He may have fallen out of love with his casino right around that time, but it had been his #1 guitar for a long time. Let's face it, if you're a Beatles fan the sound of that guitar is in your dna.
I think your right. He played that guitar for over a decade. If the riff wasn't working on the casino, he would have known it. Btw, john wasn't a slouch by any means especially when it came to rhythm guitar!
"This guitar is just crippling beyond belief, I can't play it". WTF dude. You're on more than one comment saying the same, incorrect thing. He does in fact say it's the guitar.
Dick The Birthday Boy I'm not so sure. If the guitar's action or playability was so bad, Why would he have played it for years? I don't know the answer, just asking
There is a specific setup for slide? You mean the action is higher? Lennon probably has 11s on his Casino. With hollowbodies it's best to keep tension 10s or 11s. You put 9s on and the guitar sounds like crap. I bet he is complaining about the string gauge.
@@ItsRevival Doesn't make sense. The Casino was his main guitar, why would it be setup for slide? Lennon doesn't play slide. It's most likely the string gauge or him playing that D chord shape with that hammer on what looks like a C# note for most of the song.
Incredible artist but let's be honest. It doesn't really matter what guitar John was playing, he would find something in it to complain about. He's hyper-critical and a perfectionist. That's part of what made him so great.
i have an elitist casino as well, love it. John probably by this time just needed a good set up and adjusted action. looks like hes got some pretty thick strings on it as well.
He may have been on take 30 of the same part of the song. Playing it that many times, on ANY instrument, could feel crippling. The true testament to his preference of instrument was his commitment to the Casino, when he could have ANY guitar he wanted, for FREE.
DANCING CHEESE Productions right you are ive seen the whole doc/film he was a great songwriter and could play well but sometimes you need a different guitar for a particular song
Márcio Gonçalves I'm guessing it's the fact that the riff is constantly repeating, which means it's really easy for your hands to cramp up and feel painful, especially if the guitar has a thicker neck than other guitars (the rickenbacker that he used had quite a small neck)
I have an inferior 2003 Made in Korea epiphone Casino and it's well set up. The frets wore uneven so I gave it a fret job, and it still has extremely low action and easy to play. Like others said it probably needed a set up or a fret job. Maybe refretting. I get the impression John Lennon was the type to look forward and not back, so he probably moved on to another instrument, even though this one had worked so well for so long. Incidentally, I bought mine used for less than $300 and have owned about 50 guitars. I'd rank it right up there with my Eric Johnson strat.
John Barry Yeah he used 9s maybe they were getting slippery, new set up all way round he ran his instruments into the ground. My Korean Casino is 11 years old and cost $400 and plays like a dream -- I love Casinos!!! (I heard EJ strats are very hard to play -- very stiff no matter what you do, is that true?)
mulvavroop Not at all... EJ strats play like custom shop fender strats. Mine does. It has lower action than anything else I've ever used and it's soft. The worst thing is the nitro finish on the neck can get sticky. I still love my casino. I think mine is different from the 60's era in terms of neck placement. I've heard the casino's from that era are bonded longer. At 17th fret? I wonder if that would make it feel more like an SG, if that's the case?
I get the impression that to John it was just a tool. Some players are like that. I play. I have about 15 guitars (I lost track of how many and don’t feel like counting lol) but I only really care about a few of them. I care about my dad’s LP and my LPC, the rest of them I have zero sentimental attachment to. I just bought them because they were good deals ir I wanted to try a new style out but they’re all easily replaceable. John’s guitar was just a guitar when he bought it. It wasn’t this legendary relic that it is now, especially not to him. My favorite guitarist is Steve Jones and he’s the same way, he said he doesn’t get attached to guitars that way.
@tomliath he really didnt play it till the end, after the early 70's he just about shelved it, played a les paul and some other guitars, played other guitars on double fantasy, Paul was the one that always loved the casino. John an George sort of moved on to other guitars. that's well documented.
Plus John never understood strings. He used to mix and match different gauges and it was usually a mess. A tech that restored his 58 Rick 325 said that he had roundwound with flatwound strings on it, plus the guitar was in terrible shape with cracks.
I read somewhere that John wanted to restore the Epi back to it’s original sunburst finish around the time before his death, so I Guess he quite liked the guitar still then.
I have an Epi casino and honestly, as a musician, it's all you need. Unless you're technical and like doing wild solos, then yeah, it's a fantastic guitar.
@@bassinblue Exactly! Just like Macca says: ”It’s got a crazy sound”. Very three dimensional. Very big sounding yet bright at the same time. The right amount of midrange to cut through a mix. Wonderful Guitar.
He's just talking about how playing that chord for that duration is crippling. I've found playing higher on the neck can really cramp up your hand, especially on a thick neck like a casino. Epiphone Casinos are great guitars.
Great clip! The Casino was his weapon of choice for years and years. And sometimes favourites are just like that, you love them and you hate them. Btw, I love his version on the lyrics at the end, "how do you sleep, you f***k"... :D
Might not necessarily be the guitars fault, he could have been overworked and his fingers could have died a little, any guitar hurts after solid hours in the recording studios.
