08/01/2026
Matt’s Guitar Shop is incredibly proud to unveil one of the most historically significant acoustic guitars we have ever had the privilege to offer.
This is Bruce Welch’s 1959 Martin 00-18E.
The very guitar that Paul McCartney borrowed in May 1965, while staying at Bruce Welch’s villa in Albufeira, Portugal, as he was putting the finishing touches to what would become one of the greatest songs ever written: Yesterday.
Paul had flown from London to Portugal to begin a holiday in the Algarve. During the long drive south, the melody that had been living in his mind finally began to find its words.
Years later, Paul remembered:
“I remember mulling over the tune ‘Yesterday’, and suddenly getting these little one-word openings to the verse… ‘Yesterday’… that’s good. All my troubles seemed so far away… I gradually pieced it together from that journey.”
Although it is difficult to imagine Paul travelling without a guitar, his very first request upon arriving at Bruce’s villa was simply:
“Do you have a guitar I could borrow?”
Bruce handed him his own 1959 Martin 00-18E.
Being left-handed, Paul turned the guitar upside down and continued writing Yesterday, a song that would go on to become one of the most recorded compositions in the history of popular music.
This remarkable story is documented in Many Years From Now, where Barry Miles recounts how Paul borrowed Bruce Welch’s Martin to complete the song.
For Matt’s Guitar Shop, this instrument represents something truly extraordinary.
It is the first acoustic guitar we have ever handled that can be directly linked to Paul McCartney during the Beatlemania era, at the very moment one of the most important songs in music history was being completed.😍
Some guitars are remembered because of who owned them.
Others are remembered because they helped create immortality. 🚀🎯🌍
Now available at Matt’s Guitar Shop. ❤️🔥
