Epiphone Casino
An associate at work wanted to buy a new Fender MIM Deluxe 60's Strat and mentioned he was selling his Epi Casino. When he told me it was 'just a couple of years old', even though I've wanted one of these reissues of the guitar that McCartney bought first which then led to Lennon & Harrison getting them in '64, I was only curious. Since Gibson opened their Gibson China factory in '03, and they'd severed ties with Samick/Korea, and the newer Chinese-build Casinos and acoustics I'd seen at a local dealer were kinda slipshod in fit & finish, I wasn't expecting much.
But when I stopped by after work to check it out, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in pristine shape. He prefers to play with a load of overdrive and distorition, and being a hollow body (not a semi-hollow like a Dot or other 335 types), he hated the Casino's propensity to feed back at high volume, so he didn't gig with it. He'd also gotten an SKB thermo-molded case for it.
Then, from its serial number that even though an '05, the 'R' at the head of the s/n revealed this one to be made August '05 in Korea by Peerless (formerly the Aria factory.
So I jumped on it:
^^
AXES: Fender '81 The STRAT, '12 Standard Tele, '78 Musicmaster Bass, '13 CN-240SCE Thinline; Rickenbacker '82 360-12BWB; Epiphone '05 Casino, '08 John Lennon EJ-160E; Guild '70 D-40NT; Ovation '99 Celebrity CS-257; Yamaha '96 FG411CE-12; Washburn '05 M6SW Mando, '08 Oscar Schmidt OU250Bell Uke; Johnson '96 JR-200-SB Squareneck Reso; Hofner '07 Icon B-Bass; Ibanez '12 AR-325. AMPS: Tech 21 Trademark 10; Peavey ValveKing Royal 8; Fender Acoustonic 90, Passport Mini, Mini Tonemaster; Marshall MS-2 Micro Stack; Behringer BX-108 Thunderbird; Tom Scholz Rockman. PEDALS/FX: Boss ME-50; Yamaha EMP100; Stage DE-1; Samson C-Com 16 L.R. Baggs ParaAcoustic D.I; MXR EQ-10.