Charlie's World

 

Yes folks, IT'S CHARLIE'S WORLD!!!

And you're invited to be in on it as it happens

Today in Charlie's world, Charlie awoke to a straaange sound...  "b'buk, b'buk. b'buk"   What's that?    
 Aw!...my cat is puking on my comforter. "Get off there!!"   Well, I guess it's time for coffee.

 *scratches, shuffles towards kitchen*

*bang* *klang*  er, me toast, sausages...marmalade, I like marmalade..  

Ah here it is! 100% republican approved, 2 dollars a jar, guaranteed to smell and taste like an old tire COFFEE!

*snorts a little*    
  

If you need to learn how to post a you tube, go here

You can also learn how to center things, make different sizes of text etc, there.

Also, if you just look up, when you're typing in the text box to make a post, and rest your cursor on each of the icons you see, you'll find a lot of easy things you can do to make your posts better.....post you tubes, post pictures, center text, create a link etc etc

All this stuff is explained in a thread called "How To Use BB/Code", which is located in the Welcome Section (in the "Info You Might Need" forum).  If you can't find something, you haven't looked enough. Please honor my hard efforts by looking sufficiently. Everything you need to know is there  - and hey, if it really isn't, just ask, and I'll write another tutorial for ya.

Peace on you!    

Aw, I'm just kiddin'

Charlie 50W  

K, I'm buying music equipment.

A Shure SM58s mic
A Fishman Loudbox  acoustic/vocal amp
A pickup for my acoustic
Harmonicas and neck holder
strings, cords, stands,
a 100w Marshall half stack,
and an electric guitar (still haven't settled on what kind..if money were no object, it'd be a Gibson Les Paul Signature T,
and I'd want to see also the $5,000 semi-hollow, because feedback man. But either guitar is a thing of beauty.
I wont be getting one though. I'll be spending more like 700, and saving for years just to squeeze out that paltry sum (sucks to be poor.)
Rich people buy their kids Signature T's with 400 dollar auto tuners as starter guitars.  Yes, they do.  No, they do.  You didn't know that? Yea.

so that's the list

If anyone wants to buy me a signature t, today is my birthday 

Okay,  it  isn't.    

By the way, it's a poor man's rig, so the marshall is solid state. *ducks*

(I can only buy solid state now, because you cant play a tube head through headphones.)

Anyone who'd like to BUY me a tube marshall out of pity, can send it to

Charlie Fiftywatts
Shithole, USA

(please don't forget to send the signature t with it) 

Hmm..haven't posted since April, 2014. Well. Perhaps I'll post more pics of the poor man gear I've been forsaking cable and having a car or any ability to go anywhere or eat ok, just to get. I've been trying to get enough cheap instruments and a recorder to be able to finish songs and record all the parts myself.

It's an attainable goal, but it's taking 4 years of having to live so skin flinty I even blow my nose on toilet paper instead of spending $8 a month on tissues. And yea that DOES suck. I mean you can TELL yourself "it's like camping!" but toilet paper has paper dust on it which Scott nose tissues don't have, so I sneeze all day and it gets really old till you hate life altogether.

But other than that, fine.

I sure am glad you're all so miserably stupid you vote republican.

You know, if people ever started posting here, I'd come and tell jokes and liven it up and make it run, but ..no one came. You see I started this site just for some musician friends to post facebook like updates, and start threads for discussion and be able to express themselves any creative way they saw fit. (well, there isn't even any rules here, you can swear, whatever you want.)

But when your friend starts wrecking your stuff
and gets a laugh out of it,
then you don't got a friend
and no one comes
and you get old
and die
and no one finds you,
and the cat eats your face.

Whaddya' think? Song in there?  

It's taking four years...of going nowhere, having nothing and eating like a homeless man, just to SAVE EVERY POSSIBLE NICKEL so I can get music equipment. I wanted to do music again (I guess). But I have ill health, no family, almost no friends -and certainly none with the ability to join in or even just get what I'm about.  And I'm getting old.

The goal was to write and record music, and maybe go play a solo gig to feel like I'm me again, or even start a band, but it's hard to be in a hurry to be getting on with anything when you have to wait FOUR YEARS to complete getting the stuff you need, SO THAT YOU CAN.  

Not to be easily defeated though, I've been waiting it out and studying modern equipment end to end all this time. Shit, I actually know my stuff now. A lot of what I've learned just makes me heart sick though...

