Author Topic: New Epi, same old BKP90's (Read 5423 times)

Tinus · « **on:** February 16, 2006, 12:54:34 AM »

Hey there,
I've been having fun last year with a Korean Epiphone Casino with P-90's rewound by Tim, which transferred it from average to great sounding. Still, when the guitar shop I work in traded in an almost unused Japanese Epiphone Elite Casino w/ Bigsby I couldn't resist and traded it for my old one. Although the new one had Gibson built P90's I wasn't too keen on them because they were inbalanced and pretty microphonic, which is especially bad in (hollow) Casinos. Switching pickups sounded like a gunshot :shock: so I planned to have the new p'ups rewound by Tim too.

A few days after the deal was made the shopowner asked me about the p'ups and told me he wouldn't mind if I switched them over, because he considered the USA P90's an upgrade already for the Korean Casino. During a feverish nightly soldering job (working with electronics in Casinos is a regular pain in the &^%%) I switched them all over and I took my old Casino to work again the next morning. As the guitar sold the same day I was pleased I hadn't waited any longer.

When I came home I plugged in the new Casino (hadn't heared it through an amp yet) and it's a truly awesome guitar now! The bridge P-90 is pretty much like a BKP-91, nice and raw with excellent pick attack. The neck P-90 is more like an early '50ies one with AIII magnet and lower output. It's clear but incredibly deep sounding and reacts well to a bit of tone roll-off. The mix position, probably because of the different outputs/characters, is very phasey and gives a brilliant rythm sound through my treble booster with my amp (Budda Dual Stage 30) set slightly crunched up. The light weight and resonant feel, easy playability and slender neck and the Bigsby makes this a great stage guitar to get wild on :twisted:

Dunno if there's any moral to this, except to hang on to those BKP's when you sell a guitar as they will be useful somewhere else later!

38thBeatle · « **Reply #1 on:** February 16, 2006, 07:41:10 AM »

I'd like a Casino- no prizes for guessing why though.

Gochaz · « **Reply #2 on:** February 16, 2006, 10:37:21 AM »

B-b--b-b-beatles!

Me too, actually, although the Elitist ones are expensive, and the Korean ones'd probably just be a step down from my current guitar. (Gretsch Streamliner with Dynasonics).

Ratrod · « **Reply #3 on:** February 16, 2006, 11:32:42 AM »

Nice guitar. Big One Music in Zwolle, right?

Tin(it)us · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2006, 11:01:47 PM »

Quote from: Ratrod

Nice guitar. Big One Music in Zwolle, right?

Nope! I understand you'd think that but the store I work in is in Amsterdam. I just love trains :roll:

The Korean Casinos are actually pretty good if you upgrade the PUs for sound and solving feedback issues. However I play two other Elitists and I always felt my previous Casino lacked a little in comparison to both. When I found this one I just could'nt pass on it, although it is by no means cheap.

ps sorry it took a while to answer, my account was deactivated so I decided to start a new one...

The amazing Phil · « **Reply #5 on:** February 23, 2006, 11:17:46 AM »

That looks really cool, what would you say were the main differences (eletronics aside) between the elite and korean €piphones?

indysmith · « **Reply #6 on:** February 23, 2006, 08:28:58 PM »

Quote from: The amazing Phil

That looks really cool, what would you say were the main differences (eletronics aside) between the elite and korean €piphones?

the eilitist epiphones are made to a very high standard in japan with US parts i believe. -sorry to hijack the thread - but how do you do a euros sign on the keyboard? lol -

Tin(it)us · « **Reply #7 on:** February 27, 2006, 12:20:29 AM »

Quote from: indysmith

Quote from: The amazing Phil
That looks really cool, what would you say were the main differences (eletronics aside) between the elite and korean €piphones?

the eilitist epiphones are made to a very high standard in japan with US parts i believe. -sorry to hijack the thread - but how do you do a euros sign on the keyboard? lol -

The €pi-sign :D is [ctrl][alt]5

What indysmith said is basically true. The main difference in playability between them is that the elitist's neck is much more like the mid60's specs, ie very slinky and a bit narrower than normal, while my Korean Casino has a much more generic Gibson LP-like neck. However the Korean specs are not written in stone, a friend of mine has a Korean one with a thinner neck. The fingerboard however is a much nicer and darker piece of rosewood, true abalone inlays look better and the fretting of the Elitist is 100% faultless where the Korean is average.

Because of the natural finish the neck wood of the Elitist is very visible and it shows a very nice even grained single piece of mahogany (with two small wings added for the headstock). I could see that the neck wood of the Korean one is much lighter (the base was not finished) than mahogany so I suspect it could well be a piece of Nato or something else.

The acoustic sound of the Elitist has more spark and attack and is better balanced than the Korean, which sounds more nasal. Might have something to do with better tonewood in the neck and the thinner finish. Plugged in this can also be heard, and the Elitist seems to have a bit more sustain which could be caused by the added mass of the Bigsby. On both guitars the sound was dramatically improved with the BKP's so I'm glad I was able to keep them!

This guitar btw is my third Elitist, my main guitar is a winered Riviera, pretty much a 335 with miniHB's so it sounds alot clearer. In the pic I am playing it onstage with my band. Because I liked it so much I got the twelve string version too, which I found very cheap in a German guitar webstore. I highly recommend these Elitist thinlines to anyone who is looking for an alternative take on the 335!

willo · « **Reply #8 on:** February 27, 2006, 12:39:00 AM »

Hey Tinitus, that looks like a pretty cool set-up your band has got there. What's the music like?

(sorry for the OT!)

Ratrod · « **Reply #9 on:** February 27, 2006, 12:47:09 PM »

Quote from: willo

Hey Tinitus, that looks like a pretty cool set-up your band has got there. What's the music like?

(sorry for the OT!)

+1

Upright bass is great.

Tin(it)us · « **Reply #10 on:** February 27, 2006, 04:49:00 PM »

Quote from: willo

Hey Tinitus, that looks like a pretty cool set-up your band has got there. What's the music like?

(sorry for the OT!)

Thx guys you make me blush :oops:
We play pop songs our singer writes. Some are Beatles-like, some are more jazzy/laid-back, and we know how to rock out too.

I love playing in this band because of the versatility. The light Brigade used to be a three-piece band with our singer playing guitar, but six months ago the keyboard player joined in. Then in October I joined to take over the guitar role from our singer and that's where we are now. Our bass-player btw. plays both upright bass and a nice Fender Telecaster bass on stage.