McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison all owned Casinos and played them in the studio. Forty years after their break-up, they are still the crown princes of the Casino sound. But the mega-band that will forever be associated with the effervescent, P-90 equipped, six-string is The Beatles. It’s unclear whether Keith Richards, who played a ’61 or ’62 model on The Rolling Stones’ 1964 American tour, or Paul McCartney, who bought one in ’64 and took it into the studio for the Rubber Soul sessions the following year, was the first superstar to own a Casino. But 1964 was the year that the ringing, bell-toned thinline hollowbody guitar entered rock ‘n’ roll history.
The Casino was unveiled by the Epiphone Company in 1958, just a year after the operation was acquired by the Chicago Music Company – then the parent of Gibson.