He's talking about the action/setup on his. I play the same late 60's, Kalamzoo, Michigan USA made Epiphone Casino and the neck on mine has the easist, smoothest action of any electric guitar I have ever played, including a Gibson ES-335 and Gretsch Country Classic II (Country-Gentleman).
The Rickenbacker V250 and this Casino were John's favorites. But was probably the Casino the one that he used steadily longer, and I understand why. it's not only that's a beauty but it is so comfortable to play. I have one and I enjoy every aspect of it, besides the fact that for what it is it's totally inexpensive.
Commented a while back about this... After watching the video closely, you can see that the strings are a little high off the fretboard. Looks as though he hadn't had the action set up for a while, so that's what's making it "crippling beyond belief"... All that's needed is to simply take the guitar and lower the action at the bridge, maybe even tweak the saddles on the bridge and the truss rod in the neck. Then voila, no more crippling.
+Scott Udell Please Scott forgive the question, not native english speaking, what does it mean in terms of sound "crippling"? I mean, if action is too low than the strings can buzz, but I never heard about a problem with action too high. Maybe pickups are not doing their work correctly if their distance from the strings is beyond a limit? Thanks for an answer
George did give away several of his guitars to friends, but his Casino wasn't one of them. He still had that guitar in his possession at the time of his passing in 2001. Like John's guitar, George also had the finish stripped off of his Casino and finished with a dull coat of nitrocellulose lacquer.
He loved this guitar as much as his 58 325 Rickenbacker. In fact he used it longer than all his others. He started using this for studio and stage work from late 1965 up until 1970 at least. He stripped the original sunburst paint job off in 1968 as was the craze at the time.
Lennon actually used his 1958 325 in 1980 for the lead guitar for "walking on thin ice" ( yes it has actually been proven by yoko). I fact you can actually hear him playing it at the part in the song where it sounds like he's going crazy on the bigsby bar. The lead was recorded on dec 8, 1980, so that means t was the last guitar he would ever play
he played this guitar more than any other and even once said if he could only have one guitar it would be an epiphone casino. there's no doubt he loved it for some good reason.
jump oricakle And I can totally understand why they both love them. I have one (an 'inspired by John Lennon'). Mine was made in China, i think, but it's still great! That thing plays like a dream, looks fantastic and the sound is just beyond words. Back then, even better! Epiphones back then suppousedly had better quality (even though it's hard to beat one like mine, remarkable quality not just for an Epi, but in general). Mine is a special signature model though, so there might have been more quality control. Also I think it came with Gibson pick ups instead of Epiphone ones. Anyway, don't get fooled by the name, the Casino is fantastic!
@@gary_beniford No maybe, it was absolutely Paul who said that. And he played his WAY more than John did, it was the only 6-string electric he owned for probably two decades, you just never saw it. Whereas John had several different guitars he used.
gdholmfirth he liked the sound of the epiphone--its hard not to. he just found the strings crippling, which you can notice his struggle if you look at his left hand. alot of second hand casinos have a differant grade of strings for this reason
Oxy and Icy That's ridiculous. If he didn't like the gauge of the strings or how it played all he had to do was buy a thinner set of strings and lower the action on the bridge, maybe adjust the truss rod in the neck. Decent strings are not expensive, and setting up the bridge isn't a hard task, either.
@MorroccoM13 The Casino is not a copy of the ES-335. Although similar in appearance, the ES-335 has a solid block wood center (among other differences, including humbuckers). The Casino is completely hollow and feature P-90 single coil pups.
@kimjenkins123 It's called "How Do You Sleep" and it was written about Paul suing him George (who's in this video) and Ringo in order to end the Beatles' business partnership as it pertained to Apple.
60's necks were reasonably slim and that can cause fatigue over long periods of playing. Epi's and Gibsons have quite flat radius fretboards, and a lot of guitarists say that the vintage fender 7.25 inch curved radius is great for chording - not so much for bends. So maybe those two factors were at play.
I don't know the neck profile of that Casino, but depending on one's hand size and guitar neck width it could eventually cramp and annoy the crap out of any player
@sacramentolove He used it since 1965,not 1968.It's the same guitar used for the1966 tour.He stripped down the original sunburst paint,but it's the same guitar.
@1THETRUTH10 and for a good example of the start sound you should listen to nowhere man, both john and george used their strats during those days, and also i forgot to mention that from 67 onwards george again used a lot his blue fender, by that time repainted by himself in a psycehdelic finish and called rocky, you can see it in this state in the i am the walrus vide, that once was his blue strat.
Casinos' will feedback at loud volume because unlike a Gibson ES-335 which has a block of wood in the center of the body, the Casino is hollow inside which causes the top to vibrate more, inducing feedback.
@TheGalwayFarmer Nope, John's sonic blue strat had a rosewood fretboard. As far as i know, John's Strat is missing. George also had a Sonic blue strat identical to Johns but george later gave it a Pshycadelic paint job and nicknamed it 'Rocky'
Casino is an amazing guitar and the favorite of …. Paul McCartney as he said in interview. Play a casino and You will understand John had just an issue with how the strings were setup on his guitar
Not sure if it's been pointed out already, but the action on those strings is incredibly high, like it had been set up to play slide or something. That might be what he was referring to.
