It has also become quite difficult to source good examples of the MIJ Casinos.

IMO the later (1990s) Terada examples were more desirable as I believe the Terada builds were a bit better quality but not to take away anything from the earlier Matsumoto builds.īoth eras had smaller necks so, if you are a Fender guy then maybe the thinner necks may not be an issue for you.Īlso, prices on these have gone up considerably over the past 20 years and now can approach $2K USD, or more which would put you in the ball park approaching the newer USA made version.

It's kinda like people expecting (demanding?) to live in San Francisco while making minimum wage.I'm only familiar with some of the MIJ Casinos the earlier blue label (Matsumoto) examples and the later orange label (Terada) examples as I owned a few. The labor is the practically the same! You don't like the higher price, go buy the MIK/MIC one! But, not a very realistic expectation, IMO. Not sure how anyone would expect these new US Casinos to come in significantly less than that? I mean, if it does, great. Seems like the Brits utilized Epiphones more than us Yanks?Ģ020, I see the new ES-335s available for pre-order at $3K.

Not sure about this but it also seems to me that Epiphone was better leveraged for entering the UK market. Were Epiphone Casinos that much cheaper in 1964 compared to an ES-330? Said dealer then increases sales and rep comes back saying 'OK, you can now order Gibsons as you've proven your worth'. Gibson says, you can sell Epiphone to start with. I wasn't alive in the '60s but my understanding is, at that time, Epiphone was really more about something for Gibson to leverage to get dealers 'in the door': i.e., a new dealer wants to sell Gibson. I get tired of people saying these USA Gibson-built Casinos (Texans) should be costing less because Epiphone is the budget version compared to Gibson.

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