George Harrison was most known for his musical work with The Beatles, Traveling Wilbury's, and solo careers with his unique sitar sounds,six-string guitar, twelve-string guitar, slide-guitar, vocals and more. Throughout the years George has had some of the most iconic guitars of all time, especially with his Fender Stratocaster, which most fans would know as "Rocky". Here's a post dedicated to some of his best known guitars of the 60s.
George's first guitar cost him £3 10s, it came from Raymond Hughes, a former classmate of George's at Dovedale Primary School. George was curious as to why the guitar had a bolt in the back of it's neck, and unscrewed it which lead to the guitars neck falling off , he threw it in a cupboard. His brother would lately fix the guitar for him.
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| J-160E |
September 10,1962 John and George both bought the Gibson J-160E model. A beautiful acoustic guitar that George would be seen playing in the film Help! singing "I Need You"
The Black Duo Jet was what George called his "first real guitar". Harrison had got the guitar from a Liverpool cab driver secondhand in the summer of 1961, George being eighteen at the time. The guitar was George's main guitar throughout the Cavern, Hamburg, and eve heard on the recording for Beatles first album, Please Please Me. The guitar was given to good friend of The Beatles from the Hamburg days, Klaus Voorman who stayed close with the band, especially George throughout the years, even drawing the famous Revolver album cover. In the mid 1980s George had called Klaus up asking if he still had the guitar, Klaus gave the guitar back to George. It's also featured on the cover of George Harrison's 1987 album, Cloud Nine.
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| Black Duo Jet |
George recalls the experience that all of the guitars were strapped to the roof of their Austin Princess. George's guitar was the only one lost."I went back to this great big articulated vehicle and the driver said to me, 'I think you've dropped a banjo back down the road.' I couldn't believe it. So I went back to my car and Neil [Aspinall] and I just stood there looking, we both couldn't believe it. We just stood there, staring at the back of my car, noticing that the straps were broken. There were two guitars there, but now there was only one. I remember thinking, 'I can get a lift home,' I thought that was it. I said to Neil, 'You'd better tell them.' He said, 'No, you tell 'em.' So I went round to the car and said, 'I think we've lost a guitar.' In the darkness, a voice comes out, 'Well if you can find it, you'll get a bonus.' This was John. I was always frightened of John more than anyone else, so I said to him, 'Well, what's the bonus then?' He replied, 'You can have your job back!'"- Alf Bicknell, Beatles chauffeur
Country Gentleman
"Some people would say I shouldn't worry because I could buy as many replacement guitars as I wanted, but you know how it is, I kind of got attached to it." -George Harrison
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| Rickenbacker 360/12 |
George Harrison's twelve-string guitar was the second twelve-string guitar Rickenbacker ever made that was delivered specially to him while he was in New York City. This guitar would later inspire Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, a band that based themselves around The Beatles, starting with buying guitars exactly like theirs. George's playing would inspire McGuinn to play a twelve-string.
Ramirez Classical
A guitar that was used throughout A Hard Days Night, even featured in the video for "And I Love Her". The Below video is The Beatles "And I Love Her" which shoes the Ramirez Classical guitar:
Gibson SG
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| Gibson SG |
Fender Stratocaster
George had received his Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster during the Rubber Soul sessions, it was first featured in the recordings of "Nowhere Man". The guitar was used during the Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band's albums. In April 1967, after the Sgt Pepper's recordings George Harrison had got the idea to change his Sonic Blue guitar to have it's own unique design. He took pots of dayglo and enamel paint, also some of his wives green nail polish, and painted his guitar. The guitar can be seen in The Magical Mystery Tour video for "I Am The Walrus".The Following video is George Harrison talking about Fender's and Rocky:
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| 1957 Les Paul |
George was given a 1957 Les Paul by good friend and musician, Eric Clapton. The guitar had belonged to other artist such as The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian The guitar was given to Harrison with a dark red stain but was an original gold model. The guitar is seen on The Beatles Revolution promo video.
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| Rosewood telecastor |
This guitar is shown on The Beatles iconic Rooftop Concert on January 30, 1969. Also, in The Beatles Let It Be album and film
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