Here we are with an amazing guitar collection to share with you all! Recently Trevor, Tyler, and our media producer Ken, went down to Palm Springs to document this collection and put it into a format that we can share with you all! (Emerald City Guitar)
Beatles were like most young bands starting out. They had no money to buy good instruments and managed with anything they could get their hands on. John had a Gallotone Champion flat-top, then an electric Hofner Club 40. George Harrison moved from an Egmond/Rosetti acoustic to a Hofner President, then his own Club 40, followed by a Futurama.
This is one of the most intentional collections one could imagine, and to be in the room is incredibly special - the owner spent 20 years searching and acquiring these instruments, and each one is a reference to the instruments that were important to The Beatle's career. Ranging from early John and Paul's early Gallatone and Zenith models, to George's famous "Lucy" Les Paul and Rosewood Tele!
John Lennon was the first Beatle to get a real American guitar, at a time when a restriction on imports of US instruments to Britain had only just been lifted. In 1960, during a working visit to Hamburg, he got a Rickenbacker 325 in Mapleglo (natural) finish to replace his Club 40.
George Harrison’s opportunity to join John as the owner of a real American guitar came in 1961, when he heard about a ’57 Duo Jet that a merchant seaman had for sale in Liverpool.
George snapped up the guitar to replace his Futurama. The Jet had two DynaSonic single coils, hump-block markers and arrow-through-G knobs, and it remained his favoured stage and studio guitar into 1962.
Rubber Soul had many Beatle fans wondering about the new sounds contained in its grooves. Take that concise solo in Nowhere Man, where two unison guitars give way to one solitary pinging harmonic. A new Beatle sound, for sure! The source? A pair of Fender Stratocasters freshly added to the band’s guitar store. George and John decided around the end of ’64 to get a Strat each. (guitarworld)
This is a right-handed collection, so instruments reflecting those used by Paul are *not* left-handed.
That said, we had a blast going through this collection, and invite you to enjoy it with us!
Music (All used with express permission from the artists):
Supermother "You Won't Go" (Instrumental)
The Hollers "Zeb" (Instrumental)
Timothy Robert Graham "I Won't Let Go" (Instrumental)
The Hollers "You Don't Have to Waste Your Time" (Instrumental)
The Hollers "Great Recluse" (Instrumental)
Any and all historic photos of The Beatles or other artists used within this video are purely for reference in describing the related instruments within the collection, and these images belong to the photographers who took them.
The following year, George got an SG Standard, used at Abbey Road when sessions began in April 1966 for Revolver and played at an NME concert in London in May, which marked The Beatles’ final British concert appearance. George also used his SG in more videos to promote the Paperback Writer/Rain single in ’66 and Lady Madonna in ’68.
In 1967, George took some paint and nail varnish and transformed his Strat into a personalised psychedelic artwork
In 1968, Eric Clapton gave a Les Paul to George. It was a ’57 Goldtop refinished in Cherry, and George named it Lucy and used it on several White Album and Abbey Road cuts
