George Harrison’s Futurama guitar — the six-string featured in hundreds of the Beatles' early live shows and heard across several studio recordings vital to the group's development — will go to auction this month.

An electric guitar played by the late guitarist George Harrison in the early days of the Beatles will go up for sale at an auction next month where it could be sold for more than $800,000.

The vintage Futurama, which the late Beatle favored during his band’s formative days, will go under the gavel at Julien’s Auctions this fall. Labeled a “holy grail” by the auction house, the instrument is expected to eclipse the already high pre-sale estimate of $600,000 to $800,000 at a sale in Nashville in November.

George Harrison's guitar has gone on public display at a museum in Liverpool ahead of it going under the hammer next month. The Futurama electric guitar was bought by The Beatles star for about £58 when he was a 16-year-old apprentice electrician in 1959.

The Beatle is believed to have played the Futurama guitar in more than 300 performances, including several key moments in the band’s early tenure

Futurama guitar, which Harrison's mum paid for in instalments and which he played at hundreds of Beatles gigs, could fetch over US$1 million Somewhere there may be an Englishman who is kicking himself that he passed up a chance to own a George Harrison guitar.

A Beatles fan was offered the chance to win George Harrison’s guitar – but turned it down for cash. AJ Thompson from Saltdean won a magazine competition to take home the guitar or £100 in cash in 1964.