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Post your modded Casinos!


Casino4Life

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When I got this guitar, I had no intention of doing a Lennon mod to it. It was more to match my Ric 360-12. Here's what I did.

 

2001 Peerless Casino

 

Modifications (in chronological order)

 

-Replace stock tuners with Gotoh SD90 tuners.

-Replace strap posts with Schaller Strap Loks. Relocate strap post to horn (a la McCartney).

-Level/polish frets.

-New Thomastik Infeld 11’s with wound G.

-Replace stock pickups:

Neck- Biltoft Vintage Vibe 10% underwound (from vintage spec) P-90 with AlNico II magnet.

Bridge- Biltoft Vintage Vibe 5% overwound (from vintage spec) P-90 with AlNico V magnet.

Custom contoured pickup rings to set PU height.

-Replace stock electronics with Switchcraft selector and jack, CTS volume/tone pots. All new wiring.

-Add dial indicators at knobs.

-Add new silver/black reflector knobs.

-Add black selector tip.

-Add black art deco trapeze wrap.

-Add black Terrapin 3 ply pick guard, reinstall epsilon E (see my product review on Terrapin).

 

 

I love the sounds this guitar makes and how easily it plays. The neck PU is very open and almost acoustic sounding. The bridge PU has lots of zotz to it and can get even raunchier if I change the magnet to the ceramic one. I have a Gibson 335 type pick guard bracket on the way and will be adding that shortly. That should be it for mods.

 

Casino001.jpg

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This is my 2005 MIK Casino. The only upgrade I have right now is I have had Grover Rotomatics installed, and removed the pick guard. My next upgrade will be a Gotoh Tune O Matic bridge, new nut, Switchcraft toggle switch and input jack, CTS pots and American wiring.

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Tweed those two guitars compliment each other perfectly. Great modification!

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Thanks. Then I suppose you wouldn't be too surprised to know that I've been eyeing this Valensi Riv on eBay. I need something with humbuckers.

epiriv.jpg

 

Here's the evolution from when I bought the Casino last year, to now.

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Thanks. Then I suppose you wouldn't be too surprised to know that I've been eyeing this Valensi Riv on eBay. I need something with humbuckers.

I thought the Valensi's came with P94s or equivalents, don't they, humbucker sized but P90s internally.

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I thought the Valensi's came with P94s or equivalents, don't they, humbucker sized but P90s internally.

 

 

I believe you are correct, sir. I just came across it and it screamed "buy me!". I'll be doing some more research tonight, a little reading in the "laboratory", between batch runs.

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I've gotten REALLY good at this.

 

2006 Epiphone Casino in "Royal Tan".

 

 

dscn1318j.jpg

 

I've got the harness ready to drop in this bad boy with a Seymour Duncan P-90 in the neck and a standard Gibson P-90 in the bridge. USA electronics with Switchcraft and Bourns Pro Audio pots.

 

Now I gotta wait a month before wet sanding and final polishing. Great. :-"

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I cannot wait to see what that looks like when it's done, will the finish on the back match the front?

 

No, I went the vintage route and did the back in a deep Tobacco Brown.

 

I really can't wait either! It's been on the bench for almost 5 months now and really miss that hollowbody P-90 goodness!

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Mine came with a trapeze tailpiece; I added the Epi Vibratone tailpiece.

 

EpiCasino.jpg

 

Two questions. Any problems with case fit and one of those? And, how many screw holes are required? Thanks.

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5762002453_f2719b8786.jpg

Korean Peerless Epiphone Casino.

Mods are:

Tusq nut.

New bridge and tuners (gotoh).

Refretted with stewmac jumbo wire.

Full rewire with new capacitors and CTS Pots.

Black witches hat knobs and a custom black pickguard.

Pickups rewound to following spec:

Neck - 8000 turns (underwound)/A3 rough cast magnet/6.66K DC resistance

Bridge - 10,000 turns (stock wind)/A5 polished magnet/8.2k DC resistance

New "1018 steel" polepice screws.

 

And guess what? After giving it a few months to try and get used to it. I still don't like it :(

 

It's hard to play. The narrow nut has had the string spacing maximised but I prefer the original - the top E is too close to the edge of the fingerboard. There's also much more tension than my other 24.75" guitars with the same strings (D'Addario 10s).

 

Sound-wise, I also made some poor decisions with the electrics. The pickups are insipid - no real "spank" and very "woofy" sounding - even rolling the bass to zero on my amp/POD it still sounds very muddy. The tone pots are useless too - they're .047 caps. I've since realised that my Gibsons use .022 and I like this value much more with humbuckers and P90s. All my own fault really - should have gone with new pickups over the rewind and done more research regarding the caps.

 

So, all things considered, an expensive lesson! I'm not going to throw good money after bad trying to rectify it. I've decided to give the guitar away to a family member and try and forget about it. I sold a good guitar (Tokai 335) to get this one and it ranks as one of the more stupid decisions of my guitar playing life. As they say, "there's no fool like an old fool".

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Pumkinhead

 

I had a few Casinos thought they were fine in fact there was a Lennon limited 65 sunburst nice but decided that a Gibson ES 330 was more of what I was looking for so there for I bought a new sunburst ES 330 .

 

The neck was larger more comfortable and additional playing room also the pickups had much more sting and output so Im very pleased .

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Pumkinhead

 

I had a few Casinos thought they were fine in fact there was a Lennon limited 65 sunburst nice but decided that a Gibson ES 330 was more of what I was looking for so there for I bought a new sunburst ES 330 .

 

The neck was larger more comfortable and additional playing room also the pickups had much more sting and output so Im very pleased .

G6120 - I did buy an ES330 reissue but it had some issues (including a loose piece of wood klonking about inside the body!) so I sent it back. Funnily enough the other Casino I liked was a Chinese "Inspired by" Lennon model. I just kept reading the whole "Peerless is better" thing so I bought one on ebay. To be fair, it's not bad, just not great either. I should have done more research into the pickup rewind specs. I left the maker to come up with his own, based on my perceived requirements. The stock units were way too hot and I thought this was making the guitar very muddy sounding but I now realise it was more than this!

 

As they say "you live and learn".

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