Info requested on Gallotone archtop

[Bob Orr]

Hi. My friend manages a charity shop in Nailsea and this was recently handed in. He was told it is just like John Lennon used to play! Now I know Lennon played a Gallotone very early on but it was not like this I know. Tried doing some research online but could not find one like this. It appears to have been refinished at some point so may have had a sunburst originally. It is all laminated and now has a brush painted varnish on it. Tuners have whit plastic buttons. No other markings apart from head stock label. Adjustable floating bridge. It would also appear that this has been hanging on a wall for some considerable time as I had to move the bridge a considerable distance to get the intonation correct. Bit of a ski ramp after 12th fret so would need some work to get it to play properly all the way up the neck. Frets appear to be brass. I have seen some Gallotones on sale at silly prices but know this would not be worth much as it is either a base model or has been poorly refinished. I have attached some pics and any further info you could provide, and an indication of value (if any) would be much appreciated.

Regards, Bob Orr.

2.JPG (67.37 KiB) Viewed 6603 times

[Bob Orr]

Couple more pics:

[Ed Pitt]

Gallotone was made in South Africa. Besides the guitars, it was also a record label and some other musical enterprises. The guitars were imported to the UK in the late 1950s - early 1960s and were very much budget instruments with mostly plywood construction. Lennon's first guitar was indeed a Gallotone, but his was a flat top model, not an archtop. I used to have one that I sold on eBay about ten years ago. It was pretty junky, much more flimsy and less playable than, say, a 1950s Harmony Stella, nothing to recommend it but the John Lennon tie-in, but that made it worth a couple of hundred bucks at the time. This one would likely be less, as it's not the same model, plus re-finished to boot. Might be worth $100 to some collector of obscure budget guitars, just because it's so uncommon.

[Barry Daniels]

Great informative post, Ed. Welcome to the MIMF, by the way.