He played the same 65 Casino from the time of purchase in the 60's until his death. Both he and Paul McCartney claimed the Casino as their "favorite" guitar. But John only had the one, which he had the laquer stripped off in the late 60's. He was probably complaining about the setup and strings on it at the time
@Hoopermazing why would "jazz cats" like high action? so their close chords can be ruined by terrible intonation? Low action is needed so that a string pressed down will be in tune with open strings. Heavier gauge strings excel and promote lower action as well.
One can assume, but its just certain guitars haven't got that tough yet, I have found that I need to do a lot of custom small little tweaks to my guitars until I feel they are comfortable.
@YourCrazyCattysCat the story of the luthier who received Paul's Rickenbacker before his tour in 1976 is interesting to read. He says that there was all sorts of damage to it as it hadn't been serviced since it was given to Paul in 1965. The guy did restorative work and Paul used it successfully on tour.. but he wondered HOW McCartney was able to get the use out of it he did since the damage had to have been longstanding.
Lennon's surely warped to an unplayable state. Casinos are completely hollow, and they used heavier strings back then, and Lennon's toured/moved around with him. By all accounts he wasn't super keen on things like set-up and maintenance and when replacing this guitar (the Junior with the Charlie Christian pickup he used live in New York) he asked the guys in the shop to install a "humperdinker" in the neck position...
All my hollow bodied guitars are non-lacquered. Solid doesn't matter as much (some will argue). In any event, the Beatles were sloppy in the handling of their guitars. Photos abound with their guitars laying flat on the floor during studio sessions, and it was commonly noticed that they entered the Abbey Road studio with guitars out of case. Maybe with attendees constantly tuning, restringing, and wiping their instruments, The Beatles became complacent.
Usually when you put on new strings they tear apart your fingers to the bone so yeah it could give you a little ache afterwards, but it is repettitive when your trying to do a song.
@1THETRUTH10 Lennon and Harrison both purchased Epiphone Casinos in 1965 after Paul McCartney acquired one. those where played mainly on revolver while sgt pepper was also a major epiphone album for john, but he also used his fender a bit, george used on revolver his gibson sg, epiphone casino and probably his strat. as we know john stuck to his epiphone for long while george changed to the les paul played by clapton on while and later to the specially for him build rosewood telecaster.
thats completely true, that guitar was a sunburst finish.....he sanded the finish off because he believed he would get better sound. Don't know if he did in fact get better sound. That was a pretty common thing to do in the hippy era. Everyone wanted everything to be "natural". I remember a lot of people stripping their painted guitars down to bare wood back then. A lot of vintaged guitars got butchered
guitars depending on their surrounds or how long it has been since they were played/had strings changed can warp which can cause the strings to either get lower on the neck which makes playing a clean note hard or they can get higher off the fretboard meaning you have to press harder to get the chords you need and that can hurt your hands and make them cramp up, this was recorded in 1971 so it's possible had hadn't played that guitar since the apple days in 1969/early 70 and it warped
Lennon didn't add the tailpiece, it came that way, he did add the gold Grover tuners, he never had the fool paint his guitar, that was Eric Clapton, possibly his car,..Lennon and Harrison removed the finish and paint from thier casinos on the advice of Donovan to "allow the guitar to breath" the guitar he is complaining about in this video id the casino in the early 70's after it had been stripped and post-Beatles.
@JayMalone He had a sconic blue strat (Just like the one you see george play at 0.39.. I think johns had a rosewood fretbard though) I dont think he cared much for Fenders
He's not complaining about the make it's the action or height of the strings likely hurting his fingers maybe the neck moved with heat or cold or something.
@bbknux1 That all might be true, but as I said, jazz cats like very high action. It's a matter of tradition. They used to do it so that they could play hard enough to be heard in a big band setting. Also, heavier gauge strings actually don't facilitate low action (unless you're a kid playing an absurdly de-tuned guitar) in standard tuning larger diameter strings have a larger "oscillation amplitude," or whatever that's called. Ask a science teacher why, IDK.
Prolly the action too high or heavy strings the engineer wanted him to use. He loved this and his Epi acoustic. He looked at his fingertips, not the guitar.......
if the action is too high, it will cause you to have to press very hard to get it to fret, causing a burning sensation in the finger tips, and cramping/aching of the fingers and hand. IVE GOT BLISTERS ON ME FINGERS!
Seems as his Casino needed a setup. I have two Casinos, among many other guitars, and they're very easy to play, with a slim neck and low action. The Casinos are famous, not only because they're excellent sounding guitars, but because they are very comfortable to play. Any guitar in dire need of a setup will cause the reaction we're seeing here.
@ffairlane57 Yeah, it seems like The Beatles's sound was pretty coincidental....John saw the Rickenbacker on a jazz album cover, bought it, and went from there. Then they got free stuff from Epiphone, later Fender, etc.
