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A Duo Jet, two Country Gents, a Tennessean... George liked Gretsches. They even made him a 12-string!
Harrison's impact on Gretsch sales following The Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 has already been documented in our entry on Chet Atkins. However, The Quiet One's relationship with Gretsch went further back than that.
Having saved £75 from gigs, in the summer of '61, George saw an advert for a Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet in the Liverpool Echo newspaper. The black 1957 model he purchased would be the guitar he favoured throughout the Hamburg and Cavern gigs that followed, and it went on to feature on countless recordings and travel around the world with The Beatles on tour.
The Tennessean pictured above - complete with fake painted f-holes - arrived during the Christmas tour of late 1963 and became a fixture throughout 1964 and 1965. Although his pioneering use of the Rickenbacker 12-string became part of '60s musical vernacular, the majority of George's six-string adventures in the pre-psychedelic Beatles were undertaken with a Gretsch in his hands.
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