George Harrison's guitar to be auctioned

A guitar the late George Harrison played on the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver is going on the auction block in New York next month.

The solid-body Gibson SG electric guitar, recently loaned to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, can be seen played by Harrison in documentary footage of the Revolver sessions. It also appeared, again on film, in the hands of John Lennon during the recording of the White album.

Auction house Christie's says the guitar could fetch US$500,000 ($705,000) when it goes on sale on December 17 with more than 400 other lots of rock and showbiz memorabilia.

Other lots include the labour union papers the Beatles signed before they appeared on US television in 1964, and a letter from Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain to wife Courtney Love in 1991 describing his trips on acid.