CHRISTIES Rock and Roll Memorabilia Auction December 17, 2004





George Harrison's guitar sells for over $500,000.00.

Here's a little history of the axe.

September 9, 2002

Pete Ham's SG found!!

From Dan Matovina's website:

A legendary red Gibson SG, formerly owned by Beatle George Harrison and later given to Badfinger's Pete Ham, is now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

This guitar had been rumored to be lost and not traceable. What had happened was that Pete Ham had left it at his brother John Ham's residence shortly before Pete's suicide on April 24, 1975. John Ham had kept it stored away. In the year 2001, Dan Matovina encouraged John to share the legendary guitar with the public. Arrangements were then made with the Hall of Fame for its display. The guitar is now in a "Beatles" section at the museum. Part of the placard reads, "Harrison later gave the instrument to Pete Ham, guitarist, songwriter and vocalist of Badfinger, who used it throughout his career. Ham played the guitar on the Badfinger hits 'No Matter What', 'Day After Day' and 'Baby Blue'."

This guitar was allegedly used on Beatles sessions for the single "Paperback Writer/Rain" and can be seen on their promo films. Also, the guitar can be seen on footage shot during a Beatles recording session of "Hey Bulldog," and a promo film of "Lady Madonna" was made from some of that footage. Some of that footage was later used to make a "Hey Bulldog" promo film to promote the reissue of "Yellow Submarine" on video. This guitar was also likely used during sessions for the albums: Revolver, Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, White Album and may have been on other Beatles LP's. Beatles experts will have to debate the particular "songs" it was used on. It is likely one of the most important guitars Harrison ever used during The Beatles.

My investigation so far shows, most likely, sometime in 1969 is when George Harrison gave the Gibson SG guitar up. Iveys/Badfinger roadie Ian Ferguson says he remembers Pete Ham and Tom Evans (also then a guitarist in the group) returning from the Apple offices with the guitar. He recalls a dispute developed over who would end up with the guitar. Somehow Pete Ham did. The Beatles gave The Iveys (who became Badfinger) a lot of musical equipment over the period 1968 to 1969 (including the piano Billy Preston used on "Get Back") but most of it was not equipment The Beatles had used personally. The Iveys & Badfinger sometimes used Beatles equipment for their studio sessions at Apple Studios and Abbey Road Studios. There are still other leads that can be followed to research the Harrison-to-Ham guitar transistion further.

Pete Ham can be seen in photographs playing this Gibson guitar as early as January of 1970. He used it almost exclusively on all Badfinger tours. It is prominently featured in many of the band's studio recordings. For example, it is the opening riffs on "No Matter What" and "Baby Blue." Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland also used a red Gibson SG that looks very similar (can be seen in Top Of The Pops lipsyncing performance of "Come And Get It") but is not to be confused with the Harrison one owned by Pete.

Posted: Sun - November 28, 2004 at 09:30 AM        

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