His Guitars

George bought his first guitar around 1956 from a friend for 3Ł. You could get a pretty decent guitar with an equivalent sum these days. It used to make young Harrison's fingers bleed. The next guitar he bought was an Höfner President, that model became popular with aspiring British rockers of the late fifties.

During the first "Long Johnny And The Silver Beetles" tour in 1960, George was often playing with a cheap three-pickup, solid-bodied guitar known as the Futurama. It was based around the expensive Fender Stratocaster.

In the end of 1961 George replaced the Futurama by a black Gretsch Duo Jet 6128. He used it for The Beatles' Cavern and Casbah club performaces in 1961/62. It's the guitar he played with during the whole "Please Please Me" LP.

In the beginning of 1963, he replaced his Duo Jet by a bigger and more expensive Gretsch, a Country Gentleman 6122. This is the guitar he used the most until the middle of 1965, and was featured in the Royal Variety performace in November 1963 and the Ed Sullivan shows in February 1964. He also owned another Gretsch, a single-cutaway Tennessean 6119 wich he used on "Beatles for Sale" and during the movie "Help!". He also used it for the first Shea Stadium gig in August 1965.

He then played with the Rickenbacker 12-string. It was a present from the president of the company he received in 1964. It was a 360-12 and was the second Rickenbacker 12-string ever made. It was used on many songs in 1964.

In the middle of 1965 George started to use the Epiphone Casino, the sister model to Gibson's all-hollow ES330. Paul and John also used that type of guitar. Paul used it for the Taxman solo. John and George both performed with theirs in 1965 and 1966. George's Casino made it's last appearance on the "Hello Goodbye" promo for American TV at the end of 1967.

In 1965, George got around to using a Fender Stratocaster. He used that Sonic Blue Strat for the first time on "Rubber Soul" and then on "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper". It received a psychedelic paint in 1967, and nicknamed Rocky, for the "Magical Mystery Tour" television special, where it's seen in the "I Am The Walrus" part.

In the studio, George also used other guitars from 1965 including a cherry red SG Standard wich made an appearance on the "Paperback Write/Rain" promo.He also used a Gibson ES345 wich he used occasionally in live performance.

Eric Clapton played the solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", one of George's greatest song. For it he used a cheery-red Gibson Les Paul Standard, known as Lucy. He then gave it to George. Harrison used it on "Let It Be" and "Abbey Road" and his the guitar he used during the sublime "Something".

George also played on acoustics, in the early Beatles-years he used a Gibson J160E. The last song he used it on is "Lovely Rita" in 1967. Later he had a Gibson J200 wich he used in "For You Blue" in 1969 and "Here Comes The Sun" at the concert for Bangla Desh.

In the beginning of his post-Beatles career George returned to the Strat. He actually used one in the concert for Bangla Desh in 1971.

We saw him play a Stratocaster on his occasional appearances in the 1980s. On the Carl Perkins TV speacial in 1985 he played a Gretsch 6120 and his original Duo Jet on the "Cloud Nine" album in 1987.He also used a Gretsch for the Travelling Wilburys project in the late 1980s.

George still owns many of his old guitars.Despite his status as a "non-guitar-hero", he is among the most influential players ever, causing sales of Gretsches, Ricky's and Epiphones.

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