Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK, there are at least three or four topics this could have gone under, but when was Lennon's Bigsby installed at Hessy's. The summer of 1961 but when. Can we narrow it down a bit based on the photographic evidence?

So far based on photos at the Aintree Institute performance on August 19, 1961 it was installed. So before this date seems safe, but how much before?

Also, Lewisohn's Beatles Chronicle has a photo of Lennon at the Casbah under Sunday February 12, 1961 showing the Bigsby, but I am not entirely confortable with this early date. It is possible that it is the November 1961 gig. What do you think?

Peter, Chris Huston is around quite a bit on the 'net, maybe he can provide a date or come close to remembering when..

Yes, perhaps you are right John.

In the book Merseybeat: The Beginnings Of The Beatles/page 20 there is that great photo of The Beatles at the all-night session at The Cavern. George is playing his 'new' Gretsch Duo-Jet and John still has the Kauffman on his '58 325. This all-night session took place on August 5, 1961. On August 19 John had the Bigsby on V81 which can be seen in those excellent photos of their performance at Aintree Institute on page 44-5 of The Complete Beatles Chronicle. So the Bigsby was installed between August 6-19, 1961. My guess is the Bigsby was installed on August 19 and photographed that same night as Lennon has his hand on the Bigsby and looking right into the camera on page 44. Sort of like John saying 'bring a camera and get a photo of my new Bigsby tonight'. Just my guess.

That shot of John at The Casbah on page 39 is definitely after August 19, 1961. I'm going to see if I can find the correct date for that photo as I've seen it in other books.

As a former archivist who has worked extensively with photographic records, I would warn you to be careful about ascribing certainty to the provenance of a given image-photos are notoriously unreliable, from a dating perspective, and many authors who publish/use archival photographic images are relatively fast and free with dating. I'm not suggesting that they are trying to pull a "fast one" but photographic records are inherently difficult to date with precision and few authors have the time or resources to cross-reference photographic evidence with other sources. I'm not saying these dates are wrong but I've spent too many hours trying to date photos and have worked with too wide a variety of primary source material to ascribe that much certainty to a photo that is dated to the day. My ten years of experience as a professional archivist would suggest that more detailed research should be conducted into the dates given in these books. Find out where these images came from and how they were originally processed before accepting their validity.

I'm certain of this.

Thanks for posting that photo Kent. A great guitar with one of the coolest rockers ever.