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It has no strap button on the heel or bass side Mickey Mouse ear.  No holes and mint, unbroken finish, so I conclude it never has.  As Gibson had been putting strap buttons on for years by then, this reinforces my view that this is a unique early production batch.

I guess the idea would have been to attach a strap via a string through the space between the strings and the headstock behind the nut, like on a folk guitar.

I tried this.  The balance is all wrong and anchoring the neck there means the guitar doesn’t move with as you move around the fretboard as I tend to do.  A lot.

So I’m left with a quandary.  Consign myself to playing it sitting down (ie very few gigs) or drill a hole (OUCH!)….

More pix of my Epiphone Casino 230T here, and my latest acquisition, a ’63 Firebird ! reissue with a huge neck, here.  Enjoy!

Having only ever seen one other, and that on the web, I got to thinking how rare this excellent, clean addition to my collection is.  Here’s my reasoning so far…

Epiphones from the early sixties were made by Gibson on the same production line and were part of the same numbering system.  Gibson serial numbers for February-December 1961 run from 100 to 42,440, suggesting than no more than 42,340 instruments could have been made in that period, apart perhaps from the odd custom piece without a serial number (like the 1275 doublenecks, for example).

Reported shipping totals suggest far fewer Gibsons were actually made and shipped – 3978 flattops, 193 archtops, 3454 thinline and 869 full-depth hollowbody electrics and 5768 solidbodies.  That makes only 14,262 Gibsons made between February and Dec ember 1961 – amazing compared to the production number of today.  No wonder the quality of these remains legendary.

Meanwhile, an Epiphone history at http://www.epiphone.com/History.aspx tells us that the company sold 3,798 instruments in 1961.  This feels about right with respect to Gibson’s ~14,000 shipped and means that less than half, 18,060, of the 42,340 available serial numbers were actually used across the two brands.

Casinos, or 230T’s and 230TD’s to give them their numerical designations, were introduced in Epiphone’s April ’61 catalogue.  Metal headstock logo plates were already being phased out in favour of pearl inlays like Gibsons by then, and the catalogue confirms this by showing an instrument with a pearl headstock inlay.

The shipping numbers give some helpful insight.  Gibson ES330’s were the near-identical analogue of the Casino. Only 481 single-pickup variants were shipped in ’61 (267  sunburst 330T’s, 214 330TC’s in the then-new cherry finish, and no 330TN’s in the discontinued blonde).  This compared to 1187 double-pickup models (542 sunburst 330TD’s, 645 cherry 330TDC’s and again no blondes).

Meanwhile, this site (http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/epiphone/Casino.php) shows that only 110 Epiphone 230T’s were shipped across ’61.  That’s no more than ten a month on average if you consider that the instrument wasn’t even around in the early months.

Putting all this together, metal plate logo Casinos are therefore very probably an anomalous pocket of guitars made for only a few weeks and certainly for no more than three months.

Gibson production batches of the time numbered 35-40 instruments, so this means metal plate 230T’s could belong to a single batch, making them about as rare as original Explorers!  I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found one, especially in such condition.

I’d really welcome more informed views from experts in this field….

Regulars will know my love of early, single pickup Gibson ES330’s.  I wanted a sunburst one to complete the set with my natural and cherry models, and one day I discovered that there were single pickup Epiphone Casinos from the same period.

Several years later, I found one and it’s here.  Really, really clean with a matching rare Epi case.  It’s shown below amongst the closest of its new siblings.  I’ll be posting more pix and text in a few days….

From left, ’59 ES335TD; ’61 ES330TC; ’61 Epiphone 230T; and ’60 ES330T, all mint or near.

…this time me playing my much-loved ’61 Gibson ES330TC through my 50w Ceriatone Overtone Special, all the tone shaping coming from my fingers and the guitar’s volume control. Old school.

The purchase of TC Flashback delay and Corona chorus stomboxes some weeks back qualified me for a free TC drive pedal worth about £100 – a pretty good offer.

Given my tastes and style, it was a pretty easy choice to go for TC’s Mojomojo overdrive despite its rather unappealing ‘dirty protest’ housing.  It arrived recently after some confusion over delivery (see previous post – good old UPS, the musicians’ friend, dropped it at the wrong address, delaying my receipt by ten days).

When I bought my TCelectronic Flashback delay and Corona chorus pedals recently, I’d already made my choice but the purchase was sweetened by the promise of a free drive stompbox bundled in.

It transpired that you have to print and mail an application form to TC in Denmark along with the original receipt, and the small print suggests it could be many weeks before the freebie shows.  In short, a right old palaver, but at least the freebie is well worth having.

I chose their Mojomojo pedal and my wait began.  Last week, I got a notification that UPS had tried to deliver something to my home while I was at work.  They only deliver during work hours, so I called them to rearrange delivery to my office the following Monday.

Nothing arrived, yet the tracking facility on the UPS web site showed that the package had been delivered that morning.  I checked again – not to my office reception, nor the main building reception, nor the hotel next door, nor the business across the road, and nobody recognised the signatory…

So I called UPS, but they won’t initiate an investigation unless the sender instructs them, and I didn’t know who the sender was.  After some persuasion, ‘I’ll have to ask my manager’ etc, they revealed it was TC.  I deduced that it was my free pedal (probably following a customer support ticket I had posted chasing it to which I had no reply).

So I phoned TC for a relevant email address – there are none on the web site.  They responded after a couple of days, saying they’d asked UPS to investigate.  Not holding my breath, I subsequently suggested to TC they they simply mail me another Mojomojo and get UPS to send the lost one back to them if and when they find it wherever they had dumped it.

Still no pedal.  Hey, it’s only TWO MONTHS so far….

I think TC products are pretty good.  I’ve had a G-Force ever since it first came out (although software upgrades which are invariably free from others are outrageously priced).   The new Toneprint stompboxes, app and editor are excellent.  But they could certainly sharpen up their customer service…  and fire UPS.

I’ve been playing quite a few gigs recently with a stripped-down rig of guitar, pedal and amp, using my Ceriatone or Egnater amps. I’ve found some rooms prefer the Zen/Dumkudo Twin pedal, others the Barber Burn Unit.

Both give great clean boost and overdrive, the Barber has more gain but the Zen & Dum can be cascaded to give more too – at some cost to the separate sounds of each side of the pedal.

The Zen/Dum seems to be critical of the amp it goes through too, but when it sings, sublime…

…and it’s bloody fantastic.  It looks great…

…and sounds way better still.  No wonder Robben Ford has ordered one too…

Given my penchant for overdrives and for the ‘Dumble sound’ – and having narrowly missed a Dumkudo on sale here recently – the rave reviews and artist list led me to treat myself.

As I use numerous guitars with single-coil and humbucker pickups, I opted for the Custom Twin pedal which contains both a Dumkudo (recommended for single coils) and Zenkudo (for humbuckers).  As they’re independent but in the same housing, you can also cascade one into the other for endless overdrive fun.

Maker Tanabe-san’s customer service is exceptional, fantastic communication.  Even better, I spotted one Robben Ford on the waiting list, vindicating my ‘blind’ purchase and suggesting that I have something really special coming in the post in a few days’ time.

Needless to say, I will post experiences shortly!