Overall, I really want to like the Elitist better, cuz I really don't like much made in China except for fine China plates & cups! You know, porcelain type stuff. Fit & finish kicks the butt off the Standard however big time!!! Also, my pup selector switch on the Elitist seems to pop into the center position from either the bridge or neck position easy. My standard plays about as well as the Elitist it seems too. What I hear is a more chimmy, brighter ring & more sustain from the standard vs the Elitist. I don't drink or smoke anything so we can't blame that. But, when playing along w/ Beatles tunes, I believe the Standard Casino sounds more Beatles like than the Elitist does. I love the fit, feel, & look of the Elitist. I don't mean to offend in any way.I've now had my Elitist 1965 Casino for a couple of weeks & would like some constructive feedback from other users & their thoughts/impressions. If you want a quality practice tube amp, you can get a phenomenal Vox AC4TV for $250. If you want cheap, you can pick up a Vox Pathfinder 15r for just a little over $100 and still get that awesome Beatle chime. You say you don't need one, I'm assuming cause you're not out playing live gigs all the time.that's fine!! There are plenty of low volume practice amplifiers that sound killer and will help you with your tone. I would do yourself a huge favor and go out and buy an amp. It makes no sense at all to have an electric guitar like the Casino, with its great P90 pickups and the relationship between those pickups and the hollowbody construction, and not have an amp.

The big thing with any electric guitar is how the amplifier takes the guitar's naked signal and alters both the volume and tone in very unique ways. Both are roughly the same thickness even, so not even a nitro nut can tell you differently.

The poly finish will not significantly effect the tone of the guitar. You should get something.anything at all really.

You don't even need a tube amp, although I highly recommend it. If you want good sound/tone/volume, you need to get some sort of amplifier. Fingers, I don't want this to come across the wrong way, but why spend $1000 on a nice electric guitar and then not get any amp? Plugging your headphones in doesn't do anything, you can probably barely hear a signal coming out and it's mostly the acoustic sound anyways.

Sweetwater epiphone casino elitist