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| Harrison: Trebly tone |
Jan. 10: When George Harrison played at Liverpool’s Cavern Club with The Beatles in the early ’60s, he had a Gretsch Duo Jet in his hands.
Now, Gretsch Guitars is putting a limited-run tribute model of the instrument Harrison described as his “first really decent guitar” into the hands of fans.
Harrison played the Duo Jet, known for its trebly tone, on The Beatles’s first album. It’s also pictured on Harrison’s 1987 Cloud Nine album.
“I’ve never seen a more precise and detailed replica of any guitar in my life,” says Harrison’s son, Dhani.
The tribute Duo Jets, limited to a run of 60, arrive in stores in May with a suggested retail price of $20,000. That is considerably more than the $210 merchant sailor Ivan Hayward paid for the original at Manny’s Music during a late-’50s stopover in New York.
“It didn’t have a huge body, and you could get it flat into your body and move with it,” says Hayward, now 74. “It was like the nearest thing to making love to a woman. That’s what it meant in those days.”
Hayward kept the Duo Jet three years before selling it. Harrison recalled finding it through a newspaper ad, but Hayward says the young Beatle learned of it via word of mouth.
Hayward remembers the teenage Harrison as “a bit rough” and wearing tight pants and a jacket made of black plastic. Hayward wanted £90 for the guitar, but Harrison had just £70, “all crumpled, smelling, what you get paid when you go on gig, a handful of beer money”.
Hayward says. Harrison eventually took the guitar and left the 70 pounds and an IOU (a copy of which is included with the tribute guitar).