George Harrison’s Futurama guitar — the six-string featured in hundreds of the Beatles' early live shows and heard across several studio recordings vital to the group's development — will go to auction this month.
The instrument was an integral part of the Beatles’ early career, starring in their first Cavern Club shows, on the band’s early Polydor recordings, and across their historic Hamburg tours of the early ‘60s.
Harrison bought the guitar in 1958 from Liverpool's Hessy’s Music Centre, the same store where John Lennon got his first Vox amp, which has recently resurfaced after years in obscurity.
The Fender Stratocasters played by Harrison's early heroes like Buddy Holly were unavailable in the U.K. at the time. For many of Britain's young guitarists, the Futurama was the next best thing.
The guitar's offset double cutaways suggest the Stratocaster's silhouette, while the sunburst finish and maple neck and fretboard nod to the Fender model's most classic aesthetic features.
Harrison's Futurama was made in 1958 in what was then Czechoslovakia and has the serial number 1126. The British government had put a ban on guitar imports to protect British manufacturers, hence the lack of Stratocasters on Hessy's walls. But as Futurama's instruments were made for British importer Selmer, they managed to slip through the ban.
In the Beatles' Anthology book, Harrison recalled going with bandmate Paul McCartney to Hessy's when he tried out the Futurama. Unable to get a sound from the guitar, they turned the amplifier up full, but still no sound came out. Noticing the guitar's three pickup rocker switches, Harrison pushed one. "And there was an almighty boom through the amplifier," he said, "and all the other guitars fell off the wall."
In all, the Futurama was used on perhaps 300 or more live Beatles performances, including all of the Fab Four's Hamburg shows from August 1960 through June 1961, and possibly beyond. Its chipped paintwork and worn fretboard underscore just how much the guitar was played.
Harrison had the guitar in tow as well when the Beatles supported British singer and guitarist Tony Sheridan on a number of recordings for Polydor in June 1961. Those tracks — which include the George Harrison/John Lennon–penned "Cry for a Shadow" and Sheridan's breakthrough hit, "My Bonnie" — were the Beatles' first professional recordings. "My Bonnie" would lead to a vital connection with future Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who became intrigued by the unknown Liverpool group after a customer at his record shop inquired about the Sheridan single.
In July, shortly after those recordings were made, Harrison purchased a secondhand 1957 Gretsch Duo Jet that became his main guitar.
Recognizing the Futurama's significance in the band's early success, Julien’s Auctions has called it “one of the holy grails of historic Beatles guitars.”
Harrison might himself be amused at the importance now given to the instrument. "If I’d had my way, the Strat would have been my first guitar,” he admitted. He'd seen a Stratocaster on Buddy Holly’s Chirping Crickets cover but had to settle for the more affordable — and available — Futurama. "It was very difficult to play," Harrison said, adding that the strings were "about half an inch off the fingerboard."
But Martin Nolan, executive director/co-founder of Julien’s Auctions, believes the effort required to fret the guitar played a crucial role in Harrison's development. “It wasn't an easy guitar to play, but it did shape him as a guitarist,” Nolan tells Guitar World. “Once he [managed to play] it, he pretty much could pick up any other guitar that was even less 'futuristic' and play."
By the mid 1960s, with other guitars having caught Harrison's eye, the Futurama was donated to Beat Instrumental magazine and remained in the hands of its editor, Sean O'Mahoney, until 2019, when it went to auction for the first time. The guitar failed to meet its reserve price, and Phil Hylander of the vintage guitars showcase Seven Decades is said to have bought the guitar outright away from the auction block.
Julien’s expects the guitar to fetch $600,000 to $800,000. The announcement comes just a few months after the auction house sold off John Lennon's Framus 12-string acoustic guitar. That historic instrument became one of the most expensive guitars to sell at auction, where it fetched an eye-watering $2,857,000.
Head to Julien’s to learn more.
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