Vocoders.  Disney-Barbie Nigger Noise being produced by digital effects programs switched on by people who can neither hear what music sounds like nor sing on pitch. Fuck. I hate everyone younger than me. And I hate everyone else too. 99% of people are utterly stupid, and the other 1% are the thieving lying shitheads taking advantage of them. If you doubt that, check out what condition YOUR country is in and try to find anyone doing anything about it (other than getting tattoos and pygmy rings and listening to synthetic nigger noise too "because everyone else does"). And look at Yahoo news. SEE the hideous garbagy reality show  which is our "democratic process", with the masses of 85 IQ IDIOTS voting for Republicans because they think it's team sports. 

DUMMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know an asteroid obliterating all human life would be no loss.

But.. yes, I suffered to get an inexpensive though usable set of music equipment, so I can go back to songwriting, record all the parts myself, and maybe do open mics and then possibly solo gigs, or even a band.  

And I've built websites for years, and published six different magazines I produced myself.  So I do know how to do stuff. (Though I found, unless I'm posting "I'm a nigger, they're a nigger, wouldn't you like to be a nigger too?", I'll get received as if I must be nuts, because I'd prefer music to noise, and I won't parrot unquestioned garbage like everyone else is doing.      

And if I do say people are IDIOTS who take no responsibility for their own stuff - BECAUSE IT'S TRUE - well, why even point it out? They're ALL STUPID. Can you tell a retard a thought that takes intelligence to understand?  

There are 6.4 million retards in America, and only 170,000 are institutionalized, the rest go about freely - driving, voting, causing things to be considered 'popular'. (Does that explain a few things?) And most of the rest of the 330 million lame assholes in America are "average IQ", which is abysmally stupid too. And you can't help dumb dumbs. You can't explain what's awful to them. They're incapable of getting it. They're incapable of anything more than basic monkey behavior. (Oh come on, they even GRUNT like monkeys while they obediently consume & regurgitate whatever they're instructed to "like". Then they go off and parrot whatever they heard (to pretend to know things when they don't) much to the delight of those who want their propaganda spread like manure. They then congratulate themselves for being smart and having their own mind.  

Now..99% of everyone is some degree of tone deaf, and while we knew this all along and accepted the sad reality that if you're a music artist, the people you play the music FOR can't even hear what it sounds like (which is why "Hip Hop" and vocoded Disney CRAP is "liked" *FROWN*  by millions, because they can't hear if it's good or not, they just take their cue from everyone else, and "like" it because they don't want to be excluded from being part of the rest of THE LEMMINGS. And I knew this long ago, and had to accept it. -->But did you know that 98% of people can't tell if something LOOKS good or not either?  AND they can't tell if an IDEA is okay?

     
 

So what CAN I do with this music I play?  What?

Gather some brainless white niggers, with their underwear hanging out, and play actual music for them, so they can go "DUUUH...THAT doesn't sound like black guys JUNGLE CHANTING and trying to seem intimidating to me! D'UUUUUUUUUH. And where's the side-effect tone from the vocoder? *dazed look* Is that supposed to be singing? *confused* Geez, its musical even. Don't you play anything awful  like we "like"???  *drool* *pull pants down below ass cheeks while making nigger gestures* And if that's music, where's the slutty lesbian frigging herself for the audience and sniffing people's asses and giving a blow up doll a blow job, huh? THAT'S MUSIC. Geez. yo yo nig nog. You old people don't know anything. You're not wise like us 14 year-olds. Sheesh! I mean LOOK at the old fogey, he's playing a real guitar!!! BWAAAA HA HA HA!!!  Get with it, POPS THE CRACKER!! You're supposed to use one of THESE to make "music" now!...

For you, Charlie!

Blacks invented every great music form of the twentieth century (jazz, blues, rock, motown, funk, soul, R & B). But when music moved from radio
to video TV (80's/90's), instead of rap-interested folks starting their own channel, because their genre wasn't being played on MTV  (of course not,
MTV was a rock station),  the corporation that wanted to market this sickening shit whined like babies with full diapers, "Wah! MTV won't play our stupid noise!! We're hiring lawyers! Wah!"

So what did "the music industry" do?
(MTV was the entire industry at that point) 
Did they tell them,  "When top 40 music was ON RADIO, WAS THERE ONLY ONE STATION?  
                            OF COURSE NOT. START YOUR OWN 'RAP TV' CHANNEL!  End of discussion."

