Near Mint and Super Rare Mid-Sixties Sparkling Burgundy Metallic Epiphone Casino.

1966 Epiphone Casino E230-TD.

This super lightweight 16-inch-wide 'custom-color' guitar weighs just 6.70 lbs. Single-bound laminated maple top, back, and sides. One-piece mahogany neck with a nut width of just over 1 9/16 inches, a wonderful medium-to-thick profile and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original medium-jumbo frets and inlaid pearl single-parallelogram position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Epiphone" script logo. Specific shaped two-layer black on white plastic truss-rod cover with Epiphone "E" engraved in white, secured by two screws. Individual Kluson Deluxe 'two-line' tuners with oval metal buttons. Serial number "380003" stamped in blind on the back of the headstock. Two chrome-covered P-90 pickups with strong outputs of 7.81k and 7.87k. Four-layer white over black plastic pickguard with bevelled edge and silver and black Epiphone stylized "E" logo. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on the lower treble bout. Black plastic ribbed-sided conical-shaped "Witch Hat" knobs with metal tops. Gibson ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with metal saddles. Epiphone 'Frequensator' tailpiece. All hardware chrome-plated. Inside the bass 'f' hole is the rectangular blue Epiphone label with Style "E-230TDC" typed in black, Epiphone "Casino" (typed in black) and [Serial] No. "380003" (stamped in black). This January 1966 (1965 specification including the Gibson ABR-1 bridge) custom-color guitar is in near mint and totally unfaded (9.25) condition with just the bare minimum of fine finish checking. Housed in its original four-latch shaped black 'Lifton' hardshell case with yellow/orange plush lining (9.25).

Introduced in 1961, the Casino was Epiphone's $335.00 version of the highly popular Gibson ES-330. It was discontinued in 1970. B.B. King, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Hendrix (while playing with the Isley Brothers) were all playing Epiphone Casinos. Near the end of 1964, Epiphone scored an unexpected coup when the Beatles bought three Casinos -- one each for George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney. All three Casinos were Sunburst, and George's had a Bigsby vibrola tailpiece. McCartney put his on record almost immediately, playing the guitar fills on the group's 1965 hit "Ticket to Ride" on his Casino. Fans around the world saw the Casinos on the Beatles' s world tour of 1966. The group used them on various recordings and promotional films.

"The Casino, introduced in 1961, is the equivalent of the Gibson ES-330 -- a fully hollow thinbody guitar with one or two P-90 pickups. The dot inlay gave way to parallelograms by 1963. The Epiphone vibrato, featuring a string-anchor bar of varying diameter to compensate for different string gauges, was never used on a Gibson-brand model" (George Gruhn and Walter Carter, Electric Guitars and Basses: A Photographic History, p. 220).

"Popularity of the [Epiphone] thinlines increased in the 1960s when first Paul McCartney acquired a Casino for Beatle studio work, followed by John Lennon and George Harrison who each used new Casinos on-stage in the final fab-four concerts of 1966. The group's new Epis were also all over the band's latest Reolver LP, and the Beatle connection has ensured that the Epiphone thinlines in general and the Casino model in particular enjoy a continuing popularity among pop groups who find themselves keen on reactivating a Merseyside-style mix" (Tony Bacon, Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, p. 55).