14 Songs That Use EPIPHONE Guitars

Are you looking into Epiphone guitars and wondering if you should commit to buying one? They look the part, they offer excellent value and they’ve been around for over a century, but is it worth saving more and going for a Gibson?

Well, I can’t decide for you, but what I can do is show you a raft of famous, excellent songs that were recorded and played live using Epiphone guitars. Significant, world-class artists have used Epiphone instruments since rock ‘n’ roll was a thing, and most of these artists can play whichever guitars they fancy, so it says a lot that these stick to their Epis!

Have a dive into this diverse collection of songs and let it be a reminder that Epiphone are not only legitimate contenders, but are in fact the actual choice of pro players again and again.

There may be no better advert for Epiphones than The Beatles, right? The world’s most famous and influential band were big fans of the brand, particularly Paul McCartney. He bought an Epiphone Casino (a right-handed model flipped upside down), showed it to John and George, and they swiftly got matching models for themselves.

Taxman is a great example of Macca blasting out a solo on his Casino, and of course the famous rooftop performance of Get Back shows John wielding his stripped-finish Casino. For more Epi love, McCartney used an Epiphone Texan acoustic to write and record Yesterday.

Following the Beatles in terms of influence would be Manchester’s favourite warring siblings. Oasis made their classic debut record Definitely Maybe using a collection of early 90s Epiphone guitars, including the Epi J-200 acoustic that appears on the cover and a brace of Riviera guitars.

For Supersonic, though, Noel Gallagher used his sunburst Epiphone Les Paul Standard, which is roughly a 1992 model. He may play fancier guitars these days (and why not, right?) but he doesn’t necessarily sound any different, which is praise for the Epiphones indeed.

Epiphone guitars are very significant to country star Marcus King. His signature El Dorado model is actually a recreation of the one given to him by his father, and on which he wrote all of his early material. On top of that, he even named his debut album after it!

Marcus plays his El Dorado live and in the studio, as well as other Epiphone guitars including the EXL-Throwback model.

Yes, it’s the super group formed of Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. That is some pedigree: when your lowest-ranker member in fame terms is from Queens of the Stone Age, you’ve got some cultural heft indeed!

Them Crooked Vultures have so far made only one album, but it’s a belter. Josh Homme used an Epiphone Dot 335 as his main ‘hammer’ - as he put it himself - for the recording and touring of the album. 

Gary Clark Jr is one of those people who is impossible to out-cool. Whatever ‘it’ is, he’s got it, and that ‘it’ includes some kick-ass guitar skills. 

Whilst he often plays Gibson guitars today, he made his name using ‘Blak & Blu’, his black and blue Epiphone Casino. When My Train Pulls In as a great cut from his debut record, also called Blak & Blu. How’s that for a guitar’s influence?

Blink 182’s Tom Delonge is probably equally connected to Epiphone and Fender guitars. When playing with both of his bands - Blink 182 and Angels and Airwaves - he often uses Gibson and Epiphone versions of his signature ES-333 guitar. This is a single pickup semi-acoustic with a stripe down the middle. It’s an in-demand guitar, commanding high prices on the second-hand market. 

Delonge has also been seen with other Epiphones, such as the black Sheraton you can see in the video below for I Miss You.

Legendary Detroit bluesman John Lee Hooker stuck with Epiphone for pretty much all of his career. In later years, he was such a fan of the Sheraton, he described them as ‘an outdid 335’. Prior to that, he used an early 60s Epiphone Zephyr and an even earlier Epiphone hollow body electric given to him by T-Bone Walker. This is the guitar used to record the seminal Boogie Chillun, his first big break as an artist.

Not many contemporary bands push guitar technology as far as Oxford proggers Radiohead. That said, there’s plenty of room in their sound to also make their guitar work very pure in tone when the need arises, even when the notes themselves are quietly innovative.

Such an example can be found in Weird Fishes from the classic In Rainbows record. The main arpeggio part that runs through the song is performed by singer Thom Yorke on his Epiphone Casino, one of his main go-to guitars.

New York hipsters The Strokes were masters of tension and release, building their musical parts up and up to build pace and drama. A lot of that was down to the layered guitar work, and Nick Valensi used his Epiphone Riviera (and later, his own signature model) to bring some percussive rhythm work to the band’s unique sound.

Although Bob Dylan was playing a Fender Stratocaster when he was famously branded ‘Judas!’ by an upset folkie who came to see acoustic strumming, he took an Epiphone Casino out on his 1974 comeback tour. This was beyond Bob ‘going electric’, and, backed by band members who at that point were already The Band, he was in his prime. You can hear him blasting away on his Casino on live recordings like this one of Like A Rolling Stone.

Dylan also liked using an Epiphone Caballero acoustic during some early period performances, but I can’t find any info about actual recordings. Still, he was obviously a fan!

Trivium’s Matt Heafy has had signature guitars for decades, beginning with some fairly wild looking Deans. For a long time now, it’s been Epiphones, including signature MKH 7 string Les Paul Customs. These are his main guitars for both the studio and the road, so check out a song like The Sin and the Sentence’s title track to hear one in action!

My Chemical Romance make big music for big emotions. Binding the camp, theatrical glam of 70s rock with the angst and existentialism of emo is not an easy task, but MCR are by no means a generic band. Refreshingly, guitarist Frank Iero can communicate his complex ideas on relatively affordable guitars, mainly from Epiphone. There’s ‘pansy’, his favourite Epiphone Les Paul Custom (which I believe was eventually broken on tour?) and of course his signature ‘Phant-o-matic’ Wilshire.

In the mid 60s, the Stones were as much about pop as they were the blues. Single after single showed their pop songwriting, from She’s A Rainbow to Paint It Black. One such classic is Time Is On My Side, which featured guitarist Keith Richards employing… an Epiphone Casino! Not a blonde Telecaster? Nope, and co-guitarist Brian Jones had one too.

Paul Weller’s solo career really took off with 1995’s Stanley Road album, but even before that he was making classic solo music. The ex-Jam and Style Council songwriter made waves with 1993’s Wild Wood (which will always be ‘Waa Waa Woo’ to me when I hear it), particularly songs like Sunflower. For this, he used one of two 1960s Epiphone Casinos, which he absolutely still uses and tours with these days.

Well, that list stretches from 60s pop to 2020 metal, and includes classic blues and pop punk. All of these artists use Epiphone guitars in significant ways. Everybody here has used Epiphone guitars on stage to play to huge audiences, and in the studio to record classic songs. What more of an advert for Epiphone could there be?

One other take away from all of this: check out how many guitarists opt for the Casino! It’s overwhelmingly the most popular model, and the one you buy from us today is a great example of that classic instrument. All of that percussive hollow body charm is there, with the same timeless good looks you’ve seen throughout rock history. There is a reason why so many top artists pick the relatively humble Epiphone Casino, so don’t discount it due to its affordability: it may end up being your favourite guitar too!

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