Quality guitars were difficult to come by in Britain during the mid-1950s. While rock and roll caused a massive surge in demand, embargos from American companies like Fender and Gibson meant that Stratocasters and Les Pauls wouldn’t become standard fare until the 1960s. For most aspiring musicians, cheaper German brands like Höfner were often the solution, but everyone has to start somewhere. For John Lennon, the journey started not with a guitar but with a banjo.
His mother Julia taught the young Lennon a few chords on the five-string instrument, but it was clear that Lennon was yearning for something different. The skiffle crazy in England meant that guitars were suddenly the most sought-after instrument. Lennon lived with his Aunt Mimi, Julia’s sister, who didn’t approve of his musical ambitions.
As such, Julia arranged to buy her son a guitar. The axe was a relatively cheap Gallotone Champion acoustic guitar, a starter guitar made by the South African Gallo company. Since he was more familiar with the banjo, Lennon would often play without the sixth string. It was only when he started to play in bands that Lennon dedicated himself fully to learning the proper chords and fingerings of the guitar.
With skiffle being the sound of the day, Lennon’s acoustic was never amplified. The guitar never got a pickup, a modification that would have been almost unheard of in the late 1950s, especially for a novice guitar picker from Liverpool. Instead, Lennon decided to simply play the Gallotone as loud as he could, causing the guitar to break only a year after he got it.
By 1958, it was clear that Lennon needed something electric. The Beatles began to take shape after the skiffle-focused band The Quarrymen was coming to an end. As Johnny and the Moondogs, the band played a show in Manchester that ended with Lennon swiping someone’s electric guitar. Whether it was the Dallas Tuxedo that later appeared in Lennon’s childhood bedroom is uncertain, but Lennon wouldn’t acquire another acoustic until 1962 when he bought a Gibson J-160E along with George Harrison.
According to The Times of London, “When the Beatles became successful, Lennon left the guitar in the care of his guardian, Aunt Mimi. After his murder, she gave it to a family friend who had a disabled son. When the boy died, it was passed to another disabled friend, who is now in her twenties. Her stepfather sold it to safeguard her future.”
Eventually, the Gallotone found its way to the Sotheby’s auction block, where it was purchased for £155,000. From 2000 to 2001, the guitar was displayed at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts as a part of their ‘Dangerous Curves: Art of the Guitar’ exhibit.
