 1960: Rosetti
Solid 7: Not a solid body but a sunburst (black
to red)
semi-acoustic
made in Holland by Egmond and renamed by the Rosetti
firm, which
imported
them into the UK and sold them for about £20,
which included the
Royal pickup/scratchplate kit. "We went to
play in
Hamburg,"
McCartney says in the Bacon interview, "and I'd bought a
Rosetti Solid
7 electric guitar in Liverpool [at Hessy's Music] before
we went.
It was a terrible guitar. It was really just a
good-looking piece of
wood.
It had a nice paint job, but it was a disastrous, cheap
guitar."
(It looked pretty impressive in the advert.)
Back
in Liverpool, after temporary bassist Chas Newby left,
McCartney
restrung
the Rosetti with three or four bass strings reportedly
"borrowed" from
a piano (photo below) and used it until Sutcliffe
returned with his
President
bass. The Rosetti, once again with a full
complement of strings,
then played a return engagement in Hamburg, where it
met its
ignoble
end. McCartney recalled in a 1964 interview that
he "didn't want
to get rid of it, but I had to, because it got smashed
when I dropped
it
one day. It wasn't a complete write-off, but I didn't
think it was
worth
repairing, so all of us . . . had a great time smashing
it to bits by
jumping
up and down on it! Bit mad, I suppose, but we had to get
rid of our
pent-up
energy sometimes and it seemed the 'obvious' thing to do
at the
time!" |
1960: Hofner
Club 40 hollow-body electric (vintage
unknown): After buying
a Rickenbacker, Lennon loaned this guitar to
McCartney. He still
had his Rosetti at this time, but apparently was using
the Club 40, not
just posing with it, as this photo from the first
Hamburg trip suggests
it was actually restrung lefty. Lennon soon sold
this guitar.