It’s George Harrison’s first true American guitar, a bridge to the years when everything was still to be built.
It all begins in the summer of 1961, when word spreads around Liverpool that a former sailor is selling an American guitar. A true rarity, at a time when overseas seemed like another world. The sailor in question is Ivan Hayward, returning from a trip to New York with a black 1957 Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet he bought from Sam Goody’s. It’s a semi-hollow mahogany body, jet black finish, with two DeArmond single-coil pickups and a Bigsby B6 vibrato. For anyone playing in Liverpool’s small clubs, it’s a huge step up.
George doesn’t hesitate. He calls, goes to see it, and falls in love. He pays around £70, maybe £75 depending on the source, but the symbolic value is far greater. He calls it his “old black Gretsch” and it quickly becomes his main instrument. Until then, he had played cheap guitars, often cobbled together, so the Duo Jet is his first real entry into the professional world. It’s with this guitar that he takes the stage at the Cavern Club, returns to Hamburg, tours the UK in 1963, and records the first official sessions, including Please Please Me.
By 1963, the guitar needs some attention. A crack in the neck requires repair, and while at it, the back and neck are repainted black. It’s the moment when the Beatles are shaping not only their sound but also their look: black suits, boots, an ever more polished image. Around the same time, John has his Rickenbacker 325 painted black as well.
Then comes Beatlemania and the new Country Gentleman. The Duo Jet, companion through the early hard times, fades into the background as George gives it to long-time friend Klaus Voormann, who keeps it for twenty years. In the mid-1980s, George asks for it back for sentimental reasons, and the guitar returns to his life as an old memory once again able to speak. Restored by luthier Roger Giffin to its original condition, the Duo Jet reappears in 1987 on the cover of Cloud Nine: black, glossy, proud, a lasting connection to the years when everything was just beginning.
