That said, I measured the tone caps, all the pots and inspected the wiring. Between that and being too hot of a wind for my liking, the pickups were a must change item. My only gripe is that when I removed the electronics to install new pickups, I found a bad ground wire that caused extra buzzing. Maybe even just the nut and used the stock pups for high distortion or fuzz only, hehe. I’ve put my time and half that amount into this Epi and couldn’t be happier.If I wanted to keep it cheap and gig with it, I’d have probably just upgraded the nut and pickups and stopped there. After the D’Angelicos, the only guitars that I like as much as my Casino cost over $1400. Alas, zZounds has a limited selection on those. The next cheapest hollow body that plays this well are D’Angelicos at $799. Now, this guitar is EXACTLY what I wanted and still under $700 total but outplays other guitars costing FAR more.

Next up, Tusq nut and Hipshot locking tuners = another $80. I knew what I wanted and so, after adjusting the action and playing it stock for a few weeks, I first upgraded the pickups. The Casino Coupe has given me all the specs I wanted.I expected to have to do some upgrades on such a low priced guitar. I played a regular Casino at the local store and liked the neck shape but upper fret access was limited. Overall: I liked the specs on the es-339 but didn’t like the neck shape and I wanted p90s. Manufacturer Support: No issues The Wow Factor: A Casino in cherry? It’s a classic look. Even if you gut it and upgrade everything, you will have saved enough on the original purchase to easily afford upgrading parts with top shelf components such as pickups, tuners and nut. It was the wire that connected the jack ground and the rest of the guitar which made it electrically buzz more than single coils normally do. Features: Has all the bits you’d expect on this classic Ease of Use: I love the neck shape and upper fret access Quality: My only gripe was the ground wire that popped off a pot.

I used a piece of dense foam that is almost invisible between the bridge and tailpiece to solve the ringing. It’s the nature of the beast when dealing with this type of bridge. Also, be prepared for sympathetic ringing. So, not as articulate (less dynamics) as they could be if wound a lot less.

Epiphone casino coupe bigsby