George Harrison Stratocaster

George Harrison Stratocaster, hand-drawn portrait of him playing his sunburst Fender Strat in 1970.

George Harrison’s absolute favorite guitar from 1956 until he died was the Fender Stratocaster. Most people assume it was a Gretsch.

He tried to buy one in 1956 but because of a US embargo there was not one Fender Stratocaster available in the whole Liverpool district.
It was actually illegal to sell products from the USA in the UK after World War 2, until June 6, 1959.

It wasn’t an anti-American sentiment, simply that England’s economy was so trashed, the government felt it had to protect European production.
Most British guitarists who started playing in the 1960s had a Höfner, Framus, Hagstrom or Burns guitar as their first ‘decent’ instrument.

A very disappointed George Harrison ended up with a Czech Stratocaster copy called a Futurama.

He continued to try to buy a Fender Stratocaster the years 1957 to 1963 but they were impossible to come by.

In February 1965 he finally got lucky and got his first Fender Stratocaster (1961 sonic blue – John Lennon got one too).
The first Beatles song that used Stratocasters was “Ticket To Ride” and “Nowhere Man” on the Rubber Soul album.
The lead guitar solo on “Nowhere Man” was performed in unison by Harrison and Lennon on their Stratocasters.

During Sgt. Pepper, he hand-painted the sonic blue Strat with a red psychedelic finish and called it “Rocky”.
Since then 80 to 90% of all electric guitar work done by George Harrison with the Beatles was with a Fender Stratocaster.
In his solo career he recorded almost 100% of his electric guitar parts with a Fender Stratocaster.

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