Guitaripedia

Every guitar has a story.

Epiphone

Casino

Of all the Beatles’ famous guitars, the only one John, Paul, and George all had. Two sanded theirs bare.

The end of 1964. Paul McCartney buys a sunburst Epiphone Casino with a Bigsby on the back. It left the factory in Kalamazoo two years earlier, on 1 November 1962, and nobody had done anything special with it yet. That was about to change.

Introduced
1961
Type
Hollowbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

All guitarsMore Epiphone

Cherry Epiphone Casino, isolated: fully hollow thinline, two dog-ear P-90s, trapeze tailpiece, 16th-fret join. Not a center-block ES-335 and not a Gibson ES-330.
Epiphone Casino Cherry. Photo by Maxo; background removed by Auge=mit. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.Isolated cherry Casino (dog-ear P-90s, trapeze, 16th-fret join). Fully hollow — no 335 center block. Epiphone headstock, not a Gibson ES-330.

The short version

  1. 1961

    The Casino arrives

    A Kalamazoo model with one P-90 or two. Fully hollow, no center block.

  2. 1962

    Paul’s guitar ships

    A sunburst Casino with a Bigsby leaves Kalamazoo on 1 November and waits two years for its owner.

  3. 1964

    Paul first

    McCartney buys it at the end of the year, the first Beatle with a Casino.

  4. 1966

    John and George

    Both get Casinos in the spring, during Revolver. On 16 June they mime to them on Top of the Pops.

  5. 1968

    Sandpaper

    During the White Album, Lennon and Harrison strip the finish off theirs.

  6. 1969

    The roof

    On 30 January, Lennon plays the stripped Casino on top of Apple. Harrison is on a rosewood Telecaster.

  7. 1969

    Kalamazoo winds down

    By the end of the year Gibson has scrapped the Kalamazoo Epiphone line. A few may have shipped into 1970–71.

Side A

A1

Somebody else’s factory guitar

At the end of 1964, Paul McCartney bought a sunburst Epiphone Casino with a Bigsby vibrato on the back. It wasn’t built for him. It had shipped out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, on 1 November 1962, an ordinary guitar off an ordinary production line.

Remember that, because the story of the Casino is the story of three people taking the same stock guitar and turning it, bit by bit, into three different guitars.

Andy Babiuk, who wrote the book on the Beatles’ gear, went through every guitar the band made famous and came to this in 2010:

The only one that John, Paul and George had in common was the Epiphone Casino.

The Casino was the one they shared.

A2

Not a 335, no matter what the tag says

Walk into a shop and somebody will call a Casino a 335. It isn’t one.

Gibson had bought Epiphone in 1957 and was building Epiphones in its own Kalamazoo plant by 1958. The Casino came along in 1961, with one pickup or two. Its real cousin is the Gibson ES-330: a thin, double-cutaway body that is hollow all the way through, with P-90 pickups under “dog-ear” covers. The 335 has a solid maple block down the middle and humbuckers. The Casino has neither.

What that does to the sound is the whole appeal. A hollow body with single-coil P-90s is light, bright, a little barky, and it wants to feed back when you turn it up. A 335 is smoother and better behaved. Better behaved isn’t always what you want.

A3

Paul got there first

Paul used his Casino a lot in the studio, and the song people can actually pin on it is “Ticket to Ride,” where it plays the lead. You’ll also see it credited with his solos on “Taxman” and “Drive My Car.” Maybe. The best history of these guitars doesn’t name those two, so call them unsettled.

John and George came later. They got their Casinos in the spring of 1966, while the band was making Revolver. John’s was built in 1965 and had the plain trapeze tailpiece. George’s was a 1965 or 1966 sunburst with a factory Bigsby. You’ll often read that they bought them in 1965. The guitars are 1965. The shopping trip was 1966.

On 16 June 1966, John and George showed up on Top of the Pops with their Casinos, miming to “Rain” and “Paperback Writer.” That was the first time the public saw them together. The Casinos were their main electrics on the 1966 tours.

The Casino’s two biggest years were 1966 and 1967, more than 1,600 guitars each, after a first year of 439. It wasn’t only the Beatles, either. Keith Richards, Brian Jones, and Dave Davies all played Casinos, and a later generation, Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, and Johnny Marr among them, picked them up too.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 439

    Casinos shipped in 1961, the first year.

  • 1,814

    Casinos shipped in 1967, the peak, the year after John and George bought theirs.

  • 6,857

    Kalamazoo Casinos shipped in the 1960s, going by the factory shipping figures.

  • 3

    Beatles who owned one. Of the guitars the band made famous, it’s the only one all of John, Paul, and George had.

Side B

B1

Sandpaper

Then, during the White Album, John and George did something no dealer would recommend. They sanded the finish off their Casinos, down to the wood.

It’s the moment the three guitars stopped matching. Paul’s stayed sunburst. John’s and George’s went pale and plain. Watch the promo clips for “Revolution” and “Hey Jude” and you can see John’s stripped Casino right there. It doesn’t look like something off a showroom wall any more. It looks like something that belongs to someone.

