George's First Guitar Sells At Auction

[HMVNipper]

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_GEORGE_HARRISON?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Nov 21, 4:00 PM EST

Harrison's First Guitar Sold at Auction

LONDON (AP) -- George Harrison's first guitar - "a real cheapo" his parents gave him - has sold at auction for more than $469,200.

The guitar was part of an annual Beatles sale by music memorabilia firm Cooper Owen, conducted Thursday at the Hard Rock Cafe in London. Bids were taken at the cafe, by phone and on the Internet.

Harrison's father spent about $5.95 for the Dutch-made Egmond guitar. In The Beatles Anthology book, Harrison described it as "a real cheapo, horrible little guitar but it was OK at the time."

Another guitar, which Harrison gave to his late friend Spike Milligan of The Goons, sold for about $25,500.

Auction items also included autographed photos, a contract to play a club show and a corduroy coat that John Lennon once wore.


Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[FPSHOT]

Thanks Nipper for the story..

"Dutch made" well that's very solid stuff graemlins/smile1.gif

[old_moon_shining]

Dutch-made....a real cheapo
<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">How dare... images/icons/wink.gif

[Savoy Truffle]

Yes........Really!!

At least people there thought it was a good guitar, they paid mucho bucks for it! images/icons/wink.gif

[IWantToTellYou]

Over 400,000 dollars for a guitar?! Only one word can describe that...Wow!

[ Nov 22, 2003, 04:26 PM: Message Edited By: IWantToTellYou ]

[beatlz]

Harrison guitar fetches £276,000

Friday, 21 November, 2003

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3226052.stm

An acoustic guitar on which the late Beatle George Harrison learned to play has fetched £276,000 at auction.
The Dutch-made Egmond guitar, nearly 50 years old, was originally bought for Harrison by his father for about £3.50.

Harrison, who died in 2001, recalled it as "a real cheapo, horrible little guitar but it was OK at the time".

A Fender Stratocaster guitar given by Harrison to Spike Milligan fetched £17,250 at the sale at London's Hard Rock Cafe by auctioneers Cooper Owen.

"It's funny how little things can change your whole life," the Beatles guitarist, who died of cancer in 2001, once recalled about the Egmond.

Broken

"Don't ask me why he chose a guitar instead of a mouth organ or something. They certainly weren't popular at the time. Anyway, I learnt my first basic chords on it," he said.

Harrison was taught the guitar by his father's friend Len Houghton in weekly lessons.

The guitar broke after Harrison tried to fix it with a screwdriver, but his brother Peter managed to fix it for him. By then the neck had warped and the guitar frets buzzed.

Another item auctioned was a signed invitation to the post-première celebrations for the Beatles' Hard Days Night film, which went for £17,250. The invite had been sent to Harrison's friend, the actor Victor Spinetti.

Beatle John Lennon had written on the invite: John Lennon writing: "To Victor a chip off the old potato John Lennon."