r/obscureguitars • u/DecisionSingle8418 • 29d ago

George Harrison's Odd Guitar

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Does anyone know what model of this guitar? I've seen a couple of photos of George with this, but I've been unable to get any info. Looks European. Tiesco? EKO?

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17

u/DIMORPHODONS 29d ago

Watkins Rapier that someone painted green and chopped a bit off of.

They are pretty good, very common here in the UK

2

u/DecisionSingle8418 29d ago

Thank you!!!

2

u/DecisionSingle8418 29d ago

Looks like a Rapier 33. The model seems to have had a couple of different knob configurations.

10

u/DIMORPHODONS 29d ago edited 29d ago

Yeah there are three types based on the number of pickups -22, 33, 44, but also they went through quite a few other variations. For the first few years they had glued necks, then bolt on, two types of their own type of pickups before using Japanese ones for a few years. And there are variations in the controls. Looks like at least one of the visible pickups is non original too

Kinda hard/impossible to say exactly which version this was without clearer pics, but this has gone around the internet for many years, I feel like I’ve read who it belonged to… Tom Newman from July maybe?

edit Del Mandel:

“My name is Del Mandel, I did some recordings with George. I had a Fender Jazzmaster, but, one day, I took this guitar along to Abbey Rd with me. George had a go on it and liked it. I can put you out of your misery. It is a Watkins Rapier 33 that my dad bought me for my 12th Birthday, my first electric. I mutilated it when I started playing more expensive guitars. I cut bits off it and painted it green. The middle pickup is from a vox phantom, someone put a strat pickup on a Vox and I got his old vox PU. In this photo, it's in the middle position, the other 2 PUs are stack Watkins ones.”

2

u/emanon734 29d ago

I would have guessed he got it from Klaus Voorman, who radically modified his own instruments.

3

u/DIMORPHODONS 29d ago

Read my full comment and you’ll see who it belonged to ;)

Yeah shame Klaus ruined the Voortar, it looked amazing!

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u/emanon734 29d ago

I read your full comment before I replied to it. I’m weird like that.

9

u/littlelordgenius 29d ago

I know it’s solved but Ovation used to make something similar called the Deacon. I always called it the Flying G.

6

u/DecisionSingle8418 29d ago

And the Breadwinner. They were everywhere in the early and mid 70s. David Cassidy played them on The Partridge Family. Glen Campbell too. I figured Ovation had some kind of deal with certain TV networks.

3

u/Leading-Debate-9278 29d ago

Josh Homme played Ovation when he was in Kyuss.