Paul McCartney's 1st Guitar Goes for $500,000+ at Auction

The guitar in which Paul McCartney was taught to play on by a childhood friend has gone for £280,000 ($522,000US) at auction.

The REX acoustic was "owned from new by Ian James, McCartney's good friend from the Liverpool Institute grammar school, where they met in the second year. Ian, an avid guitar player from a very musical family, taught Paul, on many occasions, his first set of chords and how to run the first riffs in the latter part of the 1950's, when Rock and Roll first hit the shores of Liverpool" the Cooper Owen website said.

You can find out more about Cooper Owen music auctions at http://www.cooperowen.com

Meanwhile, a custom Pink Floyd Fender Strat signed by Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason has raised £33,000 for charity. The guitar (pictured below) was custom painted using the iconic 'prism' logo from Pink Floyd's classic 1972 album, Dark Side Of The Moon. Cool.