The Casinos kept turning up. On “The End,” the Abbey Road track where the guitar solos get traded around, Paul and John are both on Casinos. George is on a Les Paul.

B2

One more gig, on a roof

On 30 January 1969, the Beatles played on the roof of the Apple building in London, their last public show. John had the stripped Casino. George didn’t. His rooftop guitar was a rosewood Telecaster, and people mix that up all the time.

By the end of that year, Gibson had scrapped the Kalamazoo Epiphone line, though a few Casinos may have shipped into 1970 and 1971.

Paul never sanded his. He still has it, still sunburst, still with the Bigsby, and he’s said plainly where it ranks.

If I had to choose one electric guitar, it would be this.

Three Casinos off the same line in Kalamazoo. By the time the band broke up, one was still in its factory sunburst, two were bare wood, and none of them could have been anyone else’s.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. The Beatles · 1965

    Ticket to Ride

    Paul’s Casino, playing the lead. He used it a lot in the studio, and this is the song the history names outright.

    Find it on YouTube

  2. The Beatles · 1968

    Revolution (promo clip)

    John’s Casino, on screen, after the sanding. That’s the promo film; how the single itself was recorded is a separate, less settled story.

    Watch it on YouTube

  3. The Beatles · 1969

    The End

    Paul and John both play Casinos on this one. George is on a Les Paul. Listen for the three of them trading solos near the end.

    Find it on YouTube

  4. The Beatles · 1969

    The rooftop concert

    30 January 1969, on the roof at Apple. John’s stripped Casino. George’s guitar is a rosewood Telecaster, not a Casino.

    Watch it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1964

    Paul McCartney

    1962 sunburst Casino with a Bigsby

    The first Beatle to get one. Still owns it, and says it’s the electric he’d keep if he could only keep one.

  • 1966

    John Lennon

    1965 sunburst Casino, trapeze tailpiece, later stripped

    Built in 1965, bought in the spring of 1966. Sanded during the White Album and played on the Apple roof.

  • 1966

    George Harrison

    1965/66 sunburst Casino with a factory Bigsby

    Bought alongside John’s and sanded alongside it too. His rooftop guitar was a Telecaster.

  • 2010

    Andy Babiuk

    Historian

    Sorted out which Beatle had which Casino, and when, and pointed out it was the one guitar they all shared.

Contact sheet

More photographs of this model, including one out in the wild.

  • Turquoise Epiphone Casino, isolated: dog-ear P-90s, Epiphone vibrato. A Casino colorway, not an ES-335 and not a Gibson ES-330.
    ColorwayEpiphone Casino VT. Photo by Maxo. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.Owner photograph of a turquoise Casino with Epiphone vibrato and replacement Grover tuners, not a current USA Casino and not a center-block 335.
  • Paul Weller onstage at Paradiso, Amsterdam, 2008, with an Epiphone Casino: dog-ear P-90s, trapeze. Not an ES-335.
    In playPaul Weller at Paradiso, Amsterdam, September 2008. Photo by Zil. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.Live shot, not the plate specimen. Casino with P-90s and trapeze — fully hollow, not a 335.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Fully hollow, dog-ear P-90s, no center block — the ES-330's Epiphone cousin, not a 335.

Body
Double-cut thinline archtop. Layered maple (factory copy also says 5-ply maple). Single-ply bind. Fully hollow — no ES-335 center block. F-holes. Gloss. Official sheet omits width, depth, country.
Neck
Set mahogany; SlimTaper 60s C; joint at 16th fret. Sloped dove-wing headstock.
Fingerboard
Laurel; 22 medium jumbo; 12 in radius.
Scale
24.75 in / 628.65 mm
Pickups
Epiphone PRO P-90 neck and bridge; nickel dog-ear covers
Hardware
LockTone Tune-O-Matic; diamond trapeze; Vintage Deluxe tuners; nickel. 3-ply Casino pickguard with metal E.
Electronics
2 volume, 2 tone; 3-way toggle; single 1/4 in jack. Mono. No Varitone.
Finish
Gloss (Natural)
Nut
Graph Tech, 43.0 mm / 1.69 in
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current Inspired by Gibson Casino, Natural, model EOCANANH1. Not a Kalamazoo 1961.

Construction

Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957. New Epiphones started in Kalamazoo in 1958. The Casino arrived in 1961 — factory E230T (one P-90) / E230TD (two). It is a Kalamazoo model, not a New York Stathopoulo-era guitar. Pre-1957 NY Epiphone never cataloged a Casino.

The cousin is the Gibson ES-330 (1959): thinline double-cut, fully hollow, dog-ear P-90s. No ES-335 center block. The 335 is a semi-hollow with a maple block and humbuckers. Epiphone's Sheraton and Riviera sit in that family. From across a shop the Casino can look like a 335. It is not one. A spruce contour brace or small bridge-area reinforcement is normal on hollow thinlines — not a center block. Guitar Center copy that calls a current Casino semi-hollow is retailer taxonomy, not a spec.

