It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 3:59 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 32 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next
Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next
Author Message
Post subject: George Harrison's Daphne Blue Strat...
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 9:41 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:51 pm
Posts: 25353
Location: Witness Protection Program
Has anyone seen this?

If so, any knowledge of the origin? (maybe John Lennon's?)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK7CLXHSr1M

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: George Harrison's Daphne Blue Strat...
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 10:39 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:57 am
Posts: 13164
Location: Peckham: where the snow leopards roam
Miami Mike wrote:
If so, any knowledge of the origin? (maybe John Lennon's?)

There's some slightly confusing evidence here.

During the recording of Help! The Beatles' roadie Mal Evens was sent out to get John and George each a Strat and came back with matching Sonic Blue ones. George later painted his on the front with red, green, yellow, etc patterns and it became the guitar known as "Rocky". Don't know who owns it, though probably his son I expect. It turns up being played at charity concerts now and again.

The confusing bit: the two Strats bought by Mal Evans clearly have rosewood fingerboards in the many photos of them. Whereas the one he's playing in that vid is maple.

The plot thickens. A neck swap? Or an additional Sonic Blue Strat?

Someone will know...

Cheers - C


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: George Harrison's Daphne Blue Strat...
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 10:57 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:44 am
Posts: 7282
Location: Washington
Ceri wrote:
... George later painted his on the front with red, green, yellow, etc patterns and it became the guitar known as "Rocky". Don't know who owns it, though probably his son I expect.


I believe that is true.

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 11:16 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:51 pm
Posts: 25353
Location: Witness Protection Program
Word is (maybe just infallible web dogma?) that it was used on 'Nowhere Man".?

"It has to be John's, because George had re-painted his with all the Hindu symbols by the time Magical Mystery Tour came out."

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 11:31 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:57 am
Posts: 13164
Location: Peckham: where the snow leopards roam
Miami Mike wrote:
"It has to be John's, because George had re-painted his with all the Hindu symbols by the time Magical Mystery Tour came out."

So he'd done a neck swap then? Quite likely I expect.

The Beatles era photos of John with his Sonic Blue Strat show it with a rosewood fingerboard. Someone somewhere (lost it now) made a comment that by the time of Imagine Lennon's Strat had a maple 'board, but a (very quick) search hasn't found me a photo to corroborate that yet...

Cheers - C


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 12:50 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:45 pm
Posts: 2770
Location: Kansas
My best guess would be a John's with a neck swap - remember, there were no maple board Strats at the time when John and George got their matching ones. However, there isn't a shot of the headstock to see if maybe it's a mid-60s (and I'm not sure if Sonic Blue was still available when Fender started offering the maple board option circa 1965-66).

George's is the painted guitar called "Rocky" which of course was alrady painted in 1967 ("I am the Walrus" timeframe); I believe either his wife or his son own all of George's "special" guitars like his Duo Jet, a couple of other Gretschs, the orgininal Ric 12, and "Lucy" the '57 Les Paul refinned with a red top.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 1:06 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 3:52 pm
Posts: 2005
Both George and John sent out their roadie Mal Evans to buy them some strats. "Mal came back with 2 Sonic Blue Strats with rosewood fingerboards, white pickgaurd and standard strat hardware." according to George.
A recent examination of Harrison's strat reveals that the guitar had in some point in life been sold by a music dealer in Kent. A worn label on the back of the headstock reads "Grimwoods; the music people; Maidstone and Whitstable" - taken from "Beatles Gear" by Andy Babiuk

They were used in the making of "Rubber Soul".

The book also has a picture of John playing his. Rosewood fretboard.

_________________
-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 2:37 pm
Offline
Amateur
Amateur

Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:51 am
Posts: 100
if you compare pictures of the body and pickguard screwholes with pictures of John playing it in feb 65 and George playing it at the imagine session it is 99% certain that this is the same strat. John is pictured playin the strat with a rosewood board as late as the sgt pepper session. so the neck might have been swapped out during 68?

it's a very interesting guitar and not much has been talked about it or seen in post museum displays whereas lennons black tele has for example


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 3:19 pm
Offline
Amateur
Amateur
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 6:28 pm
Posts: 189
Location: Rosenberg, TX
I think George simply wanted another sonic blue Strat and got one that he liked which just happened to have a maple neck. Don't forget that the video is post-Beatles. His Beatles guitars had most likely been retired by that point.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 5:45 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:45 pm
Posts: 2770
Location: Kansas
dvlsadvc8t wrote:
I think George simply wanted another sonic blue Strat and got one that he liked which just happened to have a maple neck. Don't forget that the video is post-Beatles. His Beatles guitars had most likely been retired by that point.


I don't think so - a maple-neck sonic blue strat from the 50s would have a single-ply pickguard and a 1966 or later Strat would have a 3-ply white/black/white pickguard that stayed white (or turned to parchment or "dirty white" as it aged). It is really hard to tell but the Strat George is playing looks like it has the mint-green pickguard found on Strats from say 1961-1964 (approximately). They quit using those nitro finished ones that aged to green toward the end of Leo's ownership of the company.

Also Harrison used Rocky, Lucy (the refinned red-toped '57 Les Paul), the Ric, the Casino, and his old Duo Jet up to the end of his life. He went through a lot to re-aquire both Lucy (which Clapton gave him and EC used on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps") and the original Duo Jet.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 9:15 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:03 am
Posts: 9449
Location: NL Canada
Both John's and George's Sonic Blue Strats were '61s with rosewood boards but they were bought in '65 and the first recording they were used on was Nowhere Man where they both played the lead break in unison. There is some difference of opinion on how the leads were recorded. The engineer Glynn Johns and George Martin have both said that in order to get that clean,clear out front sound they were plugged direct into the board with lots of compression but George said in an interview that he and John were sitting facing each other using small Fender amps.There maybe truth in both recountings of the story,maybe they rigged up some kind of line out from the extension speaker output and plugged it directly into the board and John and George used the amps more or less as monitors.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 5:40 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:51 pm
Posts: 25353
Location: Witness Protection Program
Who really knows what guitars George had in his stash by the time of the 'Imagine' sessions.

He did show some love for the white Strat that he used at the concert for Bangladesh.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 3:01 am
Offline
Amateur
Amateur

Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:51 am
Posts: 100
mal evans where are you :)


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:52 am
Offline
Roadie
Roadie
User avatar

Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:54 pm
Posts: 281
Location: havertown PA
I was reading guitar world a while ago and came across the story oh dhani harrison if im not mistaken he had on of his dads strats and it ws sanded down fully so this is possibly that sonic blue strat. i dont know ill post back with more info


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:02 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:51 pm
Posts: 25353
Location: Witness Protection Program
rock god wrote:
I was reading guitar world a while ago and came across the story oh dhani harrison if im not mistaken he had on of his dads strats and it ws sanded down fully so this is possibly that sonic blue strat. i dont know ill post back with more info


Yes, please do if you find out for sure.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 32 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next
Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: