Rickenbacker 425

George Harrison's Rickenbacker 425 on display

The Rickenbacker 425 is a solidbody electric guitar. George Harrison purchased one during a September 1963 visit to his sister Louise, who was living in Illinois. Although Harrison or John Lennon would occasionally use this guitar on stage in late 1963 and throughout 1964, it is only known to have appeared at one recording session, when Harrison played it on "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

Purchase

During a two week holiday for the Beatles, which commenced on 16 September, Harrison and his brother Peter visited their sister Louise, who was then living in Benton, Illinois in the United States. His sister introduced him to a local musician, Gabe McCarty. Harrison wanted to buy a Rickenbacker, so McCarty took him to Red Fenton's Music Store in Mount Vernon, where the 425 was the only model available, three in a red-sunburst finish. After a 45 minute jam session with Fenton on piano and McCarty on bass, Harrison purchased the 425 and left it with Fenton to have it refinished in black, picking it up a week later. In 1963, a 425 would have retailed for $179.50 ($1850 in 2025 dollars).

Live Shows and Recordings

Shortly after returning to England, Harrison used the guitar during a live broadcast of Ready, Steady, Go! on 4 October, 1963. At a show in Glasgow the following day, the 425 was stolen from the Beatles' van outside the Concert Hall. However, nearby police quickly captured the 18-year-olds, James Armstrong and Thomas McNama, who were not Beatles fans and were unaware it was their van that they were robbing. Harrison is known to have played the 425 in the studio only once, on 17 October when the Beatles recorded both sides of their next single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" c/w "This Boy".

Harrison also used the 425 on a Thank Your Lucky Stars performance taped on 20 October and broadcast six days later. During a week-long tour of Sweden beginning on 23 October, Harrison alternated between the Gretsch Country Gentleman and the 425, playing the latter at a concert in Eskilstuna on 29 October. Some photographs also show Lennon playing it backstage. However, after a few more live performances and an appearance on The Ken Dodd Show for BBC Radio, Harrison returned to the Country Gentleman as his primary guitar.

Modifications and Later Use

In its original configuration, the 425—serial number BH 439, manufactured August 1962—had a single pickup with two knobs (volume and tone) and a toggle switch, as well as white Kluson tuners. Some time between the end of 1963 and autumn 1964, a second pickup with toggle switch was added, requiring a new pickguard, and the tuners were changed to Grover Sta-Tites. On at least one occasion, at the Gaumont Cinema in Ipswich on 31 October 1964, Lennon was photographed playing the 425 on stage in its modified form.

Some time in the late 1960s/early 1970s, Harrison gave the guitar to George Peckham, guitarist for the Liverpool band The Fourmost and, starting in November 1968, a record cutter for Apple. According to Peckham, his then-current band Matchbox was due to perform on Top of the Pops, and Harrison lent him his "psychedelic Strat" since Peckham lacked his own guitar. When he returned it, Harrison offered him the 425, saying it was "a great rhythm player". Peckham sold the guitar at auction through Christie's in 1999, which wrote letters to Harrison regarding the guitar's history. He confirmed its authenticity, although he did not recall all its modifications. Through a later letter penned by Harrison's wife Olivia to Christie's and the guitar's eventual buyer, he expressed disappointment at its sale, saying that it was intended as a gift to a fellow musician and friend, and that it "discourages him from giving anything away in the future". Beatles instrument scholar Andy Babiuk once noted that "[g]iving or receiving an instrument as a gift seemed almost sacred to Harrison, and he frequently gave away guitars to his close friends as a token of friendship."

The guitar was purchased by Bruce Mineroff and exhibited almost continuously at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from November 2000 until August 2013, except from August 2002 to September 2003, when it was on loan to the John Lennon Museum in Japan. From August 2013 to January 2014 it was displayed at the Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix, Arizona in the United States, and at the Beatles Exhibit at the GRAMMY Museum in New York City from February 2014 to May 2014. That same month, it was sold at auction by Julien's as part of its "Music Icons, Legends, and Rebels" catalogue for a bid of $610,000. It was later displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as part of "Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll" from April to October 2019 before the exhibit moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the following month.