The mahogany neck has the earlier short headstock design, while the body is constructed from three-ply maple/poplar/maple laminates with quartersawn spruce bracing and no centre block.

Just like the Gibson Original Collection ES-335 and ES-345 we reviewed recently – and which were built on the same Nashville production line – the wiring harness here has been wired by hand and features Orange Drop tone capacitors. The pickups under those nickel covers are Gibson USA P-90s. Visually, it’s reminiscent of Paul Weller’s famous guitar, which must be one of the best-looking Casinos of all. The Vintage Sunburst version comes with black plastic dogear pickup covers but our review model, in sumptuous Royal Tan gloss nitrocellulose with contrasting walnut-stained back and sides, comes with nickel covers. Rather than aiming for a specific model year, the USA Collection Casino is something of a greatest hits compilation of desirable features. Under the bonnet: the hand-wired controls boast Orange Drop tone capacitors Then again, if you ask Casino players such as Gary Clark Jr, Barrie Cadogan or Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinley, they’ll probably tell you that struggling to tame a hollowbody on the edge of feedback is all part of the fun, likewise battling with the Casino’s 16th fret neck join. This makes hollowbody guitars more viable today than they have been at almost any time since the Epiphone Casino first rolled out of Kalamazoo in 1961. These days, of course, stage volumes in most live venues are more conservative than ever before and, for a new breed of guitarists, the lion’s share of public performances take place via social media. READ MORE: The history of the Epiphone Casino That said, like many feedback-prone hollowbody designs and its close cousin the Gibson ES-330, the Casino’s popularity waned considerably in the 1970s and 80s when hair was long and stacks were loud and high.

With all three guitar-playing Beatles using Casinos at the band’s dazzling creative peak, the model’s hall-of-fame status has long been assured. The Big Review: Epiphone USA Collection Casino

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