Upgrading the stock Casino pickups for a more vintage sound

Creamery - Upgrading Stock Epiphone Casino Pickups

1. Make Offer - WD Replacement Pickup Cover For Epiphone Casino Neck Chrome (1) 4pc Epiphone G1275 Custom 6/12 Electric Guitar Pickup Set OEM Repair Parts #7476 $129.99.
2. I've changed this things: - PICKUPS to Bare Knuckles Nantucket P90 - POTS to CTS - SWITCH - BRIDGE to Gotoh Gear used in this video: Guitars: - Epiphone Casi.

I recently ran one of my regular competitions to wind a set of handwound pickups and the winner, Mike, asked whether he could have his Epiphone Casino pickups rewound/upgraded for a more vintage tone - 'No problem', I said. The stock pickups had a very high output, 12.1k in the Bridge & 11.6k in the Neck, an unsubtle set especially for a Hollow Body guitar.

I sent in a set of stock Epiphone P-90s to have them rewound for a Casino that I had assembled from individual surplus parts. The stock pickups I acquired for the project had a DC resistance of 12K ohms, a little too much emphasis in midrange, lacked high end clarity, and additionally the neck position was overly boomy in comparison to the bridge.

Mike wanted to tone them down with a rewind and new magnets.

Upgrading Stock Epiphone Casino Pickups - What's inside

The first task was to remove the covers and see what's inside. The Epiphone Casino has custom bobbins with a string spacing narrower than a standard P90. The option was to either make new bobbins to match the cover pole spacing or simply use the existing ones. Mike had no issue with me utilising the existing bobbins so the challenge now was to remove the existing overwound coil wire in such a way as to not nick the sides. Any cuts or scratches to the very thin top & bottom layers of the bobbins could catch on the new coil wire when winding, snapping or pulling it leaving a few thousand turns of coil useless.

Since 1961, the legendary Casino has been Epiphone’s best-selling archtop and a rock ‘n’ roll standard. First introduced in 1961, the Casino was just one of several new thinline archtops designed and produced at the company’s adopted new factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan that it shared with one-time competitor and new partner, Gibson. The Casino was first adopted by Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones who used a Casino to record the demo for “Satisfaction” at Chess Records in Chicago. Howlin' Wolf took a Casino on his first tour of the UK, appearing on Thank Your Lucky Stars. Shortly afterwards, John Lennon and George Harrison bought Casinos for the Beatles 1966 world tour. Featuring Dogear P-90T Classic™ pickups and a 5-ply Maple body with Basswood top bracing. Available in Natural, Vintage Sunburst, and new Turquoise color finishes.

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P-90 Single Coil Pickup

Legendary Tone

First introduced in the early 1950s, Gibson's legendary P90 single coil pickup produced a raw powerful tone that helped define the blues and rock and roll in their formative years. Today, the P90's traditional combination of high output and brilliant tone is still considered a favorite among many top musicians. Known by such familiar nicknames as the 'Soapbar' and the 'Cobalt,' the P90 still cuts through any type of music, all while displaying amazing tonal sensitivity for everything from blues and rock to mellow jazz riffs. It's perfect as a vintage replacement, and features vintage, braided two-conductor wiring. It's also fully wax potted to eliminate any chance of unwanted microphonic feedback.

Body

Neck

Hardware

Epiphone Casino Pickups Replacement Pickups

Epiphone Casino Pickup Replacement

Electronics

Miscellaneous

In order to continually improve the design, quality and performance of our products and instruments and to make use of the best materials at all times, Epiphone reserves the right to change specifications without notice.