@SocialVirus92 I don't think that he hated it at all because he used it for a long time before and after this session. It is just that in the process of recording, musicians might feel upset for not getting easily where they want to go, musically speaking, or for being uncertain about what exactly they want. So they blame the instruments sometimes. And this very shapeless effort at ''how do you sleep'' is enough cause for making someone upset.
@HarryDickus actually all hollow body/ acoustic guitars sound better with higher action. The only draw back is that it's harder to press down and your intonation may suffer
@LBrilliante where can I hear that 1st take of Come Together you reference? His voice never sounded exceptional at all after the Beatles, - I think it was George Martin and/or the fact that he took it upon himself to sing in higher register where his tone was not the same. - whereas Paul sounded great - vocallty - throughout the 70s
I've seen photos of him playing a Gibson Les Paul special with a Charlie Christian pick up in the neck position. He played a Fender telecaster at the Madison Square Garden concert with Elton. I saw the pictures of him at the Dakota playing a red Fender stratocaster as well. I don't know, I could be wrong but some of the guitar on Double Fantasy sounded like his old Epiphone Casino.
I also think that he is talking about the "guitar line" (the composition) not about the instrument. For the syncopation. In fact, I'm thinking of buying one of them. I love it.
He got the Casino because he was sick of his Rickenbacker breaking apart on him on stage. In between the Casino and 325, he played a blue Fender Stratocaster for a couple of shows. He just liked the way the Casino felt so he chose that towards the end of The Beatles touring days... though he did use his Gibson160E from 1963 to 1980 if I'm not mistaken.
Just because it was his main guitar and he loved it, doesn't mean it was easy to play. Lots of people love certain guitars, but they're extremely difficult to play.
@FretLegendSmithy i know that, but George hand painted his into "Rocky" during Magical Mysterey Tour. s that cant be his strat. so that has to be Johns strat. and i think thats George cause it looks like him. plus he had that kind of a beird at that time.
He may have fallen out of love with his casino right around that time, but it had been his #1 guitar for a long time. Let's face it, if you're a Beatles fan the sound of that guitar is in your dna.
In the full clip you hear him say the riff he was playing was difficult (crippling), not the guitar
I think your right. He played that guitar for over a decade. If the riff wasn't working on the casino, he would have known it. Btw, john wasn't a slouch by any means especially when it came to rhythm guitar!
"This guitar is just crippling beyond belief, I can't play it".
WTF dude. You're on more than one comment saying the same, incorrect thing. He does in fact say it's the guitar.
Dick The Birthday Boy I'm not so sure. If the guitar's action or playability was so bad, Why would he have played it for years? I don't know the answer, just asking
What's probably happening is the action is too high, yeah. And maybe old strings. That'll kill your fingers real fast.
It's not the guitar he's complaining about, it's the way the action is set on it. Looks like it's set up for slide
There is a specific setup for slide? You mean the action is higher? Lennon probably has 11s on his Casino. With hollowbodies it's best to keep tension 10s or 11s. You put 9s on and the guitar sounds like crap. I bet he is complaining about the string gauge.
@@Johnny_Doe Yeah the action on slide guitars is higher, which is to prevent buzzing on the frets
@@ItsRevival Doesn't make sense. The Casino was his main guitar, why would it be setup for slide? Lennon doesn't play slide. It's most likely the string gauge or him playing that D chord shape with that hammer on what looks like a C# note for most of the song.
@@Johnny_Doe Yeah I'm just explaining what the original comment said
agree
Whatever he may have been complaining about, the fact of the matter is that he used this guitar more than any other from 1965 on.
+Feliks Gailitis i think about that too... its post beatles and his a wealthy man and still using the casino...
Epiphone Casino is a high end guitar.. Especially the old ones like he and paul had.
+Feliks Gailitis Epiphones were on par with Gibsons on before they were bought!
Thank you very little.
Feliks Gailitis in the full clip you see he was talking about the riff being difficult, not the guitar
Incredible artist but let's be honest. It doesn't really matter what guitar John was playing, he would find something in it to complain about. He's hyper-critical and a perfectionist. That's part of what made him so great.
He didn’t care about guitars like George did. John would mistreat his guitars.
the sigh at the end was george thinking "krishna, he gonna complain about his bloody casino again and how i switched ours"
I love the sound he got with the Casino on Dr.Robert and She Said She Said.
hell yeahl, lenard
i have an elitist casino as well, love it.
John probably by this time just needed a good set up and adjusted action. looks like hes got some pretty thick strings on it as well.
Right at the end I love how you can just hear someone sigh like "not this again just play the fucking song john".
All guitars need occasional adjustments. It probably needed a truss rod adjustment.
Or a lighter string gauge. Maybe he had 12s or 13s on it...
Action was probably high and was tiring to play on take whatever they were on
Yeah, the thing I like about Strats for example is the fact it's pretty easy to set up
@@gingerbeer914 He apparently switched to light gauge roundwound strings at some point in the mid 1960s.
i like hearing that loud sigh right as he says "I can't play it"
He may have been on take 30 of the same part of the song. Playing it that many times, on ANY instrument, could feel crippling. The true testament to his preference of instrument was his commitment to the Casino, when he could have ANY guitar he wanted, for FREE.
