John Lennon + Tricone

[andys]

Saturday evening watching that programme about Detroit and the music that came out of there.

They were talking about the MC5 and John Sinclair and about how John Lennon campaigned for his release from prison.

There was this clip of him singing a probably self penned blues song about John Sinclair and he was accompanying himself on an old National Tricone, open tuned, with a slide on his pinky.

You can probably find it on BBC iPlayer or maybe there is a YouTube clip of this.

Knew John Lennon was a handy slide player, but didnt know he owned a Tricone at one time.

[Michael Messer]

Hi Andy,

John Lennon's Tricone has been discussed here before...somewhere! There are a few clips of film.

The Beatles got into Nationals quite early. I forget the exact details, but George bought a National on their first US visit.

Shine On
Michael.

[Michael Messer]

Hi Andy,

....George bought a National mandolin in NYC in 1964. He also collected ukuleles, of which 5 or 6 were National & Dobro.

Shine On
Michael

[honeyboy]

This is what you were looking for??

www.youtube.com/watch#!v=mbNQnQCZReY
John Lennon plays a National Tricone in 1971

(I'm not 100% certain, but that looks like Jesse Ed Davis on a second tricone...)

I vividly remember seeing a clip of John Lennon playing his blonde Epiphone Casino lapstyle with a slide at Abbey Road when recording Revolution (the slower version) from the Beatles White album. Needless to say, that particular clip is nowhere to be found...


And here is George playing a Ukelele in 1994 with the remaining Beatles (Note the Reso Ukelele on the floor)

[Colin McCubbin]

I think the reso Uke by George's feet was made for him by Steve Evans... Michael and Mark will probably both know more than me, and remember the tale of how Steve came to meet George.

I was told they met when George brought Steve a genuine National #2 large body uke that had had the back beaten in by a certain "Traffic' drummer, who had used it as a drum(!!) during a party at George's house.. Steve made and fitted a new back and they remained friends.

Hence when George wanted a new reso uke he asked Steve to build him one.

[Mark Makin]

Hello Colin
There is the germ of a story in what you say but the facts are not QUITE like that!
George Harrison and his guitar technician Alan Rogan brought 4 ukuleles round to my house in Nottingham in July 1993 for my friend Alan Timmins to do some restoration work on.
George left us with a Regal wood body, A dobro wood body, an early long body Style 1 National uke and a short bodied Triolian that had been replated.
When we looked at the back of the long bodied Style 1, we noticed what looked like 7 sharp indentations in the centre of the back that looked like they had been done with a centrepunch. I asked George how they had occurred and he sheepishly apologised for letting his friend jim Capaldi use it as a drum when all his mates were jamming round at Friar Park!! This was part of the work that he wanted Alan to fix.
When Alan had finished them, he dropped them off at Riverside Studios and Pete Townsend took them back to him.
George had acquired the long body National as a present from Olivia that came from Mandolin Brothers in NY.
Here are the instruments he brought to us.








You can also see some of Jim's dents on top of the last pic (the triolian)

George had quite a lot of National related instruments. He had a cast Dobro lap steel, a few Duolians, a few Valco resoglas electrics, a fiddle edge Dobro and a custom made Dobro by John Greven.
George said to me that this guitar was particularly high quality, with vines and a tree of life abalone fingerboard. He laughed at that point because he said that people always gave him instruments that showcased their skills and were covered in decoration and because of it, he couldn't see where he was on the fingerboard so he put chunks of gaffa tape on the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th to enable him to play it.!!!!!

Here is a picture of George in his musical lair. You can see the Greven with the Gaffa tape on the back wall - far left.


The uke that is visible at George's feet in the clip of film from the "Anthology" , I believe, was made by Mike Lewis.