We’ve probably all dreamed of playing our favorite rock ‘n roller’s guitar at some point or another.
For me, this includes Eddie Van Halen’s famed red and white striped “Frankenstein” guitar, Jimmy Page’s ’59 Les Paul or the cherry doubleneck he played “Stairway to Heaven” on, and George Harrison’s famous starts, telecasters, Rickenbackers and Gretsches he played on all the Beatles classics.
Of course, all the original instruments I’ve mentioned would be prohibitively expensive to actually try to own, but now thanks to Dhani Harrison, George’s son, you may be able to experience the next best thing on your iPad. According to the New York Times, this new app is called The Guitar Collection: George Harrison, and it gives you a digital recreation of George’s gear, information, trivia “and multimedia of the guitars in action.
As Dhani told the NYT, he’s grown to love gear as well from watching his father play, and this app includes re-creations of George’s 12 string Rickenbacker, his Fender strat he repainted in psychedelic colors and called Rocky, and his Gretsch Duo Jet.
You can do 360 manipulations of the guitars, along with Harrison himself narrating the stories of how he acquired the guitars. It also lists what songs Harrison played what guitars on, which you can also play through the iTunes library. (For me, this is an especially cool feature, because I always love to learn what pieces of gear my favorite players used on my favorite tunes).
You can get upgrades to the guitars, much like Harrison modified his own guitars, and here’s another great idea: Dhani is also thinking about making apps that would go through the guitars of Clapton, Hendrix, Townshend, and Angus. If this catches on, I can imagine it being a long series of guitar gear tours, a magical mystery gear tour I think many players would love to cruise through.
