As part of Epiphone’s more affordable ‘Inspired By’ series, the John Lennon Casino is a £1,200 cheaper than the previous USA model that has now been discontinued by Epiphone. This Indonesian made version is no budget instrument however and features Gibson USA P-90 pickups and a maple laminate body.
The slim taper neck is easy to play and has a nice low action although the high gloss finish on the back of the neck may prove a bit sticky for some players. The guitar certainly looks the part and despite a rather cheap looking scratch plate (that many players tend to remove incidentally) the guitar is every inch the vintage instrument you would hope for.
When plugged in the guitar features a rich mellow tone. The P-90 bridge pickup is bright enough for BB Kind inspired lead breaks whilst the middle and neck positions offer a full range of blues and jazz tones. Although you have to dial down the volume with a little amp gain to achieve the Beatles tones found on many of their famous songs (think taxman and paperback writer) the guitar can be prone to feedback although this is a common issue with many hollow bodied guitars.
We think this will be a popular guitar amongst those indie, blues and jazz guitarists and the price tag will inevitably help this guitar fly off the shelves.
Specifications
- Body Material: Laminated Maple
- Neck Material: Mahogany
- Neck Shape: SlimTaper
- Neck Joint: Glued-In; 16th fret
- Truss Rod: Adjustable
- Scale Length: 24.75″
- Fingerboard: Rosewood with pearloid “Parallelogram” inlays
- Bridge Pickup: Gibson USA P-90T
- Neck Pickup: Gibson USA P-90R
- Controls: Bridge Volume, Neck Volume, Bridge Tone, Neck Tone, Switchcraft 3-way toggle, Switchcraft 1/4″ Jack
- Binding: Body and Fingerboard
- Fingerboard Radius: 14″
- Frets: 22; medium-jumbo
- Bridge: Tune-o-matic
- Nut Width: 1-11/16″
- Hardware: Nickel
- Machine Heads: (1965 – VS) Vintage-style; 14:1 ratio with small metal buttons
Cost: £850 (approx $1500)
Colours: Vintage Sunburst, Natural
Pretty expensive for an Epiphone, I’m not sure its worth it instead of getting a regular Epi Casino
Brilliant guitar, having owned both this and the standard casino, i would recomend this over the standard if you can afford it.
There is a clear difference between the Gibson stock pickups and the standard alnico ones.
It is a suprisingly fast neck allthough the neck access is restricted high up the neck, and probably a little more so in this model over the standard model as this has the specifications of lennons 60′s one (the neck joint is up 2 frets). if you into your shredding don’t buy this guitar, go and buy a bc rich and jump off a large building.
aesthetically it is beautiful, the finish is really nice (i have the vintage sunburst one), and again better that the standard job as the darkened edges hug the curves of the cutaway.
I’ve had no problems with the fit or finish, epiphone in my experience have allways been well turned out.
Casino’s are fully hollow; one of the reasons why their tone is so good, this can lead to feedback if you face the amp on high gain – Obvs.
Feed back for me is not much of an issue, as i don’t use much gain, however it is easily avoided just by turning it down on the guitar itself a little. Also a decent overdrive pedal helps. Some people even stuff socks in (semi-acoustic guitars in general)
I’d rather have this than a gibson dot – just for the tone and the look. For the money its the best semi you can get by far. followed closley by a sheraton.
Thanks for the detailed review Kenny and it’s great to know this guitar sounds as good as it looks.