ShortScale.org

This demo is pretty cool, it's the Peerless Songbird, fully hollow like the Casino:
[youtube][/youtube]

The tone is good, but in the comments he wrote that got rid of it because of too much feedback playing jazz, so go figure. I guess he plays loud.

Fakir Mustache wrote:Peerless Songbird
The tone is good, but in the comments he wrote that got rid of it because of too much feedback playing jazz, so go figure. I guess he plays loud.

Feedback is a persistent problem with electric hollowbodies at moderate gig volume... if he was in a band and competing with a horn section, you bet a Casinos going to feed back as he sits next to some big loud clean amp. And P90s are fat meaty single coils which are susceptible to rather loud hum and buzz on top of that. You have to be careful with 330s/Casinos at gigs compared to a 335s/Dots which have a center block and buckers. They're best for people who actually want a hollowbody, not people who want an ES-shaped guitar and happen to like P90s more than buckers... there's a lot more to be mindful of than that.
I did know a guy in high school who wasn't into "loud idiot rock" (his words) who had a Casino and got rid of it due to all the noises. He conceded to me once that all his problems with it were actually things he'd read about before he bought it, he'd just hoped it would be ok for him and it wasn't.


Quick note: Peerless factories, like Samick/Shine factories, made guitars for Epi before the switch to the Chinese ones, so I think these actually are late '90s-2002 Casinos with re-shaped headstocks. Note that everything else is the same, including tuners and inlays. They make/made Gretsch Electromatics too, and around the time some Electromatic White Falcon prototypes that never made it to production started floating around eBay, Peerless released this:

All the newer Epiphone Casinos I've played up in Denmark Street over the past two years have been Made In Korea ones.

Either they've switched back, or they're old stock. They're fucking lovely though and I'd love to own one at some point.

^yeah, they switched back. I don't think they ever made many/any Casinos at Gibson Qingdao, but some other factories in China were making them for a time, and there was also pressure on the US-based parent companies over what was going on with the Korean factories making their budget lines.

http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/guita ... how-232325

Color me schooled on the return of kajino (Koreans use the Japanese pronunciation of the word, for whatever reason lol) production to the locals!

paul_ wrote:
Quick note: Peerless factories, like Samick/Shine factories, made guitars for Epi before the switch to the Chinese ones, so I think these actually are late '90s-2002 Casinos with re-shaped headstocks. Note that everything else is the same, including tuners and inlays. They make/made Gretsch Electromatics too, and around the time some Electromatic White Falcon prototypes that never made it to production started floating around eBay, Peerless released this:

They're really solid pieces, but the market is so bad that they can go for super cheap on the used market, if at all. One sold for W620,000 (about $600) last month and some go under $600 on a good day, and some of you might remember the following Limited Edition 40th Anniversary Gigmaster Custom (with TV Jones Powertrons) I posted that went for about $800 not too long ago over here. Unlike most of the 40-or-so that were made that used the same pickup rings with humbucker-sized Powertrons, this one was super rare with the original-sized Filtertrons straight out of the factory. The black back/sides/neck made even the cheesy abalone inlay rather tolerable.




And Gigmaster Standards as well can go for under $300 if you're patient.

paul_ wrote:

Quick note: Peerless factories, like Samick/Shine factories, made guitars for Epi before the switch to the Chinese ones, so I think these actually are late '90s-2002 Casinos with re-shaped headstocks. Note that everything else is the same, including tuners and inlays. They make/made Gretsch Electromatics too, and around the time some Electromatic White Falcon prototypes that never made it to production started floating around eBay, Peerless released this:

No they aren't late 90's Casinos. The fretboard radius is different for one thing, the neck shape different too. They are 'new' guitars.

There were some interesting guitars floating around a few years ago. The Johnson brand was sold in Germany and was clearly a starting run for Peerless to release their own name stuff. I had one of the Country Gent clones and it was identical to the Peerless model that is now available.

Casinos are awesome. They have an awesome clean tone. Especially the neck pup. Haven't had much chance to go all out with one.... distortion and what not, but man did I ever love the clean tones.