In 1968, the Beatles took a trip to India to study transcendental meditation. McCartney had to play the bass, so he didn’t bring his on stage. The Beatles loved their Casinos so much that both John and George played their matching models on their 1966 performance of the BBC’s Top of the Pops TV show. Once John and George picked up their matching 1965 sunburst Casinos, this became the only guitar model to earn the distinction of being owned by all three guitar-playing Beatles! The only difference between Lennon’s and Harrison’s Casinos is that Harrison’s had a Bigsby tremolo tailpiece instead of the trapeze. Lennon’s Casino had a trapeze tailpiece, a small black ring around the selector switch, gold-covered adjustment knobs, and dual P90 single-coil pickups.

John and George both got brand-new 1965 Epiphone Casinos with sunburst finishes. They both fell in love and went out to get Casinos of their own.

When he went to the next Beatles rehearsal, both John Lennon and George Harrison couldn’t believe the tone. He really wanted to get that tone for himself, so he went out and bought the Casino. In late 1964, Beatles bassist Paul McCartney picked up an early 1962 Epiphone Casino after hearing records of blues players using hollow-body guitars. Although Lennon was the Beatle to make the Casino famous, he wasn’t actually the first to own an Epiphone.

Of all the electric guitars in John Lennon’s arsenal, his 1965 Epiphone Casino is probably his most famous. See the full list of John Lennon guitars and gear below. Most of John Lennon’s acoustic recordings were performed on his Gibson J-160E. This guitar was his workhorse instrument during the later years of the Beatles and into his solo career. John Lennon’s most iconic electric guitar was his 1965 Epiphone Casino. But he didn’t accomplish all that alone, Lennon accomplished his celebrated stardom with a fine support system of great musicians and a closed circle. Over the course of his career, Lennon wrote more than 25 singles that made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, won seven GRAMMYs, was nominated for 34, is rated as the fifth-greatest singer and 38th greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice-once for his work in the Beatles and again as a solo artist. Both solo and with The Beatles, Lennon helped write and record some of the most iconic songs of the entire 20th century that still pander and echo to this day. When it comes to the most influential songwriters and personalities of all time, it’s impossible to overlook John Lennon.

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