Fender To Release Replica Of George Harrison’s Psychedelic ‘Rocky’ Stratocaster
Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press
The eye-catching model was used by Harrison in 1965, debuting the instrument on ‘Ticket To Ride’.
(Harrison provided the difficult to acquire American model form a member of Ringo Starr’s former band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.)
It continued to be one of the Beatles‘ favorites well after the Fab Four parted ways in 1970.
While initially blue, matching a similar Stratocaster owned by his fellow Beatle John Lennon, Harrison began decorating his guitar after taking LSD, having it painted with fluorescent Day-Glo paint and nicknaming it ‘Rocky’.
“During ’67, everybody started painting everything,” Harrison shared in an interview before his death in 2001, “and I decided to paint it. I got some Day-Glo paint, which was quite a new invention in them days, and just sat up late one night and did it.”
George Harrison also inscribed the instrument with Indian symbols and the title from formative influence Gene Vincent‘s ‘Be Bop A Lula’.
After this eye-catching makeover, the guitar featured on the Beatles ‘All You Need Is Love’ global television performance and on the ‘I Am the Walrus’ scene of Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour.
George Harrison would use the guitar in the ’70s primarily for songs which required slide guitar and again reprised it for ‘When We Was Fab‘ film clip in the 1980s.
The guitar was eventually sold to CBS, something Harrison later expressed regret over.
In creating their new model, Fender’s Custom examined and measured the original, trying to capture the essence of the original they have even replicated the guitar’s less-than-conventional C-profile neck and customized pickups.
Fender has also recreated its mesmerizing visual decorations.
While the instrument’s release price and the cost is unconfirmed, Fender promises that more details will be provided come April.