Did MTV tell them THAT? Nope.
They let them have the whole industry. All our stuff. No more white culture at all.
And a generation of tone deaf wigger kids was created.  
And another.
Then they tattooed themselves like jungle pygmies and pulled their pants half way down to be obedient.

And it was corporate America who foisted this on us.
Not blacks, not people actually liking rap or these things. Corporations: Republicons.  BECAUSE PROFIT.
BECAUSE THEY KNOW most people are tone deaf & you can just provide costless total shit for a product AND TELL THEM "everyone likes this
(so you do)"   and people have to take their word for it, because they can't know for themselves, they can't hear it.  

PEOPLE PARROT HEARSAY to pretend to know things, because they're incapable of knowing for themself.

And 90+% of everyone is IMPERCEPTIVE like that.  
(1. functionally tone deaf.   2. can't SEE if something LOOKS like shit.   3. can't tell if an idea is shit.)  (..ie,  "can't hear, can't see, can't tell")

AND the majority of people are   
low education   ~  low IQ    ~   flawed   ~   maladjusted  ~  damaged.  






And since people are prone to cluelessness and parroting, corporate shitbags can tell you what you like, then pick your pocket selling it to you,
and even have you PARROT their propaganda to get away with it. You're stupid. And won't even demand the usual payment of a cracker.  
And in spite of this and all that is reality, you then praise yourself for being smart.  And if more rationalizing is needed, credit "common sense" .  
Stupid people.  Its almost all of you!  

Update on the Marshall amp, and Epiphone Les Paul I bought:

I had to replace them both. They sucked.

AMP REPLACEMENT: I now have another Fishman (the largest one this time. 180 watts, three speakers). It's a bit small physically, but it's Bose-type technology, so it kicks ass and projects beautifully and sounds crystal clear, reproducing the full spectrum of sound evenly. I love this amp as much as I hated the solid state Marshall I dumped.

GUITAR REPLACEMENT: The Epiphone Les Paul sounded like garbage. All muddly, like something was wrong. I'd have returned it except it turns out it's supposed to sound like garbage, and tone-deaf dummies imagine that they like it, obediently. Well, I can actually hear, so I was very unhappy with it (not to mention it weighs a jillion pounds for no good reason, and the case they sell you is TRASH).

So I now have a Casino with real Gibson pickups (P90's) (SINGLE cores).
(Fuck humbuckers. I want to hear something other than a garbled noise, yeesh.)

The difference between Epiphone pickups and real Gibson pickups, is vast. No comparison.

And this Casino I got is a hollow body that will feed back easily, which I think is sweet. It fits me.
I looked at many semi-hollows for a whole year, before I bought. I had to lose the idea that
the smaller body style looks cooler, while the bigger body style looks jazzy. Because, SO WHAT?
It's about sound, not looks!!! This thing sounds legendary! I hear each individual string, but in
concert with each other, just like you oughta' hear.  And you can get that on any acoustic, but it's
hard to find on an electric. Well, but I searched and researched and with a few painful lessons got my axe.

And I'm so much happier with this rig. Now I'm trying to get a pedal board squared away. I've been getting things like an EVH Flange and Phase, a C9 organ pedal, wah, delay, multiple distortions, and a decent tuner so I don't have to stop and play fuck fuck instead of jamming.  For a pedalboard I got a double-tiered Holeyboard with a noiseless Phoenix power supply. (works perfectly, and is the best price.)

But I've learned you have to forget about "trading" anything to recoup some of a no longer needed investment. Guitar Center is the only music store left you can physically go to, and they treat you like a crack addict at the pawn shop because they think you have no where else you can go. Well I'd rather throw my $700 item in the trash and get nothing for it, than let Guitar Center STEAL it from me and laugh after I leave.  FUCK GUITAR CENTER!  You want to buy gear, try things out there physically if you need to before you buy, but then go home and order the item from sweetwater.com They'll treat you GREAT.

But AVOID zZounds.com. They sell garbage that doesn't even work.

And don't go to Musicians Friend. They're one of those places that will tell you, "Oh yea, we got those!"
And they take your money, and then months go by, and they didn't actually have it at all.

Seriously. --> SWEETWATER GOOD, ANYWHERE ELSE BAD!

Rock on, Charlie!!!!

