Epiphone Casino

Epiphone Casino, Color: Cherry

• 2 x P -90 Single Coil

• 2 × volume
• 2 x tone
• 1 × 3- pick-up selection

The Epiphone Casino ( also Epiphone Casino ES- 230T and Epiphone Casino ES- 230TD ) is an electric guitar model, which was introduced in 1961 by the company Epiphone, a subsidiary of the U.S. musical instrument manufacturer Gibson. The Casino is a thinline guitar with a flat, hollow body. As a template, the guitar model Gibson ES -330 was used in 1959, the casino largely similar. Special recognition gained by Casino John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The three members of the British pop and rock band The Beatles lay down in the years 1964 and 1966, a copy of the model. The musicians played the Casino when shooting the band in the studio as well as for stage appearances. The Epiphone Casino is produced up to the present; the majority of the edition is made since the 1990s in Asian countries - mainly in China, Japan and South Korea.

Form of construction

Body and neck

The Epiphone Casino is a Halbresonanzgitarre with fully hollow body (English: Hollow Body) as a resonance chamber. Of the corpus, ceiling, sides and bottom parts are made in younger instruments made ​​of laminated maple. The first-generation instruments ( complementary model name ES- 230T - the T stands for Thin Line ) had a Spruce top; to 1970, a laminate of maple and birch wood was used for the ceiling. Ceiling and floor are before assembling the body parts pressed under hot steam in a curved shape (→ archtop ). Through the narrow, about four inches wide sides of the body is flat; a construction which carries the Gibson name Thinline. This design was introduced by Gibson in 1955 with the models Gibson Byrdland and Gibson ES- 350T. The orbiting body, edges are profiled on the front and back of the instrument with a narrow white strip of plastic (English: Binding), which is to protect the edges against bumps lighter in addition to its decorative effect. In the ceiling of the casino ever a sound hole on the left and right recessed, which has the typical for guitars of this construction f - form. The axisymmetric structured corpus of casino has in Oberbug on both sides of the neck incision (English: Cutaway ) to facilitate gripping the strings on the high altitudes of the fingerboard.

The neck of the guitar model is made from mahogany and wearing a aufgeleimtes fingerboard made ​​of rosewood. The fingerboard has 22 frets. As Bundmarkierer served at the first edition of the model in point form intarsia, from about 1964 these were replaced by deposits of celluloid in the form of parallelograms. Embedded in the neck is an adjustable neck tension rod of metal. This is used to adjust the neck relief, which is caused by the train the plane spanned guitar strings made ​​of steel. At the upper end of the neck, the neck tie rod is provided with a hexagon socket screw; can be adjusted with an Allen wrench because the voltage of the Truss rod and thus the neck curvature.

To ensure the stability of the connection of the neck to the hollow body, the neck of the Epiphone Casino is deeper glued into the body than half resonant guitars with stabilizing wood block (English: Center block or sustain block) in the middle of the body - such as in the Gibson ES- 335th The neck-body connection is at the Casino at the 16th fret; in semi-acoustic models with center block it is the 19th fret at Gibson and Epiphone guitars. Due to the lower glued-in neck has the casino is lower by five inches total length as models with center block; The scale of the model is 24.75 inches ( 629 mm ) shorter than the standard scale length of Gibson and Epiphone Electric Guitars.

The top plate of the casino is similar as well as in several other Epiphone models in the outline of the typical shape of the Gibson headstocks, but is elongated than this and has a more pronounced waist ( The instruments of the first generation model had a standard Gibson headstock). The axis- symmetrical structure, black painted headstock wears the six metal tuners in " 3:3 " configuration, the inserted Epiphone company logo as well as at the bottom of a screwed-on bell-shaped plastic cover for the screw to adjust the neck tension rod. The cover is decorated with the company logo. The saddle between headstock and fingerboard of the casino is made ​​of white plastic.

