FROM THE DEPTHS of our Archives Dept this month come two pictures of Mr George Harrison of The Beatles taken in 1964. The first shows the 21-year-old guitarist playing his Gretsch Chet Atkins, one of several Gretsches he'd owned But what about that chord? Looks like a G (using an A-shape at the 12th fret) with George adding a sixth boogie-rhythm flourish with his little finger. Fingers like frankfurters, eh? "I've been on recording sessions where I've felt the end of my fingers would drop off," he admitted.

The other pick shows George with his new Rickenbacker stereo cream-bound 360 12-string, apparently given to him by a radio station in the US as a 'gift' while giving an interview, and which he first used in February 1964 on 'You Can't Do That'. Back a few years, George's first ever guitar had been an acoustic his dad picked up for £2.50, and his first electric a Hofner President, bought a Hofner Club 40 semi, and then moved to a Futurama solid which he used on The Beatles' early Liverpool Cavern and Hamburg gigs. In 1964, though, it was definitely Gretsches and Rickenbackers.