 1965: 1961
Fender Stratocaster solidbody, Sonic Blue:
Finally, Harrison
got that Fender. In the studio one day he and
Lennon dispatched
Mal
Evans to "get a couple Strats," and because Brian
Epstein was picking
up
the bill if they were identical, Evans came back with
two '61s in a
rare
blue color. Used first on "Nowhere Man" and then for the
Rubber
Soul
sessions, and regularly thereafter. In '67, to
commemorate the "All You
Need Is Love" satellite broadcast, Harrison gave his
Strat a
psychedelic
paint job and nicknamed it "Rocky." "The
paint started
flaking
off immediately," he recalls in the Anthology
book. "We
were
painting everything at that time: our houses, our
clothes, our cars,
our
shop. Everything. 
In those days day-glo orange and lime paint were very
rare, but I
discovered
where to buy them -- very thick, rubbery stuff. I
got a few
different
colors and painted the Strat, not very artistically
because the paint
was
just too thick. I had also found out about
cellulose paint, which
came in a tube with a ball tip, so I filled in the
scratch plate with
that
and drew on the head of the guitar with [wife] Pattie's
sparkly green
nail
varnish." Later in '67 it featured prominently in
the "I Am The
Walrus"
scene in the "Magical Mystery Tour" TV special. In
his solo
years,
Harrison had it set up properly for his slide guitar
work, and dusted
it
off for "Free as a Bird." |
1965: 1965
Rickenbacker 360-12 (Fire-glo). Radio
station WDGY finally
got
its chance to give Harrison a guitar on 21 August 1965,
when the
Beatles
came to Minneapolis. At a press conference (below)
this "new
style"
360-12 was hand-delivered from that city's B-Sharp
Music.
("Where's
mine, then?" asked Lennon.) Like the earlier
model, it featured
deluxe
triangle finger board inlays, but had rounded cutaways
and checked
binding
(on the back only), five chrome-top control knobs and an
"R"
tailpiece.
Harrison retired his first 360-12 and used this one for
performances
and
recording (beginning with "If I Needed Someone" on 16
Oct. '65).
This guitar was last spotted in March 1969 at the Abbey
Road studio,
from
where it is reported to have been stolen.
