FAB GEAR! GUITARS OF THE BEATLES Story by Bob Mytkowicz Captions by Richard Smith
John Lennon made the Rickenbacker Model 325 one of his earliest trademarks. The first version he owned—shown here in 1963 after it was refinished black—had a single gold-backed Lucite pickguard and a Bigsby vibrato.
The Beatles promoting their first album on March 22, 1963: Paul with his first Hofner violin-shaped bass, George with his 1950s Gretsch Duo Jet, and John with his Gibson J-160E. Notice the Vox AC-30 amps.
Believe it or not, the Beatles created most of their extraordinary music on stock, off-the-shelf production-model guitars. Were there common threads linking each Beetle's choice of instruments? "John and George had an obvious bias towards American manufacturers," observes guitar authority Richard Smith. "Yet in the 1960s Paul rarely played anything onstage but his German-made Hofners. Surprisingly, John, Paul, and George rarely chose top-of-the-line instruments. For example, at least six models offered by Epiphone in 1964 out-priced each of the Bea-tles' three Casinos. In any event, once a Beetle started wearing a certain guitar model, it became a Beetle guitar. From that day forward, each of the so-called Beetle guitars became the means of looking and sounding like the Liverpool lads —exactly what many guitarists in the '60s (and the '80s, for that matter) wanted to do." The gallery of historical photos accompanying this article shows the Beatles with some of their most often seen and most widely used instruments.
The group pictured during the recording of the Please Please Me album in February 1963 at the EMI Abbey Road Studios in London. This scene illustrates the ubiquitous presence of the acoustic/electric Gibson J-160E's at early Beatles sessions.
Our article is based mainly on photos that appeared in Beatles Book, the official monthly magazine that originally ran from August 1963 through December '69. (These editions have since been reissued, and a new version of Beatles Book still hits the newsstands each month.) Beatles Book photographers had more access to the Fab Four than any other photographers, and they snapped exclusive shots of the musicians in the studio and onstage. While this article presents a thorough accounting of the Beatles' guitars and basses, there were undoubtedly some instruments that were never captured on film.
When the Beatles played Hamburg, Germany, for the first time in 1960, there were five members: John, Paul, and George on guitars, Pete Best on drums, and Stuart Sutcliffe on bass. John used a Hofner model 126/B, a blonde, single-pickup guitar similar in shape to a Les Paul. George paid his dues on a sunburst Futurama Resonet—a poor copy of a Strat—and Paul played a Rosetti Solid 7. Sutcliffe used a jumbo Hofner President bass, a single-cutaway, two-pickup model 500/5 hollowbody in a shaded brown finish. Their amps were small, nonde-script models.
During this trip to Hamburg, John saw Toots Thielemans playing a Rickenbacker. He immediately fell in love with the look and sound of this guitar, and soon purchased a Capri 325 finished in Hi Lustre Blonde. Made in 1958, it had three pickups, a 3/4 scale length, and gold Lucite pickguards. John replaced its original Kauffman vibrato with a Bigsby unit (By early 1963 this guitar was refinished black, but it was still the original, albeit very beat-up, blonde finish when the Beatles recorded "Love Me Do.") When Lennon acquired this Rickenbacker, Paul adopted his Hofner 126/B.
Sutcliffe left the Beatles in mid 1961, and Paul took over on bass. His first 4-string was a two-pickup Hofner model 500/1. A violin-shaped hollowbody in a shaded brown finish, it had pickups in the neck and "middle" positions (centered between the bridge and the neck), and a 30" scale length. Meanwhile, George picked up a Gretsch Duo Jet, model PX6128. This late-'50s solidbody sported "cloud" inlays, a Bigsby vibrato, black finish with a silver pickguard, and two DeArmond pickups. Its body style was similar to that of a Gibson Les Paul. George's early influences included Chet Atkins and rockabilly music, so his choice of a Gretsch guitar was obvious. He owned several Gretsch models through the years, including a newer model Duo Jet with "Neo-Classic" (or thumbnail) inlays, a red top with black pickguard, a trapeze tail-piece, and Filterfron pickups.
By now the Beatles' amp situation had improved slightly, with Paul playing through a Truvoice, John using a late-'50s tweed Fender Deluxe, and George favoring a Gibson GA-40T 16-watt combo model with a 12" Jensen speaker. By the summer of '62, the Beatles had switched to Vox amplification.
John and George acquired AC-30 30-watt combo amps, and Paul got a 60-watt T-60 piggyback bass amp with one 12" and one 15" speaker. One of the Beatles' first AC-30s had a white Tolex covering, while the other was black John and George soon had matching black AC-30s, and by September '62 they had purchased matching Gibson J-160E acoustic guitars, as well. This was the start of a trend for matching Beatles guitars. John's and George's main acoustic guitars for many years, the J-160E jumbo flat-top had a sunburst finish, spruce top, mahogany back and sides, bound body and neck, "crown" inlays, and a P-90 pickup at the end of the fingerboard. Most of the time they were used acoustically in the studio, but the musicians plugged them in for "P.S. I Love You." The J-160Es served mainly as backup guitars in concert, but the Beatles did amplify them for "Till There Was You" and other ballads during early tours of England's smaller venues.
George used his new Gretsch Country Gentleman, purchased by June 1963, for the recording of "She Loves You" and With The Beatles. The Country Gentleman, model PX6122, was the top of Gretsch's Chet Atkins line, with gold hardware, Neo-Classic inlays, double mutes, a Bigsby vibra...
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