Executive Directors/Co-Founder's Darren Julien and Martin Nolan tell the story of a mysterious guitar discovered in the attic of a home in the UK.

After being locked away in an attic for over 50 years Julien's Auctions is excited to bring to the auction block John Lennon's | Framus "Help!" Hootenanny 12 string guitar.

The Framus “Hootenanny” 5/024 12 was a 12-string acoustic guitar made in the company’s Bubenruth, Bavaria factory in the early 1960s. In the UK, it could be found in catalogs for a price of 34 Guineas, and it featured a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, a set mahogany neck, a 19-fret rosewood fretboard, and a decorative sound hole rosette made of individually-inlaid pieces of wood.

In the vein of Framus and other maker’s archtop jazz guitars, this acoustic wears a trapeze tailpiece and floating bridge instead of the usual fixed bridge base found on most acoustics. This likely contributes to the Hootenanny’s unique sound, which is warm and lacking in midrange, yet surprisingly loud.

John Lennon acquired the Framus Hootenanny in late 1964, and made its recording debut during the 1965 Help! sessions where it was photographed in the hands of both Lennon and Harrison along with the Maton case it was originally paired with at the store. “Fifth Beatle” producer George Martin’s handwritten notes from those sessions record that the Hootenanny was used by both Lennon and Harrison on “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.”