Hardware and electrical equipment

The first edition of the Epiphone Casino is a single electromagnetic pickup in single-coil design: equipped (English Single Coil ). This pickup, developed by Gibson in 1948 model P -90 with a black plastic cap is mounted in the middle of the body under the strings. Since the second generation model of the early 1960s featured wearing Casino guitars two P -90 pickups - one copy directly to the lower end of the fingerboard ( " neck position " ) and on the web ( " bridge position "). These pickups have a cover caps made of nickel-plated metal ( see photo ). The model designation was changed to ES- 230TD - ​​Thinline Double (Pickup). The einzelspuligen P-90 pickups produce a " brighter " sound with a larger proportion of higher frequencies than those in electric guitars with center block most widely used twin-coil pickups of the type humbucker. In addition to the pickups of a casino pickguard (English: Pickguard ) is mounted on the instrument blanket that protects the body paint from damage while playing the guitar. At the first edition of this consisted of tortoiseshell imitation, all further generations of the casino have a pickguard made ​​of white plastic and carry the "E " logo from Epiphone.

The electrical signal of the two pickups can (potentiometer) are regulated with a total of four mounted in the instrument cover on the right lower bout knobs; for each pickup has a tone control and a volume control with hat-shaped knob available. A three-position toggle switch next to the knobs allows you to select the pickups; these can be individually or switched on together. A socket at the bottom of the ceiling is used to accommodate the jack of a guitar cable - to connect the instrument to an electric guitar amp. Due to the hollow body of the Epiphone Casino is at higher volumes the amplifier susceptible to acoustic feedback (English: feedback) as electric guitars with partially or fully solid solid ( Solid Body ) corpus.

The metal is also nickel plated web of the casino is accessible from Gibson - type Tune -o -Matic; This allows adjustment of the string height and the individual adjustment of the intonation for each of the six strings. The lower ends of the strings are in a trapezoid tailpiece (English: Trapeze tailpiece ) hooked. This consists of a nickel-plated metal bracket tailpiece is fastened with a screw at the bottom of the frame. A partial edition of the Epiphone Casino is fitted instead of the trapeze tailpiece with a Bigsby vibrato system of the manufacturer Guitars.

The Epiphone Casino and The Beatles

Among the most famous musicians who used the Epiphone Casino, John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney are. The three Beatles members lay a copy of each of the model in the years 1964 and 1966; McCartney first in December 1964; he bought a right-handed model, built in 1962, with the Epiphone serial number 84075th McCartney and Harrison copies of the guitar are equipped with a Bigsby vibrato system, Lennon Casino has the standard trapezoidal tailpiece. McCartney made ​​some changes to his guitar before in order to be able to play as a left-handed - adjustment of saddle and bridge, removing the shock board, moving fixing knob for a guitar strap from the left to the right of the frame cutaways.

Lennon and Harrison, who had their Epiphone Casinos bought in the spring of 1966, the model 's event included in the final tour performances of the Beatles in 1966. These include the BRAVO Beatles lightning tour of three German cities in June of the year and the last official live performance of the Beatles on 29 August 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Also on the published in the same year studio album Revolver put the Beatles a their casino guitars. The Beatles titles, in which the casino was used by Paul McCartney in the recording studio, among other Ticket to Ride ( on the album Help!, 1965), Paperback Writer and Taxman ( album Revolver, 1966) and Good Morning Good Morning ( album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967).

Especially John Lennon used with the Beatles since about 1966, while its on the gradual disintegration of the group in 1969 following his solo career mainly casino. In 1968 he had his guitar modify according to their needs. Among other things, he removed the pickguard and let (as well as Harrison) pickling the body of the original, orange -brown sunburst finish and replace it with a thinly applied colorless matte finish. The repainting should improve the sound and bring the wood of the guitar to advantage. Quote George Harrison ". Soon as you remove the paint and the paint down to the wood, they suddenly seem to breathe" An important historical document in which Lennon is seen with its casino and hear the footage from the last live performance are the Beatles on January 30, 1969, the roof of the building their company Apple Corps.

End of the 1990s devoted Epiphone Lennon a special model, the casino revolution; so named after the Beatles Revolution 1 piece appeared on the 1968 album The Beatles, on the can be heard in an outstanding way the guitar. The Epiphone Casino revolution is modeled to the detail Lennon's modified guitar. The Beatles Story The Beatles Story in Liverpool, England is in its permanent exhibition, a detailed replica of Lennon's Casino, exhibited in the Imagine Room of the house ( see photo right). The original by John Lennon Epiphone Casino is owned by his widow Yoko Ono and is on loan to the John Lennon Museum in Tokyo.

Paul McCartney plays -purchased by him in 1964 Epiphone Casino up to the present in live performance and recording in the studio. In an interview for the British radio station BBC in 1996, McCartney said: "If I had to pick me an electric guitar, this is it. "