2007 Epiphone by Gibson Casino Reissue! Players around the world have made the Casino one of Epiphone's most popular models. A great combination of tone, looks and vibe. The fully hollow body is made of laminated maple for bright attack and a warm, full tone. The mahogany neck features a bound rosewood with pearloid parallelogram inlays. Imho, the '61 Anniversary Casino represents one of the best values out there in an Epi. A well executed reissue effort, along with Gibson-made P90s, and hard case - all for a low buck price (if you can still find one!). In honor of the 50th anniversary of the first Casino, Epiphone has created the limited-edition 1961 Anniversary Casino, which has many features that were discontinued after the original Casino’s first year of production. Only 1,961 Anniversary Casinos have been produced, each with a numbered certificate of authenticity. Hardware includes a tune-o-matic bridge and your choice of either a Trapeze tailpiece or Epiphone's reissue of the original Tremotone vibrato. Each 1961 Epiphone Casino features an original-style hard case with gray exterior and blue plush interior and a numbered certificate of authenticity.
more... New Gear • Daily NewsThe Epiphone Casino 50th Anniversary 1961 Reissue:
My guitar is number 1549 in the series of 1961 units ever made of this particular model. I bought one in a sunburst with the tremotone vibrato system. It is a limited edition from 2011 made in the event of the Epiphone Casino 50th Anniversary. I bought it second hand in the US and had it shipped to where I live last year. It is in mint condition except for a small ding at the back of the headstock.
I really like this guitar. First off, some of the specifications. It sports a 5-layer maple/birch body with a mahogany neck which is glued on at the 16th fret. It has 22 medium jumbo rosewood frets with pearloid dot-inlays and it also has a set of Wilkinson Deluxe machine-heads.
I prefer the Gibson variety of the so-called “slim-taper” neck. This particular model has the signature chunky Epiphone neck – however, for an Epiphone it feels very nice. The frets are nice and level with just about perfect action and feel thanks to a good setup, courtesy of Mr. Andy Halliday. One of the first features one usually notices with the guitar is the tremotone vibrato and the unusual headstock. The headstock is of the “open book” style and sports a metal logo plate pictured along with the rest of the guitar on the upper picture.
To me, visually everything is just about perfect except for one thing and that is the dot-inlays – but I don’t really mind. The original guitar had dot-inlays so it’s no problem. The metal logo plate however, wasn’t on the original. I think it looks awesome but I’m into that retro look. The logo is really more of a tribute to the older Epiphone models from the 30’s and 40’s before Gibson put them under their wing.
The guitar sports American dog-ear P90 Pickups and sounds terrific. The guitar is perfect for Blues, Jazz (Grant Green with his ES-330 comes to mind), Alt Rock and just plain Rock music. The completely hollow body and the hot pickups do become problematic when shooting for that Metal sound so it’s definitely not an axe for heavy duty in that field – I find however that it’s a great guitar for playing with feedback so it depends on what you’re into. The finish doesn’t look cheap but it’s very high-gloss. It was either that or a faded one in this price-range so you can’t really beat that! A chinese guitar from 2011 just doesn’t have the same feel as a 50 year old guitar with a naturally faded and cracked finish.
The Tremotone is a tremolo in the style of a Bigsby and is surprisingly stable. It’s great for a slight, subtle vibrato but not a good system for divebombs and the likes – wouldn’t want to break anything, eh?
This guitar feels exclusive considering the pricetag (I believe it goes for about 800 bucks on ebay now). It has great tone when plugged in – courtesy of the American hardware – and has a pleasant, warm tone when unplugged. A fine instrument.
– Andreas