Share My Guitar is proud to announce a new series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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John Lennon seen above jamming on the Hofner Club 40, one of his earlier guitars

The ‘59 Hofner Club 40 hollow-body, fawn colored electric (vintage unknown). Although McCartney says in an interview that Lennon and Harrison both bought Club 40s in Hamburg, a photo taken in the autumn of 1959 — months before their first Hamburg trip — shows Lennon playing his Club 40 at Liverpool’s Casbah Club.

In his book Beatles gear, Andy Babiuk cleverly researched the origins of this guitar. Apparently, the guitar “Guaranteed Not to Split” had suffered some damage, so the day before that Casbah gig, Aunt Mimi, after considerable pleading, had taken Lennon to Hessy’s music store in Liverpool and plunked down a £17 deposit on this guitar and co-signed for it. Its total price, with hire-purchase charges, was about £30. Lennon made sporadic payments, and at one point Hessy’s account ledger notes “Son in Germany — mother paying.” He played this guitar — his first electric — until buying a Rickenbacker in Hamburg the following year. He then loaned this Hofner to McCartney, who restrung it lefty and used it until Lennon sold it, in his words, “at a profit.” Where is this guitar now? People of Hamburg, check your attics!

Note: Lennon’s Club 40 is not to be confused with the Hofner Club included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2000 Lennon exhibit; that guitar, a Club 50 model, is erroneously described as an instrument Lennon purchased in Germany in the early ’60s and shared with Harrison. More likely, Lennon picked it up not long before he gave it to son Julian in ‘74.

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Share My Guitar is proud to announce a new series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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Paul McCartney picking on his ‘63 Hofner 500/1 Bass Guitar

The 1963 Hofner 500/1 bass

Hofner had updated its violin bass in ‘62, and in ‘63 gave one to McCartney. First use: Ready, Steady, Go! broadcast, 4 October.

Variations from his first bass include the neck (two-piece rather than three-piece); machine heads (two-on-a-strip open-back as opposed to single open-back “rugby ball” tuners); pickups (“staple-top” rather than “diamond logo,” with one of the two moved nearer the bridge); headstock logo (horizontal script rather than vertical lettering); body (round back rather than flat), and fretboard dot inlay (to the 21st fret rather than the 19th).

Although by ‘65 he’d switched largely to the Rickenbacker bass for studio work, McCartney appeared and recorded with this Hofner from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” through Let It Be and beyond.

Some time in 1966 he removed the pickguard, and its last Beatles action was the Apple rooftop session, complete with a “Bassman” sticker from his speaker cabinet. McCartney resurrected this bass at Elvis Costello’s request for Flowers in the Dirt, and later for tours, comparing it to Charlie Chaplain’s cane: “You just expect to see it.”

The ‘63 Hofner Today

McCartney had strap buttons added so he’d no longer have to “dog-clip” one end to the tailpiece and tie the other end around the heel and under the fretboard.

This old workhorse still has the set list from the ‘66 tours taped onto it; it reads “Rock & Roll,” “She’s a Woman,” “If I Needed,” “Tripper,” “Baby’s in Black,” “I Feel Fine,” “Yesterday,” “Wanna Be,” “Nowhere Man,” “Paperback” and “Long Tall.”

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Like this post? Then you won’t want to miss the other awesome posts we have planned. Subscribe to Share My Guitar and get new posts delivered daily…for FREE!

Share My Guitar is pleased to announce a new series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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George Harrison and the 1963 Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman

When his first Gent went back to Sound City for repairs, they gave Harrison this one, identical to his first except for the mutes, which were flip-up rather than dial-up, and Harrison came to prefer it.

Seen on the Sullivan shows and used on the ‘64 and ‘65 U.S. tours, this was the guitar for the Beatles’ first flush of worldwide success. What happened to this guitar? Brian O’Hara of The Fourmost, interviewed by Andy Babiuk, said Harrison gave him the Country Gent during a studio visit at Abbey Road and that he (O’Hara) remembers trading it for something or other. But in a recent interview in Modern Drummer, Mark Hudson tells of Ringo taking him to his house and showing him, among others, the Country Gent, which they promptly brought to the studio and used on the song “Satisfied.” I followed up in 2006 with my own interview with Hudson, who confirmed the story.

