THE MAD AXE OF KING GEORGE

Finding Fretless author Paul Brett reveals how his relentless sleuthing uncovered the mysterious history of a most unusual Beatles guitar: George Harrison’s “mad” Bartell fretless.

- CHRISTOPHER SCAPELLITI

AS ONE OF the world's most famous guitarists, George Harrison was on the receiving end of some stunning and groundbreaking guitars, including a prototype Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string, in 1964, and a prototype Fender Rosewood Telecaster, in 1969. But as astute Beatles fans learned in recent years, in 1967 Harrison became the recipient of an unusual prototype fretless guitar built by the short-lived U.S. Bartell company. How the guitar came to be, and how Harrison came to own it, are among the subjects explored by British author Paul Brett in his recently published groundbreaking tome, Finding Fretless: The Story of George Harrison's Mad Guitar (This Day in Music Books).

Brett's interest in the guitar was spurred when his friend, veteran jazz-fusion guitarist Ray Russell, posted a cryptic message to his Facebook page to mark the Beatle's birthday on February 25, 2019, accompanied by a photo of a fretless guitar. He took a little post on Facebook and said, 'I'm remembering George today. He gave me this old guitar. I don't know much about it, Brett recalls. That just triggered my interest. It was a Bartell. I'd never heard of it.

Russell's post sent Brett on a journey to learn more about both Harrison's guitar and the Bartell brand, whose venture into fretless guitars in the 1960s is among the guitar world's most unusual evolutionary branches. At the heart of the story is Paul Barth, one of guitar's unsung heroes. People don't talk much about Paul Barth, Brett says, but he was really one of the founding fathers of the electric guitar.