Want to compare 36watter to a DC30

[T-bones]

The Epi Casinos are pretty good guitars, love the treble sound of one. I saw John Jorgenson play one when he was in the Desert Rose Band and If I had my eyes closed I would of thought it was a Gretsch Tenne. But ofcourse feedback was minimal because your hearing it from the P.A. mix. But playing these baby 's in a band situation can be very fustrating dealing with the feedback. I think there finest hour is the treble pickup and is a very hard tone to duplicate. I've had a few of them, strap a Bigsby on them that helps stabilize the top and eases the feedback somewhat. I always get the jones for another but they always spend more time in the case than in my hands. Just can't deal with the feedback. As far as I know the old 335 series are plywood tops not solid. Gibson will build anything today and you will pay the price too. A good example the historic 335 and the dot neck reissue. The only difference is a set of Kluson tulip tuners and a piece of holly veneer on the headstock and its 2k more thats pathetic, if thats not taken advantage of the poor guy that wants that vintage look because he can't afford the $$$$ for a original older one. There making way to many variations of the same guitar with hudge price differences. Your at the crossroads asking yourself what model do I have. My personal take on this Gibson may soon be heading down the road they were traveling before. Time will tell, I may be wrong. But sooner or later they will have to cut production, cut the work force, or start making the guitars outside the USA. I remember having one of there historic SG LP's waited 6 months for it had to pay the dealer up front for the guitar, it was a lefty. Got the guitar, looked just like the original. It wouldn't stay in tune for more than a min. Sorry we can't help you. Did you try thinner strings ? This might help you. Thank you very much, next time use more mahogany than pore filler. These kiln dried woods are not the best. Never again anything from them unless I can see, feel, and taste it. Sorry just had to get that in, it helps with the pain. Quite happy with my Japanese 62 R.I. Strat, Gretsch 6120 and my 3 Korean U-2 Dano's. T-bones.

[rjgtr]

When I heard that Gibson no longer levels frets because their computer carvers are so accurate, I got concerned. I've seen $2000 production guitars that needed the frets leveled. The local repair guru makes a nice amount of money doing setups, neck adjustments and fret levelling on new Gibsons (and others) from the local Guitar Center.

The Custom shop does make some mighty nice guitars, but they aren't much better than some of the late 80's production guitars. I think Gibson is too busy gobbling up everything in sight and not spending enough time on the guitars. The other unforgivable sin Gibson did recently was to stop production of Trace Elliot Bass amps. That was the only decent bass amp in their line and one of the top bass amps in the world.

[zaphod_phil]

The Casino I have also has the Bigsby, so maybe that helps with the feedback. I wonder how else the Beatles would have managed to use them. I like the fact that it's a lot lighter than an ES335 or an LP. Same reason I like my Dano. I'm hearing quite a lot of complaints coming in from folks finding they've bought flawed Gibsons which cost them top $$ prices. It's looking like you can often do better by buying a good Epi and changing the pickups.

[dartanion]

Yup! The Casino is pretty much a ES330 with the Epi name on it, and is a pretty sweet guitar. I too like the fact that it is a light guitar, much like my others. I am not a huge fan of heavy guitars, they wear on the old bones during long sets or jams.

As far as the new high buck Gibsons, just get a PRS. They're around the same price and often cheaper, and have top notch build quality. Mine is dead stable. I have never had to have the neck adjusted or have the frets leveled. This baby has held it's intonation since the first setup. I rarely have to tune it either. There have been numerous times where I rehearse for a few hours, put it in its case, and then a few days later pull it out and it's perfectly in tune. In fact, yesterday's rehearsal was the first time in 3 weeks that I had to tune it. Big E tends to go slightly sharp after a few hard rehearsals. To boot, I play it pretty hard so this has never ceased to amaze me.