You Can Buy John Lennon’s Guitar For $1 Million In A November Auction
The guitar that John Lennon used for recording "the hit single Paperback Writer on the Gretsch 6120" will fetch nearly £625,000 when it is auctioned later this year, according to Newssky. The hit album was produced in April 1966 at Abbey Road studios during the band's Revolver album. The joint number written by Sir Paul McCartney and Lennon, Paperback Writer, was recorded on the A-side of their 11th single record. It had smashed the UK and US charts to be the Number 1 of that year.
The Beatles Monthly Book magazine photographer, Leslie Bryce, had shot a number of black and white and colour shots of Lennon with the guitar while he was in the middle of the Paperback Writer session on April 14, according to TracksAuction.com. The guitar had been gifted to his younger cousin, David Birch, who had wanted to start his own group in 1967. Birch confesses that he had been "just cheeky enough" to ask him to lend a spare guitar. He wanted a blue Fender Stratocaster in the studio, but John gave him the Gretsch instead, according to Express.co. David Birch was visiting John in Weybridge, Surrey. His mother, Harriet, was a younger sister of Lennon's mother, Julia. Both families lived close to each other in Woolton.
The Gretsch was one of Lennon's guitars that was lying in his studio at the top of the house. So far, after they left the Gretsch factory in Brooklyn, New York, the guitar has remained with David. He has not revealed why he is putting up the guitar for auction.
In the last 30 years, the guitar was one of his most important guitars that hit the market, according to auctioneers TracksAuction.com. There will be a bidding for more than 100 Beatles items, which will also contain a copy of the Sgt Pepper album signed by all the Beatles. Another interesting item is a banjo played by Rod Davis in Lennon's original group, "The Quarrymen."
The online bidding is estimated to be between £400,000 and £600,000. It will start on November 14 and finish with the live auction on November 23.