All Those Years Ago
Could this no-name instrument be George Harrison’s first guitar?
Anylon-string acoustic claimed to be George Harrison’s first guitar was up for auction on 24 June. The no-name beginners’ model was found after being stored in a cupboard for more than 50 years and would pre-date the Egmond steel-strung Spanishstyle model previously believed to be Harrison’s starter guitar (and is estimated to be worth $800,000).
The Beatle is said to have practised on the nylon-string, before developing a more serious interest at the age of 14 when he had the Egmond, leaving the nylon-string in a cupboard. When George was five, he and his family moved to a house at Mackets Lane in Speke where they lived between 1962 and 1965. Later, when Beatlemania set in, fans found out about the location of his childhood home and the intrusion became too much for his parents, Harold and Louise Harrison. They moved to a new house near Warrington.
On the day of moving from Mackets Lane, Louise Harrison is reported to have spotted George Rawlinson, who lived nine doors away with his parents, and asked him if he’d like her son’s old guitar, saying, “He won’t be needing it now.” Rawlinson accepted the gift and the beginners guitar stayed in his possession since. It was up for sale at The Auction Centre in Cheshire.