Casino 16th and 17th fret neck joins

Wolfetone

Been looking for a used Casino for my daughter and came across this odd advert mentioning the neck join at the 16th fret whereas others are joined at the 17th. I went and counted frets on a number of adverts and, lo and behold, everything new is joined at the 17th fret. He says his was bought in China by some guy in the foreign office who brought it back. Strange tale but would Epiphone really make an original spec for the China market??

Can anyone fill me in on this? What's the significance and the consequences of a sixteenth fret neck? 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/epiphone-casino-correct-original-16th-fret-neck-join.-with-epiphone-hard-case./1289915974

https://i.imgur.com/MOkUVaf.jpg

mbe

Casino  neck joins at 17th from '95 to '04. Joins at 16th from '05 to now.

I saw that ad and was curious enough to Google some factoids. Seller makes it sound like a big deal but some players prefer 17th fret join for higher fret accessibility. 

Wolfetone

mbe said:

Casino  neck joins at 17th from '95 to '04. Joins at 16th from '05 to now.

I saw that ad and was curious enough to Google some factoids. Seller makes it sound like a big deal but some players prefer 17th fret join for higher fret accessibility. 

Thanks for that

chrisj1602

The seller is trying to big up a standard Casino basically.

ICBM

16th fret is vintage spec and does make the guitar very 'short' and easy to play in the low positions but also restricts the high-end access a bit... which may or may not matter to you. Personally I prefer 17th, it just feels more natural to me even though I don't play much that high up.

I also prefer it to the 335 position, which is the 19th and puts the neck too far too the left - but what I really can't stand is single-cuts with it at the 16th, like the Gibson ES-135. 14th is correct for a single-cut.

DrBob

ICBM said:

16th fret is vintage spec and does make the guitar very 'short' and easy to play in the low positions but also restricts the high-end access a bit... which may or may not matter to you. Personally I prefer 17th, it just feels more natural to me even though I don't play much that high up.

I also prefer it to the 335 position, which is the 19th and puts the neck too far too the left - but what I really can't stand is single-cuts with it at the 16th, like the Gibson ES-135. 14th is correct for a single-cut.

I’d never thought of it before but you’re right. The neck pickup on 135’s looks wrong in relation to the upper bout because it’s too far forward ! 

ICBM

DrBob said:

I’d never thought of it before but you’re right. The neck pickup on 135’s looks wrong in relation to the upper bout because it’s too far forward ! 

First thing I noticed when I picked one up - not that it looks wrong, just that everything is much too far to the left relative to the body. The whole guitar is an inch too long.

Of course, this doesn't apply to Les Pauls, which do correctly have a 16th-fret neck joint - because the body is much smaller! But that doesn't make it right on a full-size hollowbody.

The odd thing is that you only have to look at the bridge and the f-holes to know what's right and what's wrong - the bridge should be level with the 'notch' in the f-holes - look at an ES-175 for illustration . So in fact, the 17th-fret Casino is probably the closest to correct of all the 33x-type guitars.