“He was interested but said, ‘I gave the guitar away. I feel stupid buying it’”: Norman Harris almost sold John Fogerty back his iconic ACME Rickenbacker – years before he was eventually reunited with it

John Fogerty has played many electric guitars, but one defined his Creedence Clearwater Revival sound: a Rickenbacker 325. When he was reunited with it for Christmas 2016, after more than 40 years apart, he reportedly began sobbing uncontrollably.

Now, Norm Harris, owner of Norman's Rare Guitars, has revealed to Guitar World that he offered to sell the guitar back to Fogerty years earlier – and at a knockdown price.

Fogerty had played the Rickenbacker on the Ed Sullivan Show and on stage at Woodstock. It had been used to record classics like Up Around the Bend, Green River, and Travelin’ Band, along with every other Creedence song in standard tuning from 1969’s Bayou Country onwards.

When Creedence disbanded, a discouraged Fogerty gave the guitar away. “I was just detached and numb at that point,” he told Rolling Stone. “I think I gave it away to sort of end that chapter of my life.”

Now Norman Harris tells us Fogerty considered buying the guitar when it was for sale in Norman’s Rare Guitars.

Norm had bought the guitar from the guy Fogerty had given it to back in 1973. The guitar was not difficult to identify: “It was Fireglo, and [Fogerty] had put a humbucking pickup in it and taken the Rickenbacker nameplate off the headstock,” says Norm.

In place of the Rickenbacker logo, Fogerty painted ACME in yellow, a reference to the fictional company from Warner Bros cartoons.

“Years later, I decided I was going to sell it,” Norm remembers. “I was asking a certain price, I think about $90,000, and John came in with his wife and was interested.

“He was interested in doing something but said, ‘You know what? I gave the guitar away. I feel stupid buying it.’ I said, ‘Well, you can have it for 40 [thousand],’ and he just said, ‘I don’t feel good about buying it and spending all this money.’

“So he didn’t buy it from me,” continues Norm. “I sold it to Gary’s Classic Guitars, and he paid 90 [thousand], I think, for it. And then, John’s wife decided she wanted to buy it for him. I’m not sure what she paid Gary, but I’m sure it was more than 90!”

As rockstar-owned Rickenbackers go, Fogerty’s was something of a bargain. One owned by John Lennon and gifted to Ringo Starr sold for $910,000 , narrowly missing out on the list of most expensive guitars of all time.

Elsewhere in the interview, Norman Harris hinted that Joe Bonamassa could take over Norman’s Rare Guitars. John Fogerty, meanwhile, has been playing a very different guitar in a surprising video of him practicing his two-handed tapping.

For the full interview with Norman Harris, check out the May 2025 issue of Guitar World, available from Magazines Direct.