Thanks guys.

Yea, I'm nearing the finish now. I'm 3-1/2 years into 4 years of going without things
to get some cheap but good music gear, so I got something to do.

I'm happy with the Casino guitar. It's kind of half acoustic / half electric, and that suits me.  And it has a Bigsby.  

But damn it I still need a decent solid body electric.
And I know the only amp which is an amp has tubes.

Well, an amp ain't gonna happen. I got a pedalboard designed to make the most of a solid state, and I just can't spend further.

But...

I got my eyes on a Paul Reed Smith guitar
It's a solid body electric, with a dive-bomb whammy and locking tuners.

And tubes or no, I at least knew enough to get all analog effects pedals, not digitally simulated CRAP, so...if I got a solid body with a whammy....and send it through the EVH pedals, well...magic happens when you got a whammy and a Marshall on high volume (the EVH 5150 pedal creates that tone, at any volume you chose) ..so you get all this pick squeal and harmonics magic WITHOUT EVEN REALLY DOING ANYTHING!  It's a gas man!!

But..we'll see if I can squeeze in one last music item.

After that, I should start paying  to eat better, and occasionally go out somewhere. I've pictured myself playing at open mics....doing a little stand up comedy and a couple songs, something like that.

I don't know why anyone would want to hear a grumpy old geezer though, but we'll see.

Too bad my one last friend I thought I had turned out to be a retarded psychopath. He did, he damaged a lot of my stuff, and laughed, the sicko. So it's just me now. I haven't got any friends or family at all any more. And no car. Nothing. Me and the cat watch TV most of the time, while I wait to die (well, I'm waiting for the damn 4 years of scrimping to get a rig to be over, so I can start using it, is what I'm waiting on, but you see, as that time goes by, I get older, and more tired, and then you all vote for republicans to shit on me and take my money away and laugh. And I hate everyone now. And every thing. And today I will change my screen saver from saying "Now, or never at all"  to just "Never at all." If nothing else (and that is the case) I demand honesty. Honesty means dealing with reality, whether you like it or not. I HATE LIARS, and I won't tell any. The truth is: I'm too old and tired (and wretchedly poor) to do anything any more. No more dreaming, no more wishing. No more taking care of myself as if I'm going somewhere. My 35 year friend, who wrecked my new guitar and laughed as he did it has finished off whatever was left of me. And he's such a dirtbag, if he ever reads this, it will make him laugh and experience pleasure of a kind I could never imagine. PIECE OF SHIT. I HOPE HE DROWNS IN THE LAKE.

I'll FINISH buying a rig, damn it. I DO FINISH things I start. But it long ago became a pointless chase. And even all that I've learned isn't anything I can actually use. I'm just a wrecked tired old man, waiting for death. But I will not abandon Captain Meow, so for the remaining 11 years he has I will stay around and care for him. After that though...well, at my age, you don't need Dr Kavorkian, you just have to give up inside, and your body will pop out a quick cancer or heart attack, and it'll be over. I'll be 70 then anyway. So that's the plan. That's what I got to look forward to and work towards!!  And this is what I meant by "I hate people lying, so I wont. I want to deal with reality, no matter what it is"  Well, this is reality. I COULD speak all sorts of fatuous optimism and plans of doing things, yet again, but what for?  Would you have me go to my pauper's funeral believing my own pointless self-brainwashing? I think not. I'm tired. I did all this music stuff for nothing, and I know it. And I will die and there is not a single person who will care. No family, no friends. So I haven't even got anyone to leave old photos to and such. *thinks* I should will this music gear to a school, so the asshole landlord doesn't get it.

Well that's all I got. But it was reality.
I gotta feed the cat.

*scatching head*
Wait.
Aren't the male mooses the ones with antlers?

 

Oops. Wrong picture. That's a vacation slide!

LOL. I watched Mr Roberts and the sequel Ensign Pulver. Old movies but quite good. Tonight I'm watching the 1968 movie Psych Out, with Jack Nicholson as a hippy musician living communally. Different time, very different. If I had a time machine, one of the places I'd visit for a kick.

Here's what I'm torturing myself with wanting, even though it's pointless...

