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McCartney`s Guitar Was Sold For ?330,000

A great entertainment provided the auction on which Paul McCartney`s guitar was sold. "The above guitar, belonging to my old school pal Ian James, was the first guitar I ever held," Sir Paul McCartney wrote in the a letter of authenticity that will be given to Craig Jackson, an American who bought McCrtney`s very first guitar.

The guitar was sold at an auction at London`s Abbey Road Studios. This is the very first guitar on which Sir Paul McCartney learned his first chords. The instrument was sold for ?330,000, which is more than three times its price, by Sir Paul`s school friend Ian James, who will use the money for his retirement. The Rex acoustic guitar helped Sir Paul persuade John Lennon to let him join his band, The Quarrymen, in 1957 and thus to change the entertainment and music industry. He impressed Lennon by playing songs and chords on it at a Liverpool festival. Some of the chords he showed him, even Lennon did not know. The guitar Lennon was playing on the day - an acoustic Gallotone Champion - was auctioned for ?155,500 in 1999.

The guitar also features in two photographs included in the sale. In one, Sir Paul is playing the guitar in his office earlier this year. In the other, taken 49 years ago, a young Mr James is holding the instrument. The buyer, Mr Jackson, himself the president of an entertainment auction company, said: "This is such an important piece of rock history and I am an extremely happy man tonight.