It’s hard to believe that the music world lost John Lennon 25 years ago this past Sunday. The man produced such an enormous body of work in such a short time. One of John’s favorite guitars was the Epiphone Casino. In fact, all three Beatle guitarists owned one and the instrument appeared on countless Beatle hits and albums, as well as on Lennon’s solo albums. Essentially, the Casino was Epiphone’s take on the Gibson ES-333 (Gibson actually owned Epiphone at the time) with its semi-hollowbody, double-cutaway design, and dual, nickel-plated “dog-ear” P-90 singlecoil pickups, which can deliver a crisp, clean sound, but will also “dirty up” nicely when overdriven through an appropriate amp.
Actually, John Lennon owned two Casinos, one of which he had painted, then later stripped down to the natural wood. But the one most often seen in Lennon’s hands is one with the original vintage sunburst finish. The Epiphone John Lennon “1965” Casino is a perfect replica of the guitar that Lennon made famous and used throughout most of his career. The design team actually got their hands on John’s original guitar to assure the reissue’s total accuracy, right down to the polepiece spacing on the pickups. The top is maple, while the back and sides are 5-layer maple and birch composite. The neck is solid mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard and those distinctive parallelogram inlays. Casinos were available with optional Bigsby vibratos, but John chose the standard trapeze tailpiece. The inside of each John Lennon 1965 Casino is stamped with Lennon’s original serial number along with an individually hand-numbered label. It also comes with a hardshell case. These guitars are produced on a very limited basis, and are very hard to come by, so call now while we have them in stock!