I'm gonna grocery shop for the whole month tommorow,
Here's my shopping list:

-feces, in various guises
-dollar bread, to put feces in
-fake multivitamins that make me nauseous
-no vegetables or fruits (hence the multivitamins)
-large Imodium
-breakfast cereal with the sugar long since removed
-various other tasteless items, in half size packages, yet still at full price
-potting soil in a coffee can

_____________________________________________________

I watched I Am Legend (with Will Smith, as the lone survivor of a plague).
He has a dog for a companion at least, and listens to Bob Marley.
It's a cool movie, but sad.  He has to kill his dog, and after he does,
he can no longer tolerate his world, and he tries to kill himself.
An animal companion can keep a guy around, when otherwise he'd be done.

But hey, I got beans with no sauce, and cornflakes.

And I've got republicons about to take a third of my money away,
because all they've got is billions,
and here I am unable to buy fruit or vegetables ever,
so it's quite understandable for them to fleece ME.
And it would be inhumanitarian to let them suffer
without getting even more billions to box away
(since one could never actually USE that much).
So I would be a dick if I didn't
just give them my tiny bit of cash,
and get sick and die.

Oh and do you want me to wave a flag too?

Okay, I will wave a flag while I get robbed literally TO DEATH,
since millions of Americans ARE SO UTTERLY MORONIC
they vote republican, in spite of what republicans only ever do.

IF YOU VOTED REPUBLICAN, I HOPE YOUR KID GETS CANCER.

I WANT YOU TO SUFFER.  

FUCK YOU.

I could have been more fair to that Casino; I posted the worst possible demo, to show the boominess it can suffer. But there are other demos that show it to be hot and flawless.  It depends who is making the demo, you see, you have to treat it as what it is, not what it is not, or else it'll show your error large.

And to be fair, "large" is just what that guitar is.  And as part of a palette, there's certainly a place for that.

I don't have a multiple guitar budget though.

And you gotta figure, the more axes you have, the more space you need to store them, and the more humidipaks you'll have to keep replacing. You gotta' care for them regularly. I'm not out to pay and care for a museum.

I got an acoustic, and a bass, and I just wanted one good electric.

The all-hollowbody Epiphone Casino can be heard on many of the biggest hits in the history of rock and every February we celebrate the birthday of two of the Casino's greatest ambassadors, Gary Clark Jr. (2/15) and George Harrison (2/25). The Casino might be the House of Stathopoulo's most famous instrument thanks to its association with The Beatles. In fact, two Kalamazoo-designed guitars--the J-160E acoustic/electric and the Casino--share the distinction of being the only two guitars used on every Beatles recording session.

But over the last decade thanks to a diverse group of artists like Clark, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Paul Weller, Elvis Costello, and Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs, the Epiphone Casino has transcended its Beatle connection and has now become a true classic for collectors, artists, and everyday guitar fans of all ages.

When the Casino was first released in 1961, it was essentially Epiphone's version of the Gibson ES-330 but the Gibson never caught on like the Casino. Perhaps the Casino was marketed towards the many new dealers that were attracted to the Epiphone brand. After joining the Gibson family in 1957, Epiphone quickly released an entirely new line of instruments and by the early 60s, Epiphone was well on its way to developing a new audience with fans like Roy Orbison, Otis Rush, and jazz great Johnny Smith. Whatever the reason, the Epiphone Casino  - a full hollowbody with two P-90s (another Kalamazoo invention) -  was destined to be thought of as an Epiphone classic.

Today, Epiphone makes Casinos just as they did at the original Kalamazoo factory in 60s. "Our modern Casino is based on the best vintage models we could find," said Epiphone President Jim Rosenberg. "The only difference is that today, every Casino is consistently great--perfect neck, great sound, and great look, whereas vintage models varied quite a bit."

For a step back in time, check out the Elitist Ltd. Ed. "1965" Casino Outfit which rivals many vintage models. All Epiphone Elitist acoustic and electric guitars are made at our Epiphone factory in Japan that specializes in handmade, highly accurate reissues constructed with time honored methods and impeccable attention to vintage detail and quality, including period-correct USA pickups and electronics. Epiphone Elitist instruments also feature traditional hand rubbed nitrocellulose color finishes used in the 50s and 60s. Today, Epiphone's Elitist Series instruments are some of the most sought after by players of all styles, and the Elitist factory in Japan is considered one of the premier instrument factories in the world.

