Otherwise, I find the neck profiles to be essentially identical, acoustic response the same (with some variation between examples), and overall quality the same. There is one quantifiable difference in the neck joint 2006 and newer models have a vintage-accurate 16th-fret joint, while Korean and most earlier Japanese versions were at the 17th fret.

I see very little difference, if any, between my Korean and the Chinese versions.

I've also played a dozen or so more recent Epiphone-made Chinese Casinos, including the Casino Worn and standard. I have a 2001 Peerless-made Korean Casino, and a 2021 Gibson-made American Casino. But even with the cheaper upgrade it has been a huge difference and it makes playing it way more fun. I can only imagine how much better it'd sound with some Lollar or Kent Armstrong pickups (which, for a set of either of those would cost probably 3x what I paid for the GFS ones). I went with a cheaper option (GFS dogear P90s), but it made a huge difference! Now I set my amp to 'normal' EQ settings and it sounds really really nice.

So I ended up just recently replacing the pickups. but still wasn't quite getting the bright sound I was looking for. I'll crank the treble on my amp and completely cut the mids and bass. But I don't have access to anything else. Maybe a better amp would serve me well (I just play out of an Orange Crush 35RT).

That plus the metal covers, it sounds pretty muddy and uninspiring. From what I have gathered online, they are WAY overwound (like to the tune of 14k). but I also just happen to like the sound of a wound G a bit better anyway) (I'm sure a proper setup would have also fixed things up and not required a wound G. Plays really well! I have had some slight intonation issues with the G string, but that fixed up nicely after I put a set on with a wound G. The guitar build and quality is actually quite impressive, IMO.

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