PROS: Great fit and finish; fantastic neck; highly responsive and articulate P90 pickups.
CONS: None.
PRICE: $599 w/out case

X - (China) - Early to mid 1990's serial number label - Verified by Epiphone Customer Service. Seen on 'Epi' brand guitars. Seen on 'Epi' brand guitars. Y - Korea (seen on a PR775CE). I've been after a casino for a while but the Korean models are commanding more than they would have originally cost new a couple of years ago. Like to get some opinions on the Epiphone casino.Korea vs China.build quality,I heard the china ones are 3ply maple vs. The Epiphone Casino is an absolutely iconic model, perhaps the best-known Epiphone model ever shipped. It was first produced in 1961, at the Gibson Kalamazoo plant; it was based on the Gibson ES-330TD, which was also built there. The vast majority were dual-pickup instruments, however some early examples were fitted with just one P90 pickup. The Epiphone Casino debuted in 1961, and it didn't take long to find its way into the hands of many of the most well known and highly regarded musicians of the 1960s. The situation is the same today, as the Epiphone Casino has a hell of a lot to offer the guitarist.

The Casino has been around for decades, first brought to worldwide fame by the Beatles. Since then, Epiphone’s production has moved around the globe a few times, first from America to Japan, then to Korea and now China. While some aficionados maintain that the Korean-made Epis of the 1990s were better made than the contemporary models coming out of the brand’s Chinese facilities, this reviewer begs to differ. The production-line Casinos being produced today, in 2014, are perhaps the finest in the brand’s long history.

Fit and finish are immaculate – the binding, the fret edges, the neck contour, the pickup routing. We were incredibly impressed by the aesthetics, even more so since it came in our preferred “natural” finish. What sets the Casino apart from other 335-style guitars is its completely hollow body (no sound block here like on the Dot) as well as its single-coil pickups (as opposed to Gibson/Epi’s standard humbuckers).

Those two factors alone give the Casino a lighter, more articulated tone. We greatly preferred the detail and clarity we heard when A/B’ing it against similar guitars with semi-hollow constructions and full humbuckers. Those sounded a bit muddier to us – and yes, while they had a louder output and will perhaps overdrive an amp quicker, the P90s (yes, the stock pickups) in the Casino are so incredibly versatile, we couldn’t fine a genre they didn’t fit into with ease.

Epiphone Casino China

The age-old problem of feedback was even a non-issue. We picked up a tiny bit of squealing just once, and never again; no need to stuff the sound holes. So all in all, if you’re in the market for a mid-range guitar that can pretty much tackle any job you throw at it, test-drive the new Casinos and fall in love like we did.

Epiphone Casino China Or Korea

FEATURES

• Body: 5-ply maple with basswood top bracing
• Neck: mahogany
• Neck Joint: 16th fret, Glued-in
• Fingerboard: rosewood with parallelogram inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets
• Fingerboard Radius: 12”, 24.75” scale
• Nut Width: 1.68″
• Neck Profile: SlimTaper “D”
• Pickups: Epiphone P-90T and P-90R