Adopting a Rescue Guitar: 2005 Epiphone Casino

I am not a luthier. (I have learned this the hard way over the years, after numerous projects gone wrong such as “strip the Telecaster finish with a heat gun” and “give the Fender Musicmaster a brush-on sparkle finish” and “how about an upholstered velvet B.C. Rich?”) However, when I saw this guitar for sale locally (for a much-lower-than-usual price due to having been heavily altered, as detailed below), I felt it calling to me for help.

It’s a 2005 Epiphone Casino, made in Korea (those are the good ones among imports): completely hollow body, P-90 pickups, very light and comfortable with great midrange tones. I’ve used a 2004 model for 15 years now and still love it, so I wanted to help this semi-hacked-up one.

THE “BEFORE” PHOTO

The problems: The previous owner decided that he or she wanted a middle pickup. Therefore, a hole was sliced out of the top, and a Fender Strat-sized humbucker was crammed in by wedging its screws against the wood edges. Here are photos of the details.

The pickup itself: bizarre mounting. Also, two unused holes to its sides. Why?

To add volume and tone knobs for the new pickup, additional holes had been drilled into the wood for six total knobs. The existing output-jack hole was left empty, and a huge hole for a Telecaster-type output jack was crudely gouged into the side of the guitar (more on that below).

Since there now wasn’t room for the pickup-selector switch, yet another hole was punched into the wood, and in a bizarre location: not centered, not in the cutaway horn, not near the knobs, but just hanging out in a random spot:

The big hole that had been gouged into the side of the guitar:

THE REHAB

First, I yanked out all of the electronics. Check out the attractive wood grain!

I could not undo the fact that there was a big hole for a third pickup, but I wanted one that matched the others, if there had to be one there. I found an old Strat pickup that would fit in that hole with its outer tabs removed; then I mounted it into a P-90 pickup cover with a center screw and some silicone.

Next, I wired all of the electronics together: three pickups, a volume knob for each, a master tone knob, a selector switch for the two P-90 pickups, and another switch to turn the middle pickup on and off. (I would normally do that last part with a push-pull switch, but I had six holes to work with here.) The output jack was returned to its original spot.

In case you didn’t already know this: the electronics of a hollowbody guitar have to be wired up outside, then fed into the guitar through the F-hole! Every part is attached to a string that is run through the hole that that part will fill; when the strings are pulled, the parts rise up into the holes. It looks like a real mess, but works:

This left one more issue to resolve: the two empty, ugly holes in the nice wood. I did not really solve this the professional way. (If you want to see an example of someone doing an amazing job matching wood grain and making it totally invisible, check out https://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Trade_Secrets/Patching_a_hole_in_a_1953_Telecaster.html sometime!) I made two circular plugs from pine, and stained each to the approximate color of the surrounding wood. In the case of the badly-gouged side hole, I added amber shellac to the existing wood around the hole, too. Someday I may try to do a better job with this.

Finally, I installed four cream-colored knobs that almost matched the three new cream-colored plastic pickup covers. Then new strings, and it was ready to play!

Not perfect, but far more respectable! I got to test it at stage/band volume last weekend, and it sounded great. The middle pickup is an acquired taste; it adds a quacky Strat tone that certain people love and others detest. It’s a fun extra option to have, though, if given a guitar that’s already been carved up. Some people rescue dogs; I rescued an Epiphone.