A review of the newest version of the Casino, a guitar I've always liked but it's been difficult to get a good one.

The previous MIK and MIC Casinos have been pretty meh.

The Inspired by Lennons have a great neck profile and better pickups but have gone way up in price.

The Elitists tend to have crazy narrow nut widths.

The John Lennon '65 and Revolution models are fantastic but cost more than Gibson ES-330s.

So how does the newest version stack up?

Note that I am in a unique position as any work most guitars need I can do myself, so what's cost effective for me may not be for you. And I tend to buy electric guitars for the wood, knowing I can change other things if and as needed.

I lost my rose-tinted glasses a long time ago. Along with those expensive Ray Bans...

The metric Nashville to ABR-1 conversion posts:
https://www.philadelphialuthiertools....

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These are things I get asked about a lot :

Amp Tech Gear Used :

Hakko FX-951 soldering station
Weller SPG 80L soldering iron (chassis work)
Rigol DS1054Z digital oscilloscope
Thsinde 18B+ digital multimeters
Kester 60/40 solder
Techspray #4 No-Clean Desoldering Braid

Below are things that make this channel possible that people don’t usually think about. If any of these companies want to send me new and wonderful toys, I’m open to that. I can’t take free stuff when it comes to the amps I review, etc, but for the stuff below, bribe away!

Microphones/Audio Equipment :

Guitar Amps : Royer R-10 Hot Rod and/or Shure SM57 (noted in videos)
Voiceover Bench : sE Audio sE8 (small diaphragm condenser)
Voiceover Streaming : Shure SM57 with shockmount and windscreen
Voiceover Mic Arms : Elgato Wave Mic arms
Guitar Mic Stand : Gator Frameworks short weighted base stand with boom
Mic Cables and Guitar Cables : Mogami/Neutrik
Mic pre : MOTU M2
DAW : Logic Pro X on MacBook Pro 16 running Sonoma 14
Plugins : No effects other than level matching/normalization unless a recording
specifically has reverb etc added in post (rare, various Waves plugins)
Monitors : Yamaha HS7s
Monitor Stands : Gator Frameworks Desktop Clamp-On Stands
Monitor Isolation Mounts : IsoAcoustics Iso-Puck Minis
Headphones : Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (main)
Headphones : Sony MDR-7506 (alternate)

Video Equipment :

Camera : Sony ZVE-10 with SmallRig Cage (main)
Lens : Sigma f2.8 18-50mm (main)
Lens : Sony ZVE10 kit lens (rarely used)
B Camera : Apple iPhone 13 Pro (rarely used)
Tripod : SmallRig 71” with SmallRig Fluid Video Head
Streaming Mount : Elgato Master Mount S with SmallRig Ballhead
Bench Light : SmallRig RC 120D
Bench Light Diffusor : SmallRig Lantern Softbox
Bench C-Stands (light and overhead camera) : Neewer Pro SS Heavy Duty
Streaming Light : SmallRig RC 120B
Streaming Diffusor : SmallRig Parabolic Softbox
Streaming Light Mount : SmallRig 148CM Wall Mount Boom with Triangle Base
Various Other Lights : Neewer LED Panels with Neewer Softboxes

Video Software :

Davinci Resolve 18
Paul Leeming LUTs
Adobe Illustrator 28
Adobe Photoshop 25
Ecamm Live (streaming software)