Kalamazoo 1961–69 is the identity. Laminated maple, ~16" × ~1.75". One-piece set mahogany, rosewood board, 22 frets, 24.75" scale, nut ~1.68", neck joining at the 16th. Dots 1961–62; parallelograms from 1962. Open-book headstock 1961–64; elongated 1964–69. Dog-ear P-90s: Vintage Guitar has black covers at intro, chrome in 1962; a later wiki map has nickel around 1963 — keep both. Tune-O-Matic plus trapeze is the working package. Bigsby is not the 1961 catalog default. Intro finishes: sunburst and Royal Tan. Cherry from 1967. Vintage Guitar: by the end of 1969 Gibson scrapped the Kalamazoo Epiphone line. Some instruments may have shipped into 1970–71. Do not pick 1965 as last US year.

Later Casinos are other factories. Matsumoku: wiki cards list both fully hollow and a maple/mahogany center block, plus Maxon humbuckers — unresolved; not Kalamazoo P-90 hollows. Terada/Elitist, Korea, and China IBG are labeled separately. Epiphone USA Casino is a separate current SKU: maple/poplar/maple, rosewood, Gibson USA P-90s, nitro. Current IBG uses laurel and a dove-wing headstock — not nitro, not 1961 open-book. Casino Coupe (2014) is a smaller ES-339-class hollow.

Players

Andy Babiuk, Vintage Guitar May 2010: of all the guitars the Beatles made famous, "the only one that John, Paul and George had in common was the Epiphone Casino." Not a 335. Not a rebadged ES-330.

Paul McCartney — sunburst Casino, serial 84075, Gibson-style headstock, Bigsby. Shipped 1 November 1962; bought end of 1964. First Beatle to get one. VG: used "extensively in the studio," including the lead on "Ticket to Ride." Still owned; "If I had to choose one electric guitar, it would be this." Taxman / Drive My Car: McCartney's lead is solid (Beatles Bible: Taxman solo, 21 April 1966). Casino-as-the-guitar is specialist attribution (Wikipedia citing VG). VG names Ticket to Ride, not Taxman by title. Flag. "The End" (Abbey Road): McCartney and Lennon on Casinos, Harrison on Les Paul.

John Lennon — 1965-built sunburst Casino, trapeze; acquired spring 1966 during Revolver. The guitar is 1965; the purchase is 1966. Wikipedia's lead says they bought 1965 Casinos in 1965. Prefer Babiuk/VG and Epiphone History. First public use together: Top of the Pops, 16 June 1966, miming "Rain" and "Paperback Writer." Main electrics on the 1966 tours. During the White Album, Lennon and Harrison sanded theirs. Promo clips for "Revolution" / "Hey Jude" show the stripped Casino (VG). 30 January 1969 Apple rooftop — Lennon on the stripped Casino. VG documents the rooftop Casino; "Don't Let Me Down" is setlist inference, not a VG sentence that titles the song. The Emerick-into-desk telling for the "Revolution" single is secondary. Flag.

George Harrison — 1965/66 sunburst Casino with factory Bigsby; acquired spring 1966 with Lennon's; later sanded. Harrison's rooftop guitar is a rosewood Telecaster, not a Casino.

Also known to play (list-level, Guitar World): Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Dave Davies; later Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, Johnny Marr. Richards remains Tele/Micawber; Weller and Marr are Rickenbacker 330 stories elsewhere.

Rarity

Current IBG Casinos are regular production. 1960s Kalamazoo is the collector object. Later Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Nashville USA Casinos are not 1960s originals.

Kalamazoo shipping (Vintage Guitar and Bass; statistics, not a serial census): 1961: 439; peak 1966: 1,655 and 1967: 1,814; 1969: 140; period total 6,857. Dual-pickup non-vibrato E230TD is the most common 1960s SKU (2,852). Royal Tan coded E230TDRT: 39 (1967 only). Guitar.com: Casino shipped "only about a quarter" of ES-330 volume (330 peak 4,898). 1961–63 and 1968–69 are the thin windows. Special-order 1961 Royal Olive is extremely rare (Guitar.com; not in the shipping table). The 1998 USA Lennon "1965" limited (1,965 numbered) is a reissue, not a 1960s original.

Value

Informal estimate, 25 August 2026. Not an appraisal.

New street. Current Chinese Casino: $699 (Sweetwater; Music & Arts). Worn Casino $499. Epiphone USA Casino (Nashville): launch $2,699 (Guitar World, 30 Mar 2021); Music & Arts listed $3,499 in the 2026 scrape.

Used modern. No 2024–26 Reverb sold band (Reverb bot-walled). Expect used current Chinese well under $699. Matsumoku / early Terada affiliate asks (VG&B, not solds): $2,199–$3,600. Flag: public solds are thin.

Vintage / collectible. Distinguish ask vs sold. VG&B live affiliate asks for 1960s Kalamazoo clustered about $6,450–$10,000 this pass. No 2024–26 named public sold was captured.

Artist-owned Beatles Casinos are a separate market, not a production comp. Do not price ordinary 1960s Casinos off those lots. Period sunburst lifts ordinary Kalamazoo examples; stripped "Revolution" copies are not the same thing.

See also

  • gibson-es-335 — the lookalike trap: center block and humbuckers; the Casino has neither
  • gibson-sg — the other 1961 Kalamazoo electric, different construction entirely

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.