George Harrison's Rocky 1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

This is my favorite guitar that George used. If you don’t know, in February of 1965, Mal Evans bought 2 1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocasters, one for John and George. This guitar was first used by George on the song Ticket To Ride , and is heard on the majority of Rubber Soul , Revolver , Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour , and The Beatles, being used for such songs as You’re Going To Lose That Girl , Drive My Car , Nowhere Man , Taxman , Strawberry Fields Forever , Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds , I Am The Walrus , All You Need Is Love , Hey Jude , and Happiness Is A Warm Gun , among others. During the Sgt. Pepper release party, George got his Strat painted in it’s now famous psychedelic finish, John also did this here to his J-160E (although some claim this was when Paul painted his Rickenbacker bass into it’s MMT finish, this is false, as he is seen recording With A Little Help From My Friends with this bass in it’s psychedelic finish). Sometime in 1969, George added to his original paint finish, most notable the added bepopalula writing on the body and a painting of Eric Clapton on the headstock. During his solo career, he had other Strats, but this was his first Strat and his estate still owns it to this day.

Here is George using Rocky during the Revolver sessions. I am unsure what song is being recorded or when this photo was taken, besides the spring of 1966, but I think that these photos were most likely taken on April 21st, 1966, while they recording the song Taxman .

Here’s more footage. Note how John’s just sitting there, as he wasn’t present on the backing track, but since he recorded backing vocals for the song on this day, he was in the studio at the time.

Another reel. Note that Paul has his strap on which therefore means that he is playing bass on the track.

Here’s a photo that is possibly from the same session, but also possibly from a different session.

Let the photo speak for itself. It is unclear what session this was taken during, but my guess is If I Needed Someone .

Here they are on November 3rd, 1965 recording Michelle (mislabeled in the article as If I Needed Someone ). Notice that both George’s Strat and Tennessean are present at the session, which therefore means either guitar could have been used on the track to play the solo, although since I don’t think he used a capo for the lead part and the Strat has a capo on it, it’s my guess that he used the Gretsch for the lead.

Here he is playing his newly finished Rocky Strat on the Our World broadcast for the song All You Need Is Love .

Here’s a photo of him miming to I Am The Walrus using this guitar, as seen on the Magical Mystery Tour film. Note the lack of bebopalula and Eric Clapton’s head on the headstock.

In this 1968 shot from The Beatles session (the page says Not Guilty , but since it’s documented that he used a Les Paul on that song, it’s safe to assume he’s playing a different song, possibly I’m So Tired ), he’s about to strum an A chord, although he oddly lacks a pick.

In this photo taken during the Let It Be sessions, you can see George bend a B note on the 4th fret of the G string.

Here’s another photo from the Let It Be sessions, further proving that George’s finishing touches to Rocky weren’t implemented during January 1969.

Here’s George with Rocky live, something that only happened during his solo career.

This guitar is currently owned by his son Dhani as part of his estate.

It even makes a cameo in Let It Be .

Don’t be fooled, this is John’s Strat and therefore not Rocky.

I would love to see any additional Rocky photos, especially ones before the paint job, as the only photos of him playing Rocky before paint job were taken from behind.