Syd Barrett’s 1963 Harmony Sovereign H1260

The guitar is currently at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, labeled as a 1963 Harmony Sovereign and Syd’s first guitar. This doesn’t seem to make much sense though, because by 1963 time Syd had already gone through at least two different guitars – one being an acoustic Hofner, and the second one being an electric Futurama which he played in the band Geoff Mott and The Mottoes formed in mid-1961.

We have reached out to Hard Rock Cafe though, and they have clarified that the label should read “Syd’s first quality guitar” – which is perhaps somewhat closer to the truth but still unnecessarily overemphasized.

They did point out correctly that Syd used this guitar with Pink Floyd on their first album, as it was most likely his only acoustic guitar at the time. Some sources also mention a Fender acoustic and a Yamaha 12-string, but we haven’t found anything tangible on that subject.