The Epiphone Casino is a Unique Experience

If you’re a Beatles fan like me, there’s a good chance you’ve recently seen the Peter Jackson documentary ‘Get Back’. This isn’t a review of that movie, however watching John Lennon play his original Epiphone Casino throughout the movie definitely sparked my interest in the instrument. Before they quickly ran out of stock, I visited a local music store and managed to find a new model in the natural finish. The guitar I purchased is a made in China reissue of the original classic model. Let’s check out the guitar I bought.

The Guitar & All the Specs

First let’s talk about all the Casino specifications. This information has been pulled directly from Epiphone’s website. They mention that the fretboard is Pau Ferro, but I’ve seen it also listed as Rosewood. Here are all the specs:

Body

Body Shape Archtop

Body Material Layered Maple

Top 5-ply layered Maple with Basswood bracing

Binding Headstock: None

Neck

Material Mahogany

Profile SlimTaper™; D-Profile

Scale Length 24.75" / 628.65mm

Fingerboard Material Pau Ferro with Pearloid Parallelogram inlays

Fingerboard Radius 12"

Number Of Frets 22

Nut Width 1.68" / 42.67mm

Joint 16th Fret neck joint

Hardware

Finish Nickel

BridgeLockTone™ Tune-O-Matic

Tailpiece Traditional Trapeze

Tuning Machines Vintage-style Epiphone

Pickguard 3-ply; White/Black/White with metal "E"

Control Knobs Vintage-style Gold with metal inserts, and with pointers

Pickup Covers Nickel

Electronics

Neck Pickup Dogear P-90T Classic™

Bridge Pickup Dogear P-90R Classic™

Controls 2- Volume, 2- Tone

Pickup Selector 3-way Epiphone toggle

Output Jack 1/4" Epiphone Heavy-Duty

Miscellaneous

Strings Gauge D'Addario® 10, 13, 17, 26, 36, 46

The Guitar and my Thoughts

The Epiphone Casino is unlike any other electric guitar I’ve ever owned or played. It’s an electric guitar with a fully acoustic body, loaded with p90 pickups. I expected the body to feel oversized but was surprised that it didn’t feel much bigger than other guitars I’ve owned. The neck is a slim shape and feels fast to play. It’s worth noting that access to higher frets is difficult because the neck meets the body at the 16th fret. The guitar also squeals when it is played with higher gain pedals and/or amplifiers. This is not an ES-335 with humbucker pickups, so as long as you are aware of these issues, it can be a great guitar. I believe this is a great singer/songwriter guitar. The fully hollow body provides a pretty decent acoustic tone. Although not as full sounding as a fully acoustic guitar, you don’t need to plug into an amplifier. This makes it a pretty versatile instrument.

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My full review video

Talking about a guitar and showing pictures is one thing, but seeing and hearing it in action is another. Check out my demo and review on Youtube.