JFC: OK. When did you see the first Beatle guitar? When did Ringo actually pull it out?
MH: He took me in his house in England, I was there before the band got there, and he took me into his house where his has all his original stuff, his Sgt. Pepper outfit, Magical Mystery Tour, all that great stuff that he still retains. And he goes (imitating Ringo) “Well, I’ll show you these,” and I see these three guitar cases. You know, and full well knowing – being a John Lennon freak – I knew what that was.
JFC: It was a Rickenbacker case?
MH: Yes, a Rickenbacker case. As soon as I saw that, I knew. And then I saw something shaped like a Country Gentleman Gretsch, and I knew what that was, and something else I didn’t recognize. So the first thing he opens is John’s Rickenbacker.
JFC: The Fire-Glo?
MH: Yes. And my heart fell to my ass. And I went “Oh, my God,” you know, and I said “May I?” And he went “Yeah, go ahead and play it.” And like, there I was – strumming that guitar. And then he opened up the other one, and it was George’s Country Gentleman. And it was immaculate. Olivia gave that to Ringo. And it was the guitar.

Read the full interview here!

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Like this post? Then you won’t want to miss the other awesome posts we have planned. Subscribe to Share My Guitar and get new posts delivered daily…for FREE!

Share My Guitar is pleased to announce a new series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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John Lennon’s ‘64 Rickenbacker 325-12

John Lennon sitting with his ‘64 Rickenbacker 325-12 String!

At their New York meeting, Lennon asked Hall to make him a twelve-string model to match his 325, and in March ‘64, Rickenbacker shipped this guitar to him in London. The only differences are the headstock and the tailpiece. This short-scale guitar was used on a Dutch TV show, in the studio (Beatles For Sale) and served as a backup throughout 1964, and saw actual use at a show in Boston on 12 September. Tom Hartman, who recorded in Abbey Road as a young man, recalls seeing it in the storage area with a set list taped to it.

Rickenbacker CEO John Hall remembers “seeing this guitar at one point with a vibrato on it as the model number describes (which didn’t work well at all).” Because it made the guitar impossible to keep in tune, the vibrato was removed and replaced with a trapeze tailpiece before this prototype was sent to Lennon. Most recently on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Owned by the Lennon Estate.

Stay tuned for next weeks Beatles guitar…

Share My Guitar is pleased to announce a new series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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The Beatles: Paul McCartney’s ‘66 Fender Esquire…

1966 Fender Esquire sunburst (vintage unknown): McCartney bought this single-pickup Telecaster model during the Revolver sessions and had the strap button moved to the “horn” side of the body. Also used on “Good Morning, Good Morning” and “Helter Skelter.” As far as I know, McCartney still has this guitar.

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Macca’s ‘68 Martin D-28 Acoustic Guitar…

C.F. Martin D-28 acoustic (vintage unknown): This sweet-sounding dreadnought surfaced during the “White Album” sessions (it’s the one used on “Blackbird“), and can be seen in the “Two of Us” scene in the “Let It Be” film.

Share My Guitar is pleased to announce a new series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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It’s fair to say George Harrison didn’t just waltz into the Beatles’ lead guitar slot.

Through talent and tenacity, he earned it. Harrison was the funny-looking, skinny chap Paul McCartney used to see on the bus to school. He had a flair for colorful clothes and, above all, a love of the guitar, which he shared with the slightly older McCartney.

In 1958, with nothing more impressive on his resume but one gig at the British Legion Club with his brother Peter and a couple mates, the 15 year old began sitting in with the group McCartney had just joined — The Quarry Men — and filled in when one or another of the guitarists didn’t show. Before long his chops — honed from arduous practice and careful devotion to R&B and Country and Western hits from America — won him a permanent position as the band’s go-to guy.

During a lean period in 1959 Harrison played with the Les Stewart Quartet but by August he was back with the Beatles to open the Casbah Club, and for every gig they played thereafter.

In a solo career populated by both worldwide hits and spectacular misses, Harrison has earned the respect of fans, musicians and critics alike with his unique palette of humor, devotion, irony and craftsmanship. “I believe I love my guitar more than the others love theirs,” Harrison once told Beatles Monthly. “For John and Paul, songwriting is pretty important and guitar playing is a means to an end. While they’re making up new tunes I can thoroughly enjoy myself just doodling around with a guitar for a whole evening. I’m fascinated by new sounds I can get from different instruments I try out. I’m not sure that makes me particularly musical. Just call me a guitar fanatic instead, and I’ll be satisfied.”

Despite his status as master songwriter and cultural icon, John Lennon (1940-1980) was, first, a guitar player.