He played his Casino from 1966 to 1969 with The Beatles. How could he complain about it?
Cause Paul still has his and he's been playing his since 1965.
he's saying that's it's hard to play the riff with the guitar, not about the guitar.
DANCING CHEESE Productions right you are ive seen the whole doc/film he was a great songwriter and could play well but sometimes you need a different guitar for a particular song
Márcio Gonçalves I'm guessing it's the fact that the riff is constantly repeating, which means it's really easy for your hands to cramp up and feel painful, especially if the guitar has a thicker neck than other guitars (the rickenbacker that he used had quite a small neck)
because he didn't and the person who posted the video used the comment out of context for views
I have an inferior 2003 Made in Korea epiphone Casino and it's well set up. The frets wore uneven so I gave it a fret job, and it still has extremely low action and easy to play. Like others said it probably needed a set up or a fret job. Maybe refretting. I get the impression John Lennon was the type to look forward and not back, so he probably moved on to another instrument, even though this one had worked so well for so long. Incidentally, I bought mine used for less than $300 and have owned about 50 guitars. I'd rank it right up there with my Eric Johnson strat.
John never took very good care of his guitars, the Casino's neck was probably warped by that time.
John Barry Yeah he used 9s maybe they were getting slippery, new set up all way round he ran his instruments into the ground. My Korean Casino is 11 years old and cost $400 and plays like a dream -- I love Casinos!!! (I heard EJ strats are very hard to play -- very stiff no matter what you do, is that true?)
mulvavroop Not at all... EJ strats play like custom shop fender strats. Mine does. It has lower action than anything else I've ever used and it's soft. The worst thing is the nitro finish on the neck can get sticky. I still love my casino. I think mine is different from the 60's era in terms of neck placement. I've heard the casino's from that era are bonded longer. At 17th fret? I wonder if that would make it feel more like an SG, if that's the case?
I get the impression that to John it was just a tool.
Some players are like that. I play. I have about 15 guitars (I lost track of how many and don’t feel like counting lol) but I only really care about a few of them.
I care about my dad’s LP and my LPC, the rest of them I have zero sentimental attachment to. I just bought them because they were good deals ir I wanted to try a new style out but they’re all easily replaceable.
John’s guitar was just a guitar when he bought it. It wasn’t this legendary relic that it is now, especially not to him.
My favorite guitarist is Steve Jones and he’s the same way, he said he doesn’t get attached to guitars that way.
well not really a fan of epiphone either, but probably he was complaining about the setup of that specific casino.
Hope you've changed your opinion on this in the past 2 years.
Yet to find a good one...
Edinwildlifetog d
his Casino saw a lot of action so was probably a bit knackered by this point
At :38 George is seen playing John's blue Stratocaster...the twin of George's own psychadelic "Rocky" Fender, which was originally sonic blue.
No. Not the same guitar. It has a maple neck and different color. Its newer.
@tomliath he really didnt play it till the end, after the early 70's he just about shelved it, played a les paul and some other guitars, played other guitars on double fantasy,
Paul was the one that always loved the casino. John an George sort of moved on to other guitars.
that's well documented.
Plus John never understood strings. He used to mix and match different gauges and it was usually a mess. A tech that restored his 58 Rick 325 said that he had roundwound with flatwound strings on it, plus the guitar was in terrible shape with cracks.
Wow. I'm really, really glad this wasn't the final cut of this track.
So many classics were played on that guitar. I'd love to own that
Get Back
Don't Let Me Down
Paperback Writer (live)
Day Tripper (live)
Dear Prudence
Come Together
Sgt. Peppers
It’s definitely the action and setup and possibly needing lighter strings, not the guitar itself.
Clearly complaining of the setup and strings. John loved this guitar and used it nearly exclusivley from 1966 onward.
I read somewhere that John wanted to restore the Epi back to it’s original sunburst finish around the time before his death, so I Guess he quite liked the guitar still then.
I have an Epi casino and honestly, as a musician, it's all you need. Unless you're technical and like doing wild solos, then yeah, it's a fantastic guitar.
@@bassinblue Exactly! Just like Macca says: ”It’s got a crazy sound”. Very three dimensional. Very big sounding yet bright at the same time. The right amount of midrange to cut through a mix. Wonderful Guitar.
I love the sound he got from that Epiphone on the early recordings - very raw and a little twangy.
He's just talking about how playing that chord for that duration is crippling. I've found playing higher on the neck can really cramp up your hand, especially on a thick neck like a casino. Epiphone Casinos are great guitars.
Great clip! The Casino was his weapon of choice for years and years. And sometimes favourites are just like that, you love them and you hate them. Btw, I love his version on the lyrics at the end, "how do you sleep, you f***k"... :D
That's noooo what he says :-)
The C word not the F word.
Not often you get to post this as a correction...
*cunt
I think he complain about the strings..cause he look his fingers..and then conplains...not about the sound ..
FER DINAND I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS
in my opinion the EPI CASINO its quite good guitar ..and with a verry nice sound with its P90s ...good for blues too
Every guitar will make your hands cramp up if you play it long enough.
