Club 40 (serial no. 244)
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.George Harrison acquired this Club 40, his first electric guitar, in 1959, at a time when he, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney were moving away from acoustic-guitar-driven “skiffle” music toward an American pop-influenced electric sound. He used the Club 40 in shows at Liverpool’s Casbah Coffee Club, where the young Beatles had their first residency as the Quarrymen. In 1966, Frank Dostal, the guitarist of the German bands Faces and the Rattles, won this guitar as a prize in a competition. The signatures on the guitar were actually written by Neil Aspinall, the Beatles’ road manager.
Technical Description:
Hollow body with venetian cutaway; spruce top, maple back, sides, & neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24 1/4 in. scale, natural finish with three-ply white and black binding, set neck with zero fret and pearloid dot inlays; block letter Höfner logo and three-dot design on headstock; bar-style single-coil pickup, volume and tone controls; adjustable ebony floating bridge, metal trapeze-style tailpiece with badge, and tuners, plastic knobs and tuner buttons, three-ply celluloid tortoiseshell pickguard and control panel
Technical Description:
Hollow body with venetian cutaway; spruce top, maple back, sides, & neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24 1/4 in. scale, natural finish with three-ply white and black binding, set neck with zero fret and pearloid dot inlays; block letter Höfner logo and three-dot design on headstock; bar-style single-coil pickup, volume and tone controls; adjustable ebony floating bridge, metal trapeze-style tailpiece with badge, and tuners, plastic knobs and tuner buttons, three-ply celluloid tortoiseshell pickguard and control panel
Artwork Details
- Title: Club 40 (serial no. 244)
- Artist: Höfner Gmbh & Co.
- Artist: George Harrison (British, Liverpool, 1943–2001 Los Angeles)
- Date: ca. 1958
- Medium: Spruce, maple, rosewood, ebony, brass, steel, plastic
- Dimensions: Length: 38 in. (96.5 cm)
Width: 13 in. (33 cm)
Depth: ~2 in (5.1 cm)
Weight: 4-5 lbs. - Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
- Credit Line: Courtesy of The Karsh Family
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments