Questions about Lennon's 325?

Frank_S · Post by **Frank_S** » Wed Mar 14, 2001 11:17 am

I'm sure any one of these axes would be available to Sean Lennon if he so desired.

larrywassgren · Post by **larrywassgren** » Wed Mar 14, 2001 7:20 pm

I think the closest we've seen to a reunion of these instruments is in the Anthology, video 2.
Someone(probably Paul McCartney) went out of their way to get a lot of the guitars together again at Abbey Road studios. The '58 325 isn't there, but the '64 is, along with a lot of George's and Paul's Beatle guitars. That was a cool thing to do, it's one of my favorite things
in those great videos.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 3:18 am

I wonder if Paul,George and Ringo were present when they filmed that segment....maybe they had a little time to 'mess around' on all the gear....

admin · Post by **admin** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 9:15 am

I was interested to learn that when Chris Huston put the Bigsby on Lennon's 1958 325 at Hessy's that he also put on a set of Gibson Sonomatic roundwound strings. I am wondering if John may have continued to use them or if perhaps he was anyway?

glen_l · Post by **glen_l** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 1:32 pm

I have a 2' x 3' print of Astrid Kirchherr's photo showing John sitting alone on the hood of the army vehicle (HHHS178) Holding the recently acquired 'V81' 325. The instrument appears to be in fully stock condition except for one definate thing. A new set of strings has been fitted. In typical Lennon style the ends are untrimmed and sticking out wildly. I'm not going to speculate what type he has fitted but there's no way Ric would ship a guitar with untrimmed strings - is there?

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 4:18 pm

Glen: Time to get that electron microscope out and have a good look at those strings.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Sat Mar 31, 2001 10:51 am

Good point Glen. I have the same poster on my wall and those strings look like big, fat flatwounds to me. You can especially see it with
a magnifying glass, looking at the low E string.
It has that shiney, flatwound look. Lennon must
have discarded the original factory strings fairly
quickly as these photos were taken on the first
trip to Hamburg which is the fall of '60. It's not too surprising he would change strings that
fast, the strings that were on it were more than likely the originals from '58. They would already be over 2 years old(like the guitar) when Lennon bought it. They may have been quite corroded and lifeless by the time Lennon started
strumming on them. It still amazes me that the
'58 325 would sit in Germany for 2 years before being sold. It must have sat in storage at Framus Werke(a distributor), waiting for a music dealer to take a chance and fork out some cash and try to sell it in his store. I'm sure it was a lot of money back in '60 compared to a Hofner, Hopf, Framus, etc.. They may have been apprehensive about stocking such an expensive instrument so it sat at Framus?

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Sat Mar 31, 2001 11:20 am

Which reminds me Larry. Did we ever find out what this instrument cost Lennon? Was it Lennon or Epstein that finally paid the bill?

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Sat Mar 31, 2001 11:23 am

Also, if Lennon was insistent on flat wounds, he would never have allowed Chris Huston to put the round wound Gibson Sonomatics on along with the Bigsby.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Sat Mar 31, 2001 5:10 pm

AS far as the bill goes Harrison has said that Lennon got it " on the knocker ... money down and the rest when they catch us..." Since they were eventually deported and Lennon went home in early December I doubt he ever fully paid for it. Just my guess. Epstein was not in the picture yet.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Sun Apr 01, 2001 8:24 am

Peter, I have an old Rickenbacker price list
from 1962 that lists 325 models at $359.50. Lennon bought his '58 325 new in Hamburg 2 years
before this so it must have been the German mark
equivalent to around $300-350? I have read that
when Brian Epstein started managing The Beatles
he paid off their bills for equipment at Hessy's.
It didn't mention if he paid off anything in Germany but I guess it would be possible as he did go there with the group. He was trying to clean up their image so I guess paying off their
bills was part of this. According to Bill Harry
Brian also confiscated photos like the one of John standing in his underwear reading the paper
on the Reeperbahn, I guess that wasn't the image he wanted for the group! I think Chris Huston made a good point about strings, anything that said made in USA on them would be the first choice
as they wanted to use what their American heroes
were using. George Harrison also used Gibson Sonomatics. The flatwounds only is just a myth.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Tue Apr 24, 2001 2:11 pm

I don't know if I believe that "knocker business." I am sure that folks in the music business in Germany would want some formal arrangement with regard to the purchase of an expensive instrument. I realize that George Harrison is quoted as saying this but I am wondering if he is having us on. The Beatles were certainly not known as good risks in those days. There is certainly a story to be told here I am sure.

larrywassgren · Post by **larrywassgren** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:19 pm

It's over two years since we last posted on this topic? Time flies whether you're having fun or not! We were last trying to figure out what V81 sold for. Andy Babiuk's excellent book (Beatlesgear) shows John's '58 325's unit net price at $83.17. The guitar was shipped to Framus Werke in October of 1958(along with V82 and V93) and Lennon bought the guitar around October/November of 1960. Having sat that long Framus more than likely let it go for a little over their cost so I'm guessing it went for around $100-150?

glen_l · Post by **glen_l** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:03 pm

I've wondered the same Larry, and believe you could well be correct.

V81 had been in stock somewhere for 2 years, whether at Framus Werke or in the actual store. By this time it could well be discounted to try and move it. I also recall being told about an interview, the same one early one where John identified V81 as his most prized possession. He also was apparently quite proud of the fact that he had paid it off fully himself, despite it taking 3 years (I think that was the time he said anyway)

The other question we ask is what fate befell V82 and V93. V82 possibly being an identical 325 to V81, that would be a real prize if it still exists somewhere.