CASINO ROYALE

With the recent launch of a made-in-USA Casino, Epiphone chose to mark an important 60th birthday in some style. The brand’s original Casino was launched in 1961 as one of the models Gibson introduced following its acquisition of Epiphone, a company based for many years in New York City.

Gibson did the deal in 1957 to get at Epiphone’s successful upright bass business, with the guitar lines an afterthought that happened to come along with the brand name. In fact, the basses never went well for Gibson and production was short-lived. As for the guitars, just look around – it’s clear how well they’ve gone for Gibson.

In 1958, Gibson released the first of its new Epiphone-brand guitars, which had the effect of creating an ancillary tier to the Gibson lines. Some of these ‘new’ Epiphones continued the look and intention of existing Epi models, while others