The idea of a making "Thinline" electric that had the look of an archtop was not much of a departure for Epiphone since the company had established a stellar reputation (much to the annoyance of Gibson) as an excellent archtop builder in the 1930s and 40s. But whereas most of the original Thinline series like the Sheraton (now the Sheraton-II PRO) and the 335 Dot featured a mahogany center block on which the pickups were mounted, the Casino had the distinction of being a true hollowbody. It was also less expensive than other Gibson Thinline models, which caught the attention of young rockers like Garry Tallent, future bassist of the E Street Band.

"Epiphones were great guitars back then and affordable," recalled Tallent. "Even today, whenever I go to a guitar show,
if I see an Epiphone electric or acoustic that's in great shape, I get it. They always sound perfect."

As for who designed the Thinline series, that remains somewhat of a mystery. "There were other companies at the time like National who were making something similar," said Walter Carter, author of The Epiphone Guitar Book, a history of Epiphone. "If it were Ted McCarty's idea he certainly would have taken credit for it (laughs). But the Casino's popularity in particular had mostly to do with The Beatles. It was and is a great guitar for rock and roll with a different sound."

The Casino debuted in 1961 with a 16" wide body made of 5-layer Maple/Birch and a 24-3/4" scale mahogany SlimTaper neck with a Rosewood fingerboard attached using the traditional mortise and tenon neck joint. Epiphone's Ltd. Ed. 50th Anniversary Casino was virtually identical to the original and featured black Gibson USA P-90 pickups and a slightly modified Tremotone tremolo. Epiphone's 50th Anniversary Casino also featured 16 frets clear of the body and came in a Sunburst or Royal Tan finish.

Over the next few years, there were small changes made to the Casino as Epiphone moved away from the "bullet" logo in 1962 to the pearloid-inlaid Epiphone script logo that remains today. It was this era that Paul McCartney purchased his Casino in 1964 and John Lennon and George Harrison purchased their Casinos before the Revolver tour in 1966. After 1962, fingerboard inlays changed from dot to parallelogram inlays and the tortoise shell pickguard changed to white. Pickup covers, which were nickel from 1963-1964, changed to chrome.

The Beatles discovery of the Casino came just before Christmas in 1964. McCartney told Vintage Guitar that he was inspired to buy a guitar that could "feedback" after he spent an evening at John Mayhall's house listening to records. "You'd go back to his place and he'd sit you down, give you a drink, and say, 'Just check this out,'" said McCartney. "He'd go over to his [tape] deck, and for hours blast you with B.B. King, Eric Clapton... he was sort of showing me where all of Eric's stuff was from. He gave me a little evening's education. I was turned on after that, and [bought] an Epiphone."

John Mayall probably played McCartney cuts by B.B. King as well as 45s on Cobra Records by Magic Sam and Otis Rush, both regular Epiphone players. "I showed him (McCartney) my hollowbody guitar that I'd bought when I was in the army in Japan in 1955," Mayall told Vintage Guitar. "When people get together and listen to records, they talk about all kinds of things related to the music, so obviously we must have touched upon the instruments and it struck home. He got a hollowbody after to get that tone."

Recording feedback was already a part of The Beatles sound at this point with the release of "I Feel Fine," which was recorded in October 1964 and was inspired by John's 160E feeding back against an amp. The Casino could feedback too, but thanks to its smaller body size, a guitarist could more easily control the tone and "howl" of the feedback by turning the Casino away from an amp or "playing" the feedback with the guitar's volume and tone controls.

Andy Babiuk, author of Beatles Gear told Epiphone that in the early 60s, The Beatles had few options when shopping for American guitars. "At the time McCartney got those Epiphones, they were distributed by Rosetti. And Rosetti would turn around and sell instruments to retail stores. Now the weird thing was, Selmer (Gibson's distributor) was a distributor, too but they also had a retail store so you might find Selmer would have all of the Gibson line-up, of course, because they distributed Gibson. It was a small community. It wasn't that big--England is a small country--and all of the distribution was based out of London."


"Now at the time in late 1964," continued Babiuk, "McCartney could have called The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, and said: 'You know Brian, I want to get a hollowbody electric, can you get me a left handed one? Can you call Gibson or Epiphone in the United States and get me a lefty?' And I would have to say that both Epiphone or Gibson would have bended over backwards in getting him a lefty. But Paul didn't care--he just wanted to shop and went out and bought them."

