Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

So yeah today is Nigel Day or whatever because it goes to 11.

But 11/10/11 (aka 10 Nov 2011) was pretty cool. First, me and JB both took delivery of new-to-us Casinos. That was pretty neat. The texts were flying fast and furious between NYC and DC last night. I felt like we were friends whose wives had kids on the same day, reporting to each other from either hospital!

Second, I scored something pretty interesting. This is quite a neat little story.

So I'm scanning the 'bay for Casinos (a typical busy workday) and come across something a little different:
What have we here?

The description says it's an Epiphone Hollow Body. Okay... model? "Terry Rogers" signature edition. Apparently like a Casino or 330, but with a center block a la 335. P-90's look good... but wait! What's this?
I dont' see any extra holes... those Grovers must be original. That ain't bad!

I googled a little, and found the seller's craigslist ad for the same item:

This is an Epiphone Terry Rogers Model. Guitar is brand new still has plastic covers on pickups not a scratch or nickanywhere. This guitar has the parallalagram inlays and the P-90 pickups like the Casino but it is a sei-hollow body likethe ES335. Terry Rogers Signiture and logo on back of headstock. Sorry no case. PH 239-634-0972. I do not respondto e-mails.

Since a google search yielded nada, I took to searching for who the heck this Terry Rogers character is. Turns out, he's a player/builder from Tennessee, best I can gather, who has obviously spent considerable time in Asia. Search for his youtube channel. There is a Mt. Fuji video of him that includes footage from a Japanese trade show.

I shoot a message off to our own Werner, who does a quick search of his resources and gets squat. We both agree the logo, headstock, f-hole placement, and lack of label or serial (confirmed by seller) are fishy. No surprise at this point, given Mr. Rogers is probably not exactly signature edition-worthy, even if he is a great player and builder.

I communicate with the seller and let him know I'm not finding much on this "model," and would he tell me a little more about it?

He replies quickly and kindly from my good old home state of Florida. The color is a barely-translucent cream color. The action is low, the neck is straight. Additional pics he sends me confirm this, one of which being a specific shot that verifies "proof of life" for me.

He told me a friend of his was visiting China, so he asked this friend to pick him up a Casino while he was there, since he collects Beatles guitars. The friend came back with this. The friend was visiting Qingdao, China, where the Epiphone factory is located.

As usual, my imagination runs away with me, and I speculate that Terry may have built this one-off with the intention of pitching it to the factory (either Gibson in his home state of Tennessee, or Epi in Qingdao, less likely), was denied, and unloaded it on one of his trips to Asia.

I post on the Gibson/Epiphone Electrics forum. Most agree it's no Epi. I hit the BIN. The listing is removed minutes later.

And then this morning, after some more discussion, the Gib/Epi forum thread is removed. Turns out people there get riled up just like the Rickheads do here.

Full report once it's in my hands...

To be continued...

Discuss.

jdogric12 wrote: First, me and JB both took delivery of new-to-us Casinos. That was pretty neat. The texts were flying fast and furious between NYC and DC last night. I felt like we were friends whose wives had kids on the same day, reporting to each other from either hospital!

LOL that was hilarious. I was having sushi with Katelyn at the time and all I could think about was Bigsbys.

Can't wait to hear about this fugazi Casino when you get it. An oddball for sure but it may be a diamond in the rough. I do like the concept.

Thats quite a story...I like it!

Jason, until now I still don't know who this Terry Rogers is! But, there are some fake Gibsons around with the same Z-logo at the back of the headstock.

Quick? It was my busiest day at work, usually I'm faster responding to private stuff

The headstock shape looks weird, too wide at the top and the "moustache" is not sticking out enough. The soundholes look too rounded and slightly too big. Which would not correspond to any current production model - but, no orange sticker in the soundhole, and no s/n on the back of headstock either... which could mean prototype. And I get why they hid the thread at the Gibson forums - the Epiphone logo in the headstock is actually the correct current one. All in all a very interesting item.

very, very interesting...
enjoy it!

Arrived... it's pretty nice! Definitely worth the low price paid. Pretty weird though. So many anomalies. Let me see if I can post pics here from work with my phone...

dig it!

The green tint is only from the flourescent lights. It's really quite a nice translucent cream finish. Very thick, methinks. And the binding appears to be glue, or intentionally overzealous clearcoat?

Put new knobs on it!

But... BUT... Those don't go to 11!


Nice! Congrats JDog!

IvanMunoz wrote:Put new knobs on it!

??? Nah. The barrels will do nicely. Enough about this guitar is un-Casino-y, that the knobs aren't the dealbreaker!

jdogric12 wrote:

IvanMunoz wrote:Put new knobs on it!

??? Nah. The barrels will do nicely. Enough about this guitar is un-Casino-y, that the knobs aren't the dealbreaker!

I'm just not a speed knob guy.

So, J..what's your opinion though..Is this a genuine Epi?

Hard to say, Marc. If it had come from any other city in the world, I'd say it's definitely not real. But China's a big country... seems like a heck of a coincidence that this was purchased in the same city as the Epi factory. Of course, who knows, maybe the seller just got creative with that to help boost a fake credibility and complete the sale. I spent a little time playing the guitar last night and this morning and it plays great. It's obvious this was built by someone who is good at both playing and building guitars.

I think the "prototype" explanation is the most logical. If you're going to make a counterfeit with the intention of "fooling" someone, why not go the whole nine yards and make it a Gibson?

Right? Or at least something that EXISTS! If there is no original, is it really a counterfeit? If a tree falls in the woods, does my car alarm go off?