Epiphone Casino Review

Overall Rating

I have two Casinos. A recent "Assembled in China" NA version, and the real deal..... a "Revolution" Re-issue, but as the latter is no longer produced, I'll stick to a review of the mass-produced version.

In all honesty, I can say that you get more than you bargain for at this ridiculously low price! But do your homework, and take a look at as many as possible before buying. Although they all seem to be generally well finished in most areas, there is definitely a wide variation in the fret finishing. I looked at a dozen before settling on the 2nd one I'd tried, for this particular reason only. It was a first-rate fret job! The necks are generally superb, and if you can find a top-knotch dealer, it may even arrive with the intonation & action set as well as mine was. I've had no need to touch those areas. The pick-ups are far better than you've a right to expect at the price, and have that chimey bell-like clean tone P-90's are renowned for. They also have plenty of natural over driven growl when the amp is cranked up, but that depends well & truly on the amp! Surprisingly, mine sounds far better through a Roland Cube 30 than my '65 Deluxe Reverb.
The body & neck binding is very well done, as is the plastic nut, and the tuners are also quite reasonable.

Here we move to the economy class. Poor pots, a rather cheap p/u selector and poor sanding on the body (even more obvious with the natural NA finish). Although I have to admit that one or two bodies with fret finishing that was not quite up to scratch, had better body finishing than mine. The Polyester coating seems good on all of them, but why do they have to black paint the inside of the f-holes? This is not how the originals were done, but it would be acceptable if it was done properly! The f-hole hidden under the pick-guard looked like it had been given a 10 second wipe-over with a felt pen! Obviously they don't think anyone is going to remove the guard!
A little can of modelling Black paint is essential to finish it off.

Overall, I would give Epiphone Casino the thumbs-up. It looks good, is generally well-finished at the price, but most importantly, it plays & sounds great! I replaced the pots with US made CTS versions, and the p/u selector with a Switchcraft. Makes one hell of a difference I can tell you! The original pots have little variation until you come to dead-spot where both volume & tone dissolve into a mush! (For anyone contemplating this change, and if you're not technically inclined, get a tech to do it. It is a fiddly job at the best of times, and I personally adhere to attaching a wire to each of the pots/switches/jacks externally before dropping the whole assembly into the body, and extracting it through a pick-up hole.
3 hands would be handy! (Pardon the pun!)
Regarding Gig-bags or cases : if it's not supplied with the guitar, then I'd suggest going for either the dedicated gig-bag (the Casino has an unusually long peg-head) or better still, an optional Epiphone or Gibson 335 style hard-case. It won't fit in a standard sized gig-bag. Good Luck.