The Beatles and Epiphone Guitars

By: Shanzuguitars

The Beatles may well be arguably the worlds biggest ever band.
Musically from the early 1960's to the end of their career they
covered an array of different music styles from the jangly pop
of their early days to the psychedelia of their latter albums.
To cover all these different sounds they needed a broad range of
instruments.

Throughout their career they used a variety of guitars and you
can see many photographs of the Beatles with Rickenbacker's
(325's in particular) various Gretch, Fender and Hofner. However
they are also linked with Epiphone Guitars and often choose
Epiphone guitars over all other guitars for recordings and live
performances.

The first Beatle to own an Epiphone guitar was Paul McCartney
who bought his first, an Epiphone Casino,during 1964. Influenced
by the sound of this guitar John and George bought theirs soon
after. The Epiphone Casino is a hollow-body double cutaway
electric guitar. Although available in a variety of colors,
George Harrison stripped his down to bare wood saying that he
liked the sound of the guitar being able to breathe.

John Lennon favored the Epiphone E230TD Casino and used a
variety of these guitars from 1966 onwards. Lennon painted this
guitar and it appeared during the White Album sessions and in
the Film "Let it Be". During that film Lennon can be seen
playing his Casino while rehearsing new material. Lennon's
Casino also features during the celebrated performance on the
London roof top of their office building. Lennon is synonymous
with the Casino, so much so that Epiphone recently re-released a
John Lennon signature Casino. This faithful reproduction is of
the guitar as John originally purchased it with the vintage
sunburst finish and stock hardware.

The Beatles also used Epiphone's acoustic guitars. Paul
McCartney favored the Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar and it was
used to record the epic track Yesterday. McCartney still uses
Texan's to this day.

Clearly the Beatles have been one of the (if not the) biggest
influences in popular music over the last 50 years. Their sound
was distinct and this was bought about both by their playing and
their selection of instruments. Thier Epiphone guitars
contributed to their sound and a number of guitars have become
iconic in their association with arguably the worlds biggest
band.

About the author:
ShanzuGuitars.com is
a reference site for guitarists everywhere. The site features
guitar news, resources, guitar gear reviews, online lessons and
free tools.