The Gallotone Champion Guitar was an acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

 manufactured in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 by the country's largest record company, Gallo Africa

Gallo Record Company

Gallo Record Company is the largest record label in Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is owned by Avusa Limited . The current Gallo Record Company is a hybrid of two rival South African record labels between the '40s and '80s: the original Gallo Africa and G.R.C...

, during the 1950s and '60s. It was a cheaply made instrument intended for the beginner market and was exported
to many countries.

The Champion model is a 3/4 size steel string flat-top acoustic made from laminated woods, and was
"guaranteed not to split".

Perhaps the most famous of all Gallotone Champion players was John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

, whose guitar was sold
for £155,500 ($251,700) at a "Rock'n'Roll" memorabilia sale by Sotheby's

Sotheby's

Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

London in 1999.