Guitar players

[TheGoodRev]

I have an Ibanez AF75D. Here's what it looks like.

The 'D' is for deep, it's not a thinline guitar; fully hollow, not semi-. It's fun to pound really deep, throaty, resonant chords and pretend I'm Neil Young, or turn way down and chicken-pick some jazz-infused rockabilly and pretend I'm Scotty Moore, or strum a lonesome cha-cha ballad and pretend I'm Roy Orbison. But I have not been digging on the depth, or the general size, shape and colour of the guitar and have contemplated trading it in. I went in a week ago to do just that and, strangely, after a half hour of conversation with an intriguing young lady guitar salesperson, I emerged from the store not only with my guitar still in hand, but also with a receipt for a freshly ordered $2000 Gibson Firebird.

No matter, though, as I came to my senses and went in today to cancel the order. While I was there, I met this:

I dig that it's a semi-hollow, and with a Bigsby no less. They don't make these with the Bigsby's anymore, the model is discontinued. I'm not a huge fan of the pickups, though, they might need to be swapped.

I can walk in tomorrow and trade up with relatively minimal cash on top. Do I want to do this, I ask you?

[Jaimoe]

How much is the Epiphone? I believe it's made in Korea, if that matters to you.

[TheGoodRev]

Yeah, I figure it's made somewhere cheap. These are cheap guitars we're talking about here. The Ibanez was about $500 and the Casino is about $750, but a lot of that is the Bigby I'm sure. I would imagine the non-Bigsby version is between $600 and $650.

I've gotta be making some money in music before I can go find myself a vintage one or the Gibson version... :crazy:

The guitar in my picture, by the way, is unrelated to this situation. It was a borrowed Epiphone Sheraton II, with humbuckers. The Casino has those old-style chrome-cover P90's.

Edited December 20, 2006 by Guest

[Jaimoe]

Most Epiphones if not all are made in Korea - and as you know the Mississippi Delta runs through Seoul - but I think they are a good buy as off-shore guitars go. Epiphone makes their own specific models, so I doubt there's a Gibson equivalent.

You can find some decent vintage guitars that could fall in the grand price range, but you gotta get lucky... and not set your sights on Gibson. However, have you ever tried the off-shore Gretch's? They fall in the $600-800 range at Steve's, even though the sales guys there are notorious pricks.

[Pablo Sanchez]

The casino is probably my favourite epiphone. Its great that its not a knock off but a epiphone original. Totally hollow, no centre block. The pickups could probably use replacing. I'm not sure if these would drop in because they don't make dog ear replacements but Suhr make the best P90s I've ever heard Suhr Guitars/pickups

I'd also be a little cautious about the epi "bigsby". Give it a good work out and make sure its not more trouble than its worth.

Other than that I think it would be a good trade.

[jayr]

I think you'd probably be getting the best of the deal in that trade. Does your Ibanez have a hard case? Does the Epiphone come with a hard case? I personally like both. I'm not much of a tremolo guy though, usually you break a string and the whole guitar goes out of tune which makes changing strings an olympic sport when playing live but thats just my opinion although I have never used a Bigsby..........

EDIT: Oh also, switching out pickups or even fixing the electronics in a Hollow Body like these takes the dexterity and patience of a grade "B" superhero. All the work has to be done through the f-holes. Real tricky, unless you are a guitar tech or know one...........

Edited December 20, 2006 by Guest

[larry_llama]

I like the ibanez, plus you already have a bigsby. if you are set on the casino, get one with no tremolo and save some cash or put the dough towards new pickups

Edited December 20, 2006 by Guest

[Pablo Sanchez]

Maybe go for one of these instead. Guaranteed to get the chicks.