This allowed the sound to resonate more and created a much fuller and brighter final product. The most notable of these features was the hollow body design itself. This is a classic hollow-body electric guitar that features a few interesting technical features that were revolutionary for that time and for the price point at which this guitar was available. It was meant to be a competitor as well as a much cheaper alternative to the then-popular Gibson ES 335. This iconic guitar was released in 1961 by Epiphone. If you enjoy or have even heard, jazz and blues from the 60s and 70s, you will most likely have heard an Epiphone Casino being played.

A Brief History of Epiphone Casino and Gibson ES 335.

Unique details about the Epiphone Casino.

This major difference translates into size, tone, and weight differences.įor example, the Casino is a fully hollow body guitar that will be lighter in weight than the ES 335 which is a semi-hollow body. The major difference between the Epiphone Casino and the Gibson ES 335 is that the Casino is a full hollow-body guitar while the ES 335 is a semi-hollow-body guitar. In this article, we will do a side-by-side comparison of the Gibson ES 335 and the popular Epiphone Sheraton.

King loved his ES 335 so much that he named it “Lucille.”

The Gibson ES 335 has always been an integral part of blues.Īs a matter of fact, it was the guitar of choice for popular blues legend B.B. When talking about brands of hollow and semi-hollow body guitars, Gibson always makes it to that list, regardless of the listed parameters – be it budget, playability, and ergonomics. Most importantly, these guitars have been an integral part of the sound of several genres and styles like jazz, blues and pop music. He did pay a guy to strip it once but mostly the Beatles were very hands on type musicians.Semi-hollow and full hollow-body guitars have always been more than subjects of debate in the guitar world. Lennon's Casino had several different paint coats as well as stripping done to it. They didn't spend big bucks on instrument maintenance. Ringo was notorious for doing self mods to his drums. They painted their own guitars with cheap paint and fingernail polish. Lennon stuck Grover tuners on his Casino himself. A lot of the Beatle instruments had screw holes in several places as they moved pickups around. They didn't use the guitar tech guy like the big rockers all seem to have today. They took their guitars to a luthier sometimes and did the work themselves sometimes. What they had back then was crude compared to today. But they are in a totally different league. Not to say that other people don't do a good job. Macca and Harrison also have unlimited resources to take care of their instruments at the highest level.

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