Epiphone guitar serial number dating serial numbers#

Wondering what others are using for classic sounds and any input on gauge is welcome. It's a ripply affair I'd not noticed before and wonder if it has anything to do with string tension? I have since found the light gauge Pyramid (.010') and sent away for a set.

Probably why George slid up to notes so much.Īnyway I noticed on the this 50 year old guitar that the finish seems to be buckling a little bit both at the headstock and heel on the backside neck.

I know for reading that the boys had pretty heavy strings of the time and said as much when trying to bend them. I love the tone the best of all I have tried but have only been able to secure them in 11's which is light medium gauge. To cut down on string noise and attempting to closer to what the lads might have been using, I got some Pyramid Gold Flat wound strings. On another subject relating to the Casino/330, is string selection. It was pretty much identical to my 330, although that's not always enough to stop me! I couldn't really afford it and I'd just bought a '65 330 so since I worked in a guitar shop I offered to sell it for them via the shop - it was a sweet guitar, and fun to have it for a couple of months. One of the guitars that's passed through my hands I really regret not buying was a McCartney spec '64/'65 Casino that was offered me about ten years ago where the owner had passed on and the family didn't know what to do with it. I'd say a '64 or early '65 is still the most desirable version but any short neck Casino is a good guitar to have as long as you get on with the narrow nut. Two of the three Beatle Casinos were '65 spec guitars (McCartney's has the earlier headstock) so there's a Beatles boost factor for the mid 60s spec Casino there and a '66 or '67 isn't that far removed. In terms of does it matter, I don't think there's a massive difference in value, say 20% between a wide nut '65 and a narrow nut '66. Horn shape would probably nail it to the nearest 12 months. That suggests you're in late '65- late '67 territory then. I posted a few weeks ago that I've never seen a long neck '67 Casino, and CME immediately posted one on Reverb to show me up - they're bother best at dating these but I suspect they're correct with that one, so there you go, the last '67 Casinos were long neck. The neck join changes in late '67, although a few short neck guitars are about with probable '68 serial numbers. If it has a narrow nut and super pointy fox ears it's '66/'67, narrow nut and mickey mouse ears late '67. If it's 1 11/16th nut width and all chrome hardware it's probably '65.

Epiphone guitar serial number dating serial numbers#

So, even without looking at serial numbers at all if it's a short neck with the hourglass headstock and chrome throughout you can fairly confidently limit it as being from '65 to '67. I posted a few weeks ago that I've never seen a long neck '67 Casino, and CME immediately posted one on Reverb to show me up - they're not always the best at dating these but I suspect they're correct with that one, so there you go, the last '67 Casinos were long neck. Shape of the horns also helps - most literature bunches '64-'67 into the fox ear category but to my eyes '66 and early '67 is noticeably more pointed than '64 or '65. 1 5/8ths can be any era (in my experience there was about a 16th of an inch tolerance to Gibson's necks in the 60s generally, and both 1 1/2 and 1 5/8 pop up every now and then on late 60s guitars - my head hurts with all these fractions, you guys need a metric system!) but also seems common in '64 and '65.įor Casinos the headstock shape changed from a shorter, stumpier design to the familiar hourglass one in late '64/early '65 so that should help you rule out '64, especially with chrome hardware. If it's 1 9/16ths you're looking at '65 or later. If it's a '64 or early '65 it should have a 1 11/16' nut width and 17° headstock angle, which makes it easy.

The serial numbers are fairly comprehensively listed on a few places online including which ranges were reused so they can still help a lot narrowing down a year when combined with features, although I suspect there are still a few gaps here and there. I don't follow Casinos as closely as I do 330s but they do pop up on my radar regularly enough. Most of this is based on ES330s, although the timelines should be more or less the same.