1996 Epiphone Casino Electric Guitar Sunburst, Pre-Elitist, Japan Terada

Up for sale, a 1996 Epiphone Casino in excellent condition and in perfect working order. Produced in Japan at the Terada factory and featuring a gloss Sunburst finish, this is an uncommon Epiphone reissue which preceded the current "Elitist" line. Acoustically, the fully hollow all-maple body has a smooth, bright tone which works well with the original pair of P-90 pickups. These pickups are wound to vintage spec with plenty of midrange bark, and a glassy, percussive quality. Whether you want articulate cleans or thick overdrive, these pickups can produce either with ease and with a refinement far beyond most other modern Casino reissues. The guitar weighs 6lbs 7oz, professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar and dialed in for optimal action and intonation with 11-49 strings.The maple neck has a slender C-shaped profile carve with moderate shoulder at the nut and a hair more roundness and heft further up the fretboard, measuring .785" deep at the 1st fret and .860" at the 12th. The rosewood fretboard features pearloid parallelogram inlay and fret edge binding with original medium jumbo frets which have their full factory height and well-rounded crowns, showing moderate wear on frets 1-3, favoring the plain strings, with wear extending and growing fainter beneath the plain strings until fret 10. The guitar plays cleanly up the 24 3/4" scale with a straight neck and responsive, ideally adjusted truss rod. The original bone nut measures 1 9/16" in width, and the headstock retains the original Kluson-style nickel tuners which turn smoothly and hold pitch as they should.The electronics are untouched, with gold reflector cap knobs on the Volume and Tone controls. There's uniform surface patina on the nickel-plated hardware including the ABR-1 bridge, dogear pickup covers, and trapeze tailpiece. Visible through the F hole, the original orange oval label is present, dating production to 1996.The Sunburst finish is accented by the original elevated pickguard with "E" epsilon badge, and cosmetic wear includes light finish scratches in the clear coat across the back, and just a couple additional minor marks on the body as a whole. The gloss finish on the neck profile is clean and smooth.The original brown faux leather gigbag with gold Epiphone silkscreened text on the pocket is included.