Exactly
It probably just needed a set up !
Might not necessarily be the guitars fault, he could have been overworked and his fingers could have died a little, any guitar hurts after solid hours in the recording studios.
He's talking about the action/setup on his. I play the same late 60's, Kalamzoo, Michigan USA made Epiphone Casino and the neck on mine has the easist, smoothest action of any electric guitar I have ever played, including a Gibson ES-335 and Gretsch Country Classic II (Country-Gentleman).
Maybe John thought he could get along without a guitar tech just as he thought he could without The Beatles.
Oh dawg, you wild!
I think he did fine without the Beatles
I think he did a great job out of the band almost better than in
The Rickenbacker V250 and this Casino were John's favorites. But was probably the Casino the one that he used steadily longer, and I understand why. it's not only that's a beauty but it is so comfortable to play. I have one and I enjoy every aspect of it, besides the fact that for what it is it's totally inexpensive.
Commented a while back about this... After watching the video closely, you can see that the strings are a little high off the fretboard. Looks as though he hadn't had the action set up for a while, so that's what's making it "crippling beyond belief"... All that's needed is to simply take the guitar and lower the action at the bridge, maybe even tweak the saddles on the bridge and the truss rod in the neck. Then voila, no more crippling.
*voila
+Scott Udell With John Lennon, the degree of luthiery skill he thought he had vs that which he actually had were two different entities.
RedArrow73 I am aware of that, but still... Shouldn't have been too hard to find someone who could set it up for him easily.
+Scott Udell Please Scott forgive the question, not native english speaking, what does it mean in terms of sound "crippling"? I mean, if action is too low than the strings can buzz, but I never heard about a problem with action too high. Maybe pickups are not doing their work correctly if their distance from the strings is beyond a limit? Thanks for an answer
MrC00lwind
\it's not about the sound. It just becomes much more difficult to play, and it kind of hurts.
Man I've bitched about my casino that many times that I still use it over any other guitar.
dumb ass
The sigh at the end when he says he can’t play it 😂😂😂😂
George did give away several of his guitars to friends, but his Casino wasn't one of them. He still had that guitar in his possession at the time of his passing in 2001. Like John's guitar, George also had the finish stripped off of his Casino and finished with a dull coat of nitrocellulose lacquer.
He loved this guitar as much as his 58 325 Rickenbacker. In fact he used it longer than all his others. He started using this for studio and stage work from late 1965 up until 1970 at least. He stripped the original sunburst paint job off in 1968 as was the craze at the time.
Lennon actually used his 1958 325 in 1980 for the lead guitar for "walking on thin ice" ( yes it has actually been proven by yoko). I fact you can actually hear him playing it at the part in the song where it sounds like he's going crazy on the bigsby bar. The lead was recorded on dec 8, 1980, so that means t was the last guitar he would ever play
he played this guitar more than any other and even once said if he could only have one guitar it would be an epiphone casino. there's no doubt he loved it for some good reason.
It was Paul that said if he could only have one he'd choose the Casino
Joshua Lavan maybe. lennon played his significantly more though I think they both felt the same way.
jump oricakle
And I can totally understand why they both love them. I have one (an 'inspired by John Lennon'). Mine was made in China, i think, but it's still great! That thing plays like a dream, looks fantastic and the sound is just beyond words.
Back then, even better! Epiphones back then suppousedly had better quality (even though it's hard to beat one like mine, remarkable quality not just for an Epi, but in general). Mine is a special signature model though, so there might have been more quality control. Also I think it came with Gibson pick ups instead of Epiphone ones.
Anyway, don't get fooled by the name, the Casino is fantastic!
@@gary_beniford No maybe, it was absolutely Paul who said that. And he played his WAY more than John did, it was the only 6-string electric he owned for probably two decades, you just never saw it. Whereas John had several different guitars he used.
If he didn't like it, why did he stick with it so long? I suspect, as do others, that it was something wrong with the set p that day.
gdholmfirth he liked the sound of the epiphone--its hard not to. he just found the strings crippling, which you can notice his struggle if you look at his left hand. alot of second hand casinos have a differant grade of strings for this reason
Oxy and Icy That's ridiculous. If he didn't like the gauge of the strings or how it played all he had to do was buy a thinner set of strings and lower the action on the bridge, maybe adjust the truss rod in the neck. Decent strings are not expensive, and setting up the bridge isn't a hard task, either.
exactly, thats why he had the boys stop playing to he could set it up properly
It's funny, really, because the Beatles' Casinos are one of the most beloved of guitar sounds.
@MorroccoM13 The Casino is not a copy of the ES-335. Although similar in appearance, the ES-335 has a solid block wood center (among other differences, including humbuckers). The Casino is completely hollow and feature P-90 single coil pups.
@kimjenkins123 It's called "How Do You Sleep" and it was written about Paul suing him George (who's in this video) and Ringo in order to end the Beatles' business partnership as it pertained to Apple.
60's necks were reasonably slim and that can cause fatigue over long periods of playing. Epi's and Gibsons have quite flat radius fretboards, and a lot of guitarists say that the vintage fender 7.25 inch curved radius is great for chording - not so much for bends. So maybe those two factors were at play.
