Harrison’s guitar sells for £347,000
THE guitar used by George Harrison at the Beatles’ final Cavern Club gig has sold at auction for £347,000.
Harrison played the Australianmade Maton Mastersound MS-500 at the famous venue in Liverpool in the summer of 1963. His regular guitar was being repaired, but Harrison was so impressed with the replacement he continued to use it.
When he returned the guitar to the repair shop, it was bought by Roy Barber, a guitarist in Dave Berry and the Cruisers, whose hits included Memphis, Tennessee and The Crying Game.
The guitar remained in storage until it was bought by a UK collector at auction in New York in 2015 for £373,000 ($485,000), and resold at Gardiner Houlgate auctions in Corsham, Wiltshire, on Wednesday. It fetched £280,000, rising to £347,200 with fees. Harrison died in Los Angeles in 2001, at the age of 58.