As always, be sure to check out the video to hear and see this guitar for yourself. Since then it has kept reappearing so certainly deserves that overused word 'classic'. It's one of Epiphone's enduring models and was used extensively in the latter part of the Beatles' recording years - listen to the Revolver album or anything after that and you will hear the Casino. In this review we're checking out the Casino semi-automatic electric. For a while Epiphones were made side by side with Gibsons in Kalamazoo but these days they are made in China and are incredibly cheap compared with their US-produced Gibson equivalents. I think it’s fair to say that they are now known as the cheaper version of Gibson guitars, having been acquired by Brand G back in the late 1950s. Epiphone has made instruments for every style of popular music but its golden era was when it was king of the Jazz guitar back before WWII. Epiphone is one of America's oldest instrument brands, technically having been around since 1873, but in practice having made a name for itself in the USA in the early years of the 20 th Century.