I don't know the neck profile of that Casino, but depending on one's hand size and guitar neck width it could eventually cramp and annoy the crap out of any player
@sacramentolove He used it since 1965,not 1968.It's the same guitar used for the1966 tour.He stripped down the original sunburst paint,but it's the same guitar.
I know the feeling John, damn high action guitars take some getting used to.
Very nicely done. Great explanations and Geo would be proud !!!
Just got to say, sounds like John was channeling a rather challenged state in his recording of "how do you sleep at night!"
Hey, that looks like George on the blue Strat using a slide
@1THETRUTH10
and for a good example of the start sound you should listen to nowhere man, both john and george used their strats during those days, and also i forgot to mention that from 67 onwards george again used a lot his blue fender, by that time repainted by himself in a psycehdelic finish and called rocky, you can see it in this state in the i am the walrus vide, that once was his blue strat.
Casinos' will feedback at loud volume because unlike a Gibson ES-335 which has a block of wood in the center of the body, the Casino is hollow inside which causes the top to vibrate more, inducing feedback.
@TheGalwayFarmer Nope, John's sonic blue strat had a rosewood fretboard. As far as i know, John's Strat is missing. George also had a Sonic blue strat identical to Johns but george later gave it a Pshycadelic paint job and nicknamed it 'Rocky'
@TBrb09
no, john used a blue strat from 65 to 66, 66-67 saw the beginning of his gibson era, but the strat gave us rubber sould and revolver.
Casino is an amazing guitar and the favorite of …. Paul McCartney as he said in interview.
Play a casino and You will understand
John had just an issue with how the strings were setup on his guitar
Not sure if it's been pointed out already, but the action on those strings is incredibly high, like it had been set up to play slide or something. That might be what he was referring to.
He played the same 65 Casino from the time of purchase in the 60's until his death. Both he and Paul McCartney claimed the Casino as their "favorite" guitar. But John only had the one, which he had the laquer stripped off in the late 60's. He was probably complaining about the setup and strings on it at the time
@Hoopermazing why would "jazz cats" like high action? so their close chords can be ruined by terrible intonation? Low action is needed so that a string pressed down will be in tune with open strings. Heavier gauge strings excel and promote lower action as well.
Very true. He was a genius, but you know...
@PandaThiefChannel it's from "Imagine"
The song is called "How do you Sleep?"
He hasn't playing it publicly around 73, and of course he has been a bit busy being dead. (since 1980)
One can assume, but its just certain guitars haven't got that tough yet, I have found that I need to do a lot of custom small little tweaks to my guitars until I feel they are comfortable.
@YourCrazyCattysCat the story of the luthier who received Paul's Rickenbacker before his tour in 1976 is interesting to read. He says that there was all sorts of damage to it as it hadn't been serviced since it was given to Paul in 1965. The guy did restorative work and Paul used it successfully on tour.. but he wondered HOW McCartney was able to get the use out of it he did since the damage had to have been longstanding.
Lennon's surely warped to an unplayable state. Casinos are completely hollow, and they used heavier strings back then, and Lennon's toured/moved around with him. By all accounts he wasn't super keen on things like set-up and maintenance and when replacing this guitar (the Junior with the Charlie Christian pickup he used live in New York) he asked the guys in the shop to install a "humperdinker" in the neck position...
@MorroccoM13 epiphone's weren't always only copies of gibsons. Epiphone made quality guitars back then and still make a few high end guitars.
On drums is current Yes drummer,Alan White.
All my hollow bodied guitars are non-lacquered. Solid doesn't matter as much (some will argue). In any event, the Beatles were sloppy in the handling of their guitars. Photos abound with their guitars laying flat on the floor during studio sessions, and it was commonly noticed that they entered the Abbey Road studio with guitars out of case. Maybe with attendees constantly tuning, restringing, and wiping their instruments, The Beatles became complacent.
Usually when you put on new strings they tear apart your fingers to the bone so yeah it could give you a little ache afterwards, but it is repettitive when your trying to do a song.
@1After100 Guess no one told him the action can be adjusted with a screwdriver or with the truss rod.
@1THETRUTH10
Lennon and Harrison both purchased Epiphone Casinos in 1965 after Paul McCartney acquired one.
those where played mainly on revolver while sgt pepper was also a major epiphone album for john, but he also used his fender a bit, george used on revolver his gibson sg, epiphone casino and probably his strat.
as we know john stuck to his epiphone for long while george changed to the les paul played by clapton on while and later to the specially for him build rosewood telecaster.
thats completely true, that guitar was a sunburst finish.....he sanded the finish off because he believed he would get better sound. Don't know if he did in fact get better sound. That was a pretty common thing to do in the hippy era. Everyone wanted everything to be "natural". I remember a lot of people stripping their painted guitars down to bare wood back then. A lot of vintaged guitars got butchered
guitars depending on their surrounds or how long it has been since they were played/had strings changed can warp which can cause the strings to either get lower on the neck which makes playing a clean note hard or they can get higher off the fretboard meaning you have to press harder to get the chords you need and that can hurt your hands and make them cramp up, this was recorded in 1971 so it's possible had hadn't played that guitar since the apple days in 1969/early 70 and it warped
Lennon didn't add the tailpiece, it came that way, he did add the gold Grover tuners, he never had the fool paint his guitar, that was Eric Clapton, possibly his car,..Lennon and Harrison removed the finish and paint from thier casinos on the advice of Donovan to "allow the guitar to breath"
the guitar he is complaining about in this video id the casino in the early 70's after it had been stripped and post-Beatles.
