Gretsch Tennessean

George Harrison with his Gretsch Tennessean, performing in Italy, 1965 (© Mondadori, Getty Images)

The Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean, model PX6119, was a hollow-body single-cutaway electric guitar. Its 16-inch body, two inches deep featuring two painted-on f-holes, had single binding on the top edge and was unbound on the back. Three switches controlled tone, standby on/off, and pickup selection of two single-coil HiLo'Tron pickups. The bound fingerboard was rosewood, with three-on-a-side tuners fitted to an unbound headstock bearing only the inlaid Gretsch logo, and a V-cutout Gretsch-by-Bigsby vibrato tailpiece with bar bridge. George Harrison played a Tennessean, finished in a deep maroon-burgundy wood grain colour, beginning in January 1964, then retailing at about £125, approximately £2,205 in 2025. It was likely manufactured in 1962 or 1963, but no documentation exists.

He was featured performing with the Tennessean on Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium on 12 January as well as at the Beatles' two-week stint at the Olympia in Paris shortly thereafter. However, in the visit to the United States that followed, Harrison used his Gretsch Country Gentleman. As noted by Andy Babiuk, the Tennessean's single-coil pickups—rather than the humbuckers on Harrison's earlier Country Gent—provided "a more cutting sound" heard in songs such as "I Feel Fine" and "Baby's In Black", with John Lennon manually turning the guitar's volume control while Harrison played. The guitar was used on the Beatles for Sale album, along with Harrison's second County Gent. He was also seen playing the Tennessean on a special all-British episode of the American show Shindig!, filmed in London on 3 October 1964, and during the Beatles' Christmas shows that year. It appeared on the Help! album, along with the Rickenbacker 360/12 and his new Fender Stratocaster.

Harrison's use of the Tennessean would increase in 1965. He was seen playing it on the Beatles' final appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars, recorded 28 March, as well as the New Musical Express 1964-65 Annual Poll-Winners' All-Star Concert on 11 April. Perhaps most famously, Harrison plays it in the opening of the film Help! while the band performs the title song, and later in the sequence for "The Night Before". It was used during the European tour of France, Italy, and Spain, and on the band's live performance on Blackpool Night Out on 1 August. Harrison also played the Tennessean during the 1965 visit to the United States, including such important performances as their final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, recorded 14 August, and the Shea Stadium concert the following night. Later that year on 1 November, he used the guitar for a filmed appearance miming "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out" for the Granada Television special The Music of Lennon & McCartney. In a series of promotional videos filmed at Twickenham Studios on 23 November, Harrison used the Tennessean in versions of "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out". Primarily, however, he was featured with his newly acquired Gibson ES-345 for alternate takes of those videos, along with "Help!", "Ticket to Ride", and "I Feel Fine".

After 1965, the fate of the Tennessean is uncertain. Babiuk made a claim that the guitar was stolen in 1969. However, recent discoveries may have provided an answer. In an oft repeated story, Harrison's second Gretsch Country Gentleman was supposedly destroyed after being run over by a car shortly before the band's final tour of the United Kingdom in December 1965. Beatles instrument investigator Nick Martellaro notes that both Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans reported shortly after the event that pieces of the guitar were collected, including the headstock with the tuners. This would soon come in handy, since a tuner broke on Paul McCartney's Hofner 500/1 and was replaced with one from the destroyed Gretsch. When this bass was found again in February 2024, one of the white plastic tuners had indeed been replaced with one of chrome. Photographs as early as 8 December 1965 show that this repair had already taken place. However, the Country Gent featured distinctive, gold-plated tuners while the Tennessean had standard chrome tuners. Martellaro hypothesizes that it was in fact the Tennessean that was destroyed on 2 December 1965.

Albums

• A Hard Day's Night (album)
• Beatles for Sale
• Help! (album)
• Rubber Soul
• Revolver
• Past Masters
• Live at the BBC
• On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2

Songs that have this instrument

• Boys (1964 Live)
• Things We Said Today
• Can't Buy Me Love (Beatles to a Tee)
• When I Get Home
• Slow Down
• Matchbox
• I'm a Loser
• Baby's in Black
• Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey
• Eight Days a Week
• Honey Don't
• I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
• Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
• Help
• The Night Before
• Act Naturally
• It's Only Love
• You Like Me Too Much
• Dizzy Miss Lizzy
• Bad Boy
• Yes It Is
• Think For Yourself [Rockband Music Video]
• What Goes On
• In My Life (Rockband Music Video)
• Run For Your Life
• Day Tripper (Music Video)