This Epi body had the twin 335-style rounded cutaways, in this case leaving 16 frets clear of the body.

Gibson used specialised presses to contour and arch the Casino’s laminated tops and backs and to shape the sides. The body was about 16 inches at its widest and around an inch and three-quarters deep, and it had a pressed three-ply laminated top, back, and sides – maple for the two outer plies plus a softer inner ply, often poplar. The Casino alongside the Sorrento in the 1962 Epiphone catalogue List prices for the single-pickup model were $230, or $269.50 with vibrato, and for the two-pickup model $275, or $314.50 with vibrato. Epiphone’s catalogue from that year trumpeted the Casino as having “ultra-modern, thin-body, double cutaway styling”. When the first examples were shipped from the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1961, the basic specs were all in place. The single-pickup version didn’t last long and was dropped in ’63. The ES-330 had a regular hollowbody-style trapeze tailpiece, plus that choice of one or two single-coil P-90s, with two or four controls as appropriate.

As a result of the different fit, the 330’s neck joined the body around the 16th fret. Unlike the 335, 345, and 355, the 330 had no solid block inside the body. The blurb said they replaced the single-pickup thinline ES-225T, explaining why – for a while, at least – the 330 came in those single or double-pickup versions.Ī further difference between the 330 and the semi-solid models was that the 330’s neck was fitted further into the body. The 330 was available at first with one or two pickups, and the October/November 1959 issue of Gibson’s Gazette promo magazine announced the pair as “beautiful professional-type guitars, economy priced by Gibson”. To understand how Gibson positioned the new Casino in its revised and reworked Epiphone range, let’s briefly consider the ES-330. The Sheraton remained as the only semi-solid among the Gibson-made Epiphones until it was joined in ’62 by the Riviera, which broadly corresponded to the 335. This extremely rare 1961 Casino might be the only example ever made in Royal OliveĮpiphone’s semi-solid Sheraton (originally intended to be called the Deluxe) was roughly equivalent to the Gibson ES-355 in its fancy appointments, while the Casino was a close relation to Gibson’s hollow 330. They were quick to apply some of these approaches and ideas to the new Epiphone lines. These were the stereo 345 and the high-end 355, and also a full hollowbody version, the ES-330. Gibson had recently introduced the ES-335, its groundbreaking semi-solid double-cutaway thinline electric, and in the wake of its success the company’s bosses created a series around it, adding a few more models in the same style.

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