McCartney still brings out his original 1963 Epiphone (shipped from Kalamazoo, Michigan on November 1, 1963) in concert to perform "Paperback Writer" and select cuts from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in June, 2017. Radiohead Producer Nigel Godrich, whose pal Thom Yorke plays a 1965 Casino, singled out McCartney's Casino as his favorite guitar while producing Chaos and Creation In the Backyard. "If I had to choose one electric guitar," said McCartney, "it would be this."

McCartney's Casino or ES-230TD, featured an early Gibson-style headstock that would be changed to the classic Epiphone "hourglass" headstock by the time George and John bought their Casino's (George's, like Paul's, featured a Bigsby tremolo).

"George and John had this thing about having matching guitars which goes back to a Shadows kind-of-thing," said Babiuk, "They both had J-160Es. So in 1966, lo and behold, they send Mal (Evans, Beatles roadie) to get two Epiphone Casinos. And I think it was highly influenced by Paul because he had one. When it came time to recording or going out on the road or performing on television, they took out their new guitars. It was probably as simple as that. The Casinos were lightweight, they sounded nice, so they took them on the '66 tour."

"Most Casinos made from the mid '60s to the end of the decade had a Sunburst finish though Cherry was also an optional finish after 1967. Critically acclaimed Nashville pop artist Tristen plays one of those rare Cherry Casinos (a '67) in concert. There are also a few rare custom colored Casinos that show up from time to time, including one in Silver Fox that is Brian Ray's favorite guitar. "It's black with "TV" yellow grain showing finish. A kind of translucent black. I've never seen another one like it," Ray told Epiphone. "I dare you to find one like it. You'll find a Rivera but you won't find a Casino. They're so rare. People need to know the whole history of Epiphone. It didn't just start with The Beatles. Epiphone is awesome and the world needs to know about it."


During the the British Invasion in the mid 60s, the Casino was also Rolling Stone Keith Richards' main guitar (who used his to record "Satisfaction") and Brian Jones can be seen playing one on the cover of the reissue EP of Got Live If You Want It. There are also TV clips of The Hollies, The Kinks, and the Moody Blues using their Casinos on shows like Ready, Steady, Go! The fate of Keith Richards' original Casino is something guitar sleuth Andy Babiuk finally discovered during his research behind the two greatest rock 'n' roll bands. However, the story--for now at least--can't be told.

"When I did that book for (the Rolling Stones), there were a lot of things I found out that were stolen from them. And unfortunately, it was done by people who were supposed to be watching their stuff for them. Keith would wish to have it back. We got him another old one just like it because he really wanted his Epiphone back and we can't get the original back. We got him a vintage model. Everything was the same on it and he likes it quite a bit."

The Casino was discontinued throughout the 70s and when Epiphone got back into action in the 90s, both vintage and new Casinos enjoyed a renaissance thanks to Paul Weller, Lenny Kravitz, Noel Gallagher of Oasis, U2's the Edge, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs, instrumentalist William Tyler, and of course, Dwight Yoakam who has carried the flag for the Casino for years before designing his Dwight Trash Signature model.

"I always loved the aesthetics about the Casino. There's something about the white pickguard as well as the sound... I really fell in love with it."

P-90s are key to the Casino's canny combination of chime and grit. The P-90 is a touch sensitive pickup by nature and is perfect for both lead and rhythm sounds. P-90s carry more "weight" sonically than the typical single coil pickup and have the effect of sounding especially "electric" when combined with the Casino body. Just listen to Beatle tracks like "Paperback Writer" and "She Said, She Said" to hear how nuanced a basic chord can sound when played on a Casino.

Gary Clark Jr. is probably today's most outspoken and visible Casino fan. Since signing to Warner Brothers, Clark had performed with a standard Casino, an Elitist, and a '61 50th anniversary model before designing his own Ltd. Ed. Gary Clark Jr. "Blak & Blu" Casino featuring Gibson USA P-90 pickups. "I had my eyeballs on Casinos for a while until I finally got one," Clark told Epiphone. They're all so amazing. 'Blak and Blu' with a Bigsby! They're a dream." Read Epiphone's  interview with Clark here.

Even if The Beatles had not discovered the Casino, the list of fans would still include virtually every major pop, country, blues, and rock artist of the last 50 years. "It's really a perfect electric guitar," said Jim Rosenberg, "it can be clean, it can be gnarly and it sounds terrific at low volume and feeding back. And it's a lot like Epiphone, too. A bit of a maverick."