The guitar George Harrison used during The Beatles’ creative peak will go under the hammer as part of the Christie’s Jim Irsay Collection: Hall of Fame auction. Tony Bacon digs into its backstory alongside new photography from Eleanor Jane
It’s an unusually cold, wintry day in northwest London in April 1966, and we’ve sneaked into EMI Studios on Abbey Road. Inside Studio 3, thankfully, the atmosphere is far from chilly. The Beatles are hard at work completing their forthcoming single, “Paperback Writer,” and George Harrison is playing a guitar he recently added to his collection.
The guitar in question is a 1964 Gibson SG™ Standard, shipped from the company’s Kalamazoo factory in late October that year, and a Gibson destined to become a firm favourite with George from the day he acquired the guitar in the early months of 1966. Perhaps he found it at the Selmer shop in central London, where the band had shopped before? An advert in March offered: “Gibson SG Standard, comp. with plush-lined case, 140 gns.” That secondhand price of 140 guineas was a posh way to write £147, a little over $400 at the time—in today’s money the equivalent of about $4,000. Bargain!
Harrison acquired this 1964 SG in early 1966
Wherever George acquired this SG, it had all the regular features associated with this relatively young model, which had only been in Gibson’s line for a few years. It was finished in Cherry, there was a handsome mahogany body and mahogany neck, a set of crown markers in the rosewood board, a Deluxe Vibrola, twin humbuckers, six Klusons, and a three-ply black pickguard.
During The Beatles’ earlier years, George was known primarily as a fan of Gretsch and Rickenbacker electrics, but he hadn’t waited long to get into Gibson. He and John Lennon bought a pair of J-160E electric-acoustic flat-tops in 1962, and they employed that model widely throughout the life of the band for unplugged songwriting and plugged-in stage and studio work.
The headstock exhibits the chips and dents you’d expect on such a well-used instrument
George’s second Gibson came along toward the end of 1965 when he bought a sunburst ES-345™, but it was the SG that turned into a particular favorite instrument, especially in the studio. The humbuckers and general layout of the SG would have been familiar to George from the ES-345, but it may well have been the new guitar’s relative lightness, the simplicity of its controls, and the pleasing tone that appealed to him.
It seems fair to deduce that he was impressed by the SG’s sleek, modern looks, too, because he chose the Standard to appear with him in some of the promo shorts that The Beatles made: in 1966 for the “Rain” and “Paperback Writer” single, and also the film they created in ’68 for “Lady Madonna.”
There is no shortage of buckle rash around the back
George did occasionally take his SG on tour, where it was most often reserved as a useful backup. Eagle-eyed fans armed with binoculars at an NME poll-winners concert in London’s Empire Pool in May 1966 might have spied him playing the SG, alongside Lennon who was playing one of the band’s Epiphone Casinos.
What those audience members wouldn’t have known was that the NME date would turn out to be The Beatles’ last-ever British concert appearance. The SG also accompanied George during the band’s additional dates in ’66 in West Germany, Japan, and the Philippines in late June and early July. The tour concluded in North America the following month, with their final concert taking place in San Francisco on August 29th.
The back of the neck showcases plenty of playwear, too
George continued to use his SG Standard in the studio in 1967 and into ’68, and it was during that year that he moved on to yet another Gibson. This was the famous ex-Rick Derringer/Eric Clapton “Lucy” Les Paul™, refinished in red and a guitar that deserves its own space on another occasion for a story filled with drama and intrigue.
A little later in the 1960s, George gave his retired SG to Pete Ham of Badfinger, who were signed to The Beatles’ Apple record label. Pete used it throughout the group’s prime before his tragic early death in 1975, and Pete’s brother John sold the guitar at auction in 2004 for $567,000—which is how the guitar ended up in Jim Irsay’s remarkable collection.
One of the most-heard bridge pickups in pop
Following Irsay’s untimely death last year, George’s SG is heading to auction in March as part of the star-studded Christie’s Jim Irsay Hall Of Fame sale. It’s a distinguished item, estimated at $800,000 to $1,200,000, and it stands out among very strong competition in what the auction house calls “a chorus of cultural touchstones.” Other lots include the famous “Fool” SG played by George’s friend, Eric Clapton.
The Jim Irsay Collection: Hall of Fame auction takes place at Christie’s in New York on March 12. Tony Bacon’s latest book is “Electric Blues: T-Bone Walker & The Guitar That Started It All,” available now exclusively at Regent Sounds.
