George's Favorite Guitars

[kog]

Not sure if I've ever seen this question come up in the forum before, so pardon if it's old news. My Christmas present this year was a Fender Custom Shop Rosewood Telecaster I now have several versions of the various Harrison guitars and I got to thinking, did George ever have a favorite guitar (or guitars)? We know he went thru his Gretsch & RIck periods, the Casino, Gibsons and Fenders. But from all I've read about the Lads over the years, he either gave a lot of these guitars away, they were stolen, or crushed by a truck or just disappeared. But at the end of his life, it looked like the only ones he had from his Beatles days were the '57 Gretsch Duo Jet and his original Rick 360/12.

Now, Macca has talked about his Casino being his own favorite, and John seemed to usually favor his stripped Casino and J-160. So, in all the interviews George ever gave, had he ever indicated which might have been his "favorite" guitars - make, model?

[lennon211]

From what I've seen, I'd say that his '57 Duo-Jet certainly qualified as a favorite. It's one of the few that he held onto. Rocky, his sonic blue/custom painted Strat is another, as is Lucy, a Les Paul that he went searching for after it was stolen. He was very generous with many of his other instruments and gave many away to other musicians, as at times, he probably had guitars being thrown at him from all directions.

[soundmasterg]

He even nailed some guitars into the trees at his mansion to add to the decorations in his garden, so I think while he may have had some favorites, he wasn't too materialistic about it.

Greg

[kog]

Nailed them to TREES?!?! *shudder* Agreed, and it's interesting that he would be the least materialistic about it, while at the same time being the one among the three that probably knew more technically about guitars.

But nailing them to TREES??

[wj350]

But nailing them to TREES??

I wonder if they were rosewood or maple?

[jps]

Probably mahogany.

[JakeK]

I know George did favor his first Gretsch Country Gentleman, before it was smashed by a truck in December 1965. I don't know if he loved his Tennessean all that much because no one knows what became of it after the "Rubber Soul" sessions.

[wj350]

Wasn't there something in Anthology about George deciding at one point he didn't like his tone, "Gretsch through Vox" or something like that?

Bill

[lennon211]

Wasn't there something in Anthology about George deciding at one point he didn't like his tone, "Gretsch through Vox" or something like that?

Bill

Yeah, there was in the Beatles Gear book. There's a quote from George about how he found his tone with the Gretsch and Vox combo had become "rubbish".

[qmoder]

He seemed to have turned in a Fender and Gibson dude after the Beatles. Considering the numbers of Stratocasters that he was seen playing along with the great effort that he made just to get Lucy back while most of his other former guitars wound up under other people's beds.

[simer4001]

I think his favorite is none of the above. I have a feeling that it would be one of the hundreds of acoustic guitars he had. I have the Guitar Player interview from 87 or 88. I should re read it and see if their are any clues there.

[brammy]

http://www.elforo.de/liverpool/viewtopi ... 9ad7930754

Some pix of George's collection from Guitar Player Magazine... slow loading site, but worth it.

[brammy]

And then there is THIS:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/mon/504298183.html

"possibly" the ghost of of George Harrison!

[jps]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!