Guitar of the Week

1961 Epiphone Casino

This is a very early, first year Casino, which is essentially an ES-330. The Casino became very popular because the Beatles used it. The Casino sports a fully hollow thin body that came in sunburst or royal tan finish. Other features included a trapeze tailpiece (optional Bigsby), 24 ¾” scale, 16 frets clear of the body, single bound fingerboard, tortoise pickguard and a metal peg head Epiphone logo.

The Casino came equipped with either one (1) P-90 in the middle position or with two P-90 pickups. Most pickups, as the one attached indicate that the pickups were dog-ear P-90’s.

Note: all later 1961 and beyond Casinos used a white multi-layer pickguard and a pearl "Epiphone" peghead logo.