Lennon, founding member of The Beatles, played rhythm formidably, as evidenced by rock-steady chording, deft figures (“I Feel Fine”), rapid-fire triplets (“All My Loving”), delicate jazz fingerings (“Til There Was You”), and fine fingerpicking (“Julia,” “Look at Me”).

Although he had played some Chuck Berry-type leads in the band’s early days, Lennon gladly turned over those duties to George Harrison. In the studio, however, he did like to keep his hand in. Lennon’s first lead on record occurred on 25 February 1964, on his composition “You Can’t Do That,” followed a few days later by a solo on “Long Tall Sally” (a song the boys nailed in one take). There followed solos on, among other songs, “Every Little Thing,” “Get Back,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” “Yer Blues,” “Honey Pie,” “Ballad of John and Yoko,” a slide solo on “For You Blue,” and, alternating with Harrison and Paul McCartney, “The End.”

Lennon did all the lead work on his first solo album, Plastic Ono Band, but on subsequent outings relied on Harrison, Eric Clapton and Jessie Ed Davis, among others. In the course of his career he traded riffs onstage with Chuck Berry, Keith Richard, Clapton and Frank Zappa.

His last piece of guitar playing, a manic lead on Yoko Ono’s “Walking On Thin Ice” (12/80), showed his self-described “primitive” lead playing at its zenith.

While working the floor of the 2010 Winter NAMM, I met up with a couple of superstars of the guitar world. They were both women, and they both treated me like I was a member of their family. As I picked their brains about historical stuff they have done, they responded without a trace of egotism. All the planets were in alignment and I was experiencing nirvana.

Legendary Bassist Carol Kaye and SMG Senior Staff Writer Frank Butler at 2010 NAMM

One was Carol Kaye. As world class and world famous guitarists lined up to shake her hand, she noticed I was off to the side and marveling at her magnetism. She had promised to spend some time with me at 2:30 p.m. and it was about that time. Carol told the line of fans that they had to wait because she had something to do. It was to hang out with me. I felt guilty for denying them seconds with her.

We sat down in a private booth and talked about her amazing career. She played the bass on almost every TV show I ever watched, and countless movies. She also wrote books. Not two books… but lots of books. I know world class bassists that buy her books, study her books and implement their content to attempt to do what she can do… RIP IT UP! She has the hippest lingo of any musician I have ever met.

Carol talked to me about chuggin’ and jivin’ and “boogalooing.” She also described how she “stayed in the pocket” and “held down the groove” worked that vibe.” She oozes “cool.” I asked her about her favorite gig. I know, cheesy journalistic move. But keep in mind that she caught me off guard with her response, which is what I craved. Carol has played with all the biggies. No, I take that back…they played with her. I expected her to drop a name like Ray Charles, Quincy Jones or Miles Davis. But it wasn’t any of the icons I expected. It was the badass legend Joe Cocker. Joe, I bow to you, my friend. Scratch that one off your “bucket List.” Carol Kaye said you were her favorite.

Seymour Duncan and MJ hanging out with SMG at 2010 NAMM

The second woman of the guitar world I met up with that has the world of pro guitarists courting her is MJ. Who is MJ? You don’t know MJ? Eddie Van Halen knows her, so does Slash, Pete Anderson, Mick Thompson and hundreds of other guitarists that make kicking ass on the guitar their living. A very unassuming lady with a heart of gold, MJ works for Seymour Duncan, the man whose name is synonymous with pick-ups.

MJ has worked for Seymour for 27 years, personally winding pick-ups in their custom shop for the biggest names in the business. Think of a factory of “winders,” now narrow it down to the elite custom shop, now who is the best in the room (besides Seymour)? Since Seymour has to tend to his empire, MJ is the end of the line. She is referred to by these world class artists as “The Rockstar to the Rockstars.” Without her, they would not have the signature tone we have all come to know.

MJ also treated me like I was buddy from way back. She held my hand during the interview. She confided in me that she makes killer tortillas too. Now I lost my train of thought. “How good?” I must find out.

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We made it back to the 2010 NAMM show this morning (day three) and have been roaming the exhibit halls in two teams equipped with video cameras, mic’s and caffeine. Today we managed to gather video interviews with a host of amazing guitarist! Stay tuned for these killer interviews to be posted on the site. We just spoke with Frank Gambale, Alex Skolnick and Gary Sinise. Frank and Alex were super cool and graciously allowed us to speak with them on video. Gary turned us down flat, but to be fair he was holding a sandwich and was about to eat his lunch so you have to give him a pass. Next time Lt. Dan!