The Beatle Invasion

Paul McCartney’s Guitars Part 1 - Framus Zenith Model 17 Acoustic Guitar

by gisrael on July 10th, 2008

(image source)

Paul McCartney is best known for his singing, songwriting, and for playing bass guitar. But he wasn’t always a bass player. In 1956, Paul’s father bought him a trumpet for his 14th birthday.

“I used to play [the trumpet] a little bit because that was the hero instrument then, The Man with the Golden Arm and everything, but it became clear to me fairly quickly that you couldn’t sing with a trumpet stuck in your mouth.” - Paul McCartney

What Paul really wanted to do was play skiffle. With his father’s permission, Paul traded in his trumpet for a £15 German-made Framus Zenith guitar. It didn’t even occur to him that left-handed players need left-handed guitars. Once he figured out that he couldn’t play it as is, Paul restrung the Zenith left and used a safety match to keep the thinner first string from rattling in the wider notch of the sixth string.

Paul later modified the guitar, adding a pickup near the bridge to allow for amplification and removing the pick-guard.

This was Paul’s main guitar up until The Beatles‘ first trip to Hamburg. He used it while writing many of his early songs, including When I’m 64. He keeps the Zenith hanging in his studio, and can be seen playing it in the Anthology documentary video.

History source: thecanteen.com

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