From the first time I came across this wonderfully irrelevent piece of minutiae and looked at the EP cover, it seemed to me that the object in question was the square of card hanging down between the chair leg and the hi-hat stand.
My scan obviously gets less clear when I increase the magnification, but when the picture is viewed as a whole it seems likely that this is one of those cards that says '
Thank you for purchasing this quality Fender product' or something similar. The piece of string hanging loosely from the strap button at the bottom has, agreed, probably had the UK price tag torn from it.
If only we could go back in time, can you imagine the incredulity at that photo shoot if the group were told that fifty years later people would be having deep and meaningful discussions about a piece of string! (Mind you, if Jet or Bruce are having one of their peeks into this forum they are probably thinking the same thing right now!)
(Oh, and by the way, why
was there an out-of-focus hi-hat stand left in the foreground when the picture was set up?)
Ray