To some extent we’re comparing apples and oranges as the Gibson’s vibrato tailpiece, shimmed bridge pickup and 19th fret. In a shootout with our 1969 ES-330 (a long-neck model with a Bigsby) the Casino sounds clearer, with more air but less midrange snarl. In general YES gibsons are objectively better guitars but I have experienced that you can have 500 Epi guitars in a warehouse and they are all EXACTLY the same, but the same selection of Gibsons will have a range of variance to them. High roller: we wish the ’board edges were rolled but the neck profile is perfect. I could fix poor quality electronics but I couldnt fix ugly even though I still love that guitar and play it regardless. I fixed the electronics for $80 on the epi but the gibson needed fret work and there is some ugly wood on the fret board + some badly planed seams where wood is glued.Īside from the poly finish on the epi, it looks great and sounds great.

I currently have 3 gibsons (SG special, LP standard, LP deluxe) and 2 epiphones (Prohpecy LP and my fave is most relevant to the OP's question is an ES 339 pro P90- version) in my collection. I mention these two because they are the same year but they arent the same model. the gibby has some real QC issues, the epi just has a scratchy pot and a short in the toggle.

Gibson es 330 vs epiphone casino