One Of The Very First Epiphone Casino's.

This near mint very early sixties 16-inch-wide fully hollow thinbody guitar weighs just 5.60 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Laminated maple body with single binding on the top and back, one-piece mahogany neck with a wonderful medium profile, and bound rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. 'Short' headstock with gold silk-screened "Epiphone" script logo. Three-layer (black/white/black) dome-shaped plastic truss-rod cover with two screws. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons, each one stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No."). Two black plastic "dog-ear" P-90 pickups with very strong outputs of 8.70k and 9.83k. The neck pickup cover stamped (on the underside) "UC-455 / 2" and the bridge pickup cover stamped "UC-450-1 / 2" (also on the underside). Single-layer tortoiseshell pickguard with  silver Epiphone "E" logo. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch for pickup selection, all on lower treble bout. Gold plastic bell-shape knobs with metal tops. Gibson ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles. Original 'Trapeze' tailpiece with horizontal lines on the cross-bar. Inside the bass 'f' hole is the rectangular blue Epiphone label with Style - "Casino Dbl" and Epiphone - "E-230TD" (typed in black) and [Serial] No. - 9189 (stamped in black). This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with just a little light finish checking. The only issue that prevents us from giving this superb thirty-eight-year-old "John Lennon" guitar a mint rating is that the treble pickup control knobs have lost their metal lettering caps. Original Epiphone four-latch gray hard-shell case with blue plush lining (9.00). The original cost in 1961 was $275.00 plus another $25.00 for the case!