The 1st chord is D thenD/C...a few times,then Am then Am/G....etc.
And for Casino, Epiphone still makes Casino with "Pro" quality like they used to
@JayMalone He had a sconic blue strat (Just like the one you see george play at 0.39.. I think johns had a rosewood fretbard though) I dont think he cared much for Fenders
Gee I thought he love his Casino!
He's not complaining about the make it's the action or height of the strings likely hurting his fingers maybe the neck moved with heat or cold or something.
Poor guitar probably warped all to shit from him stripping the finish off by hand himself.
+dETROITfUNK no it wasn't done professionally, Lennon had it one night and grabbed sand paper and scrubbed the Finnish off
@bbknux1 That all might be true, but as I said, jazz cats like very high action. It's a matter of tradition. They used to do it so that they could play hard enough to be heard in a big band setting. Also, heavier gauge strings actually don't facilitate low action (unless you're a kid playing an absurdly de-tuned guitar) in standard tuning larger diameter strings have a larger "oscillation amplitude," or whatever that's called. Ask a science teacher why, IDK.
Prolly the action too high or heavy strings the engineer wanted him to use. He loved this and his Epi acoustic. He looked at his fingertips, not the guitar.......
Perhaps Yoko had touched it, as well as eating Georges biscuits which fucked everything up !!!
Right at the end, you can hear someone sigh. I wonder what they said next?
if the action is too high, it will cause you to have to press very hard to get it to fret, causing a burning sensation in the finger tips, and cramping/aching of the fingers and hand.
IVE GOT BLISTERS ON ME FINGERS!
John has enough money and credibilty to buy any guitars in the world but he loves to play this epiphone casino guitar
Seems as his Casino needed a setup. I have two Casinos, among many other guitars, and they're very easy to play, with a slim neck and low action. The Casinos are famous, not only because they're excellent sounding guitars, but because they are very comfortable to play. Any guitar in dire need of a setup will cause the reaction we're seeing here.
@ffairlane57 Yeah, it seems like The Beatles's sound was pretty coincidental....John saw the Rickenbacker on a jazz album cover, bought it, and went from there. Then they got free stuff from Epiphone, later Fender, etc.
@SocialVirus92
I don't think that he hated it at all because he used it for a long time before and after this session. It is just that in the process of recording, musicians might feel upset for not getting easily where they want to go, musically speaking, or for being uncertain about what exactly they want. So they blame the instruments sometimes. And this very shapeless effort at ''how do you sleep'' is enough cause for making someone upset.
Must be Lennon's sonic-blue Strat that Harrison is playing.
@HarryDickus actually all hollow body/ acoustic guitars sound better with higher action. The only draw back is that it's harder to press down and your intonation may suffer
@chest002 i forget who it was but i no someones first guitar was actually made of a box and broomsticks
it was probably the strings lol. he played that guitar before maybe he had different gauge he wasnt used to
@LBrilliante where can I hear that 1st take of Come Together you reference? His voice never sounded exceptional at all after the Beatles, - I think it was George Martin and/or the fact that he took it upon himself to sing in higher register where his tone was not the same. - whereas Paul sounded great - vocallty - throughout the 70s
What guitars did John use after the Beatles break up? Besides his epiphone casio since the abbey road days
I've seen photos of him playing a Gibson Les Paul special with a Charlie Christian pick up in the neck position. He played a Fender telecaster at the Madison Square Garden concert with Elton. I saw the pictures of him at the Dakota playing a red Fender stratocaster as well. I don't know, I could be wrong but some of the guitar on Double Fantasy sounded like his old Epiphone Casino.
Don't forget the Rickenbacker 325 :)
I also think that he is talking about the "guitar line" (the composition) not about the instrument. For the syncopation.
In fact, I'm thinking of buying one of them. I love it.
It’s straight rhythm but ok
He got the Casino because he was sick of his Rickenbacker breaking apart on him on stage. In between the Casino and 325, he played a blue Fender Stratocaster for a couple of shows. He just liked the way the Casino felt so he chose that towards the end of The Beatles touring days... though he did use his Gibson160E from 1963 to 1980 if I'm not mistaken.
Just because it was his main guitar and he loved it, doesn't mean it was easy to play. Lots of people love certain guitars, but they're extremely difficult to play.
@Hoopermazing And how quick do jazz players play? They never stay on a chord for more than a second!
@FretLegendSmithy i know that, but George hand painted his into "Rocky" during Magical Mysterey Tour. s that cant be his strat. so that has to be Johns strat. and i think thats George cause it looks like him. plus he had that kind of a beird at that time.