firebird is Korean made, and my old Les Paul was as well. It had the sought after long neck tenon, and was just generally solid and well made.

 

I've restrung the Casino with the D'Addario flat wounds now. They feel quite nice and smooth, are a little more difficult to bend, and I'm not sure they really improved the tone much, not that it really needed improving, but I would have expected anyhting other than the standard Epiphone strings to sound much better.. It definitely sounds a bit more jangly, especially on the lower frets. They're not terrible, but I think there's perhaps some more experimenting to do yet. Maybe I'll try my long standing favourite DRs, or some regular round wound D'Addarios. They seem to make my Strat quite twangy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blueyonder

blueyonder

Posted
Posted
^ That sounds fantastic.

 

The Dirty Mac rendition is pretty cool. I was impressed because I had no idea Richards could play bass before I saw that a while back. Putting on my asbestos suit now, but one of the reasons I was impressed is because I've never thought he was all that great a guitar player in the first place. :P Good, but not great. But can you imagine if that bunch would have stayed together instead of just being a one off? Man, talk about a "super group".

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bender 4 Life

Bender 4 Life

Posted
Posted

Thats "sharp as a new razor" Swoop........and looks AMAZING for a Chinese model (perhaps they save all the GOOD Chinese guits for Kiwis?)

Well CRAP, now i'm jonesing for a Casino again.........My wifes gonna kill me.......

but hey, 1 more WOULD be an even dozen.........can't have them in ODD numbers, bad kharma......(practicing speech)

I LOVE hollowbodies, and I LOVE P-90's........

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lord Summerisle

Lord Summerisle

Posted
Posted
The Dirty Mac rendition is pretty cool. I was impressed because I had no idea Richards could play bass before I saw that a while back. Putting on my asbestos suit now' date=' but one of the reasons I was impressed is because I've never thought he was all that great a guitar player in the first place. #-o Good, but not great. But can you imagine if that bunch would have stayed together instead of just being a one off? Man, talk about a "super group".

[/quote']

 

Even as a massive admirer of Keith Richards' work - I think your comments are valid. I think his rudimentary bass playing suited that one track, however. If they'd had Jack Bruce it would have sounded too much like Cream (or if they'd persuaded McCartney to come along it would have sounded too much like the Beatles). I guess they could have used John Entwhistle (who was sitting in the audience at the time, waiting to perform with the Who later that night)...but I'm not sure that would have worked either. I never think of him as a blues player, for some reason.

 

As for Keith the guitar player - I've always liked his notion of being neither a rhythm player nor a lead player - he's just a guitar player. His stuff on Exile on Main St is undoubtedly his finest hour...check out the Telecasters on Rocks Off (

) and Happy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJa-LmXLXPg).
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ataylor

ataylor

Posted
Posted
Wow' date=' I can't believe that's a stock Casino. I thought they all looked like this now:

 

[img']http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt163/brianehuff/CasinoStock.jpg[/img]

 

Shoot, I should've bought one on Monday when MF had the Columubus Day sale....

 

I think there was a period when the production first moved to China that the sunburst was more like the Gibson/teardrop style. All of the more recent Chinese models I've seen have had very very nice sunbursts -- as good as any of the late 90s/early 2000s Koren models, if not better IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

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

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...