This article possibly contains original research .(February 2024) |
The Beatles started out like most other rock and roll bands, employing a standard guitars/bass/drums instrumentation. As their touring days wound down, they became a full-time studio band. Their scope of experimentation grew, as did the palette of sounds. This article attempts to list the instruments used to achieve those results.
Not listed are instruments played by the Beatles’ session players such as cello, violin, saxophone, trumpet, French horn or the 41-piece orchestra heard on "A Day in the Life".
Both John Lennon and George Harrison used the Gibson J-160E, an acoustic guitar with an electric pickup at the base of the fretboard. The resonant character of the full acoustic body, combined with the electric pickup, meant that this guitar was susceptible to feedback, employed to great effect on the intro to "I Feel Fine". Lennon also used a Framus Hootenanny twelve-string acoustic, which can be seen in the movie Help! and heard on the title song and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". This twelve-string guitar accounted for audibly richer rhythm guitar parts on songs like these, in comparison to the six-string Gibsons. After Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , Lennon moved on to a Martin D-28 from C. F. Martin & Company (alternating between the J-160E and the D-28 for The Beatles) while Harrison upgraded to a Gibson J-200 Jumbo (which Lennon used on "Two of Us" and other acoustic tracks on Let It Be ). Harrison later gave the guitar to Bob Dylan in 1969.
Upgrading from a 1959 Höfner Club 40 guitar, purchased from Hessy's Music Shop in Liverpool, Lennon primarily used a Rickenbacker 325 Capri from 1960 until 1964. He purchased the guitar in Hamburg in its original natural finish and used the guitar extensively throughout the Cavern Club performances. [1] In early 1963 he sent the guitar off to be refinished in its more popular black finish. This is the way the guitar appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show performance in February 1964. Shortly thereafter, he upgraded to a brand new Rickenbacker 325, a much-improved version of his 325 Capri. Rickenbacker specially made a 325/12. During the Christmas shows of 1964, Lennon dropped the new Rickenbacker 325 which made a huge crack in the neck and headstock. British instrument distributor Rose Morris sent a replacement Rickenbacker 325 with a sound hole and in a red fire glo finish. The guitar is called a Rickenbacker 325 1996. Lennon used the guitar for the shows until the other 325 was repaired. In 1968 during the recording of The Beatles, drummer Ringo Starr left the group during tensions and when he returned, Lennon gave the Rickenbacker 325 1996 to Starr. He has had it ever since. During the Help! sessions, Lennon and Harrison acquired matching 1961 Fender Stratocasters.
His second Country Gentleman was given away to a friend (Harrison was an avid sharer of instruments) and is now retained by Ringo Starr, while his first Country Gentleman fell off the Beatles' van in 1965 and was crushed by a lorry. In 1964 Harrison introduced the electric twelve-string guitar into mainstream pop. His Rickenbacker 360/12 twelve-string was a prototype. Only the second twelve-string guitar Rickenbacker ever made, it was delivered specially to him during their first visit to New York City. Harrison's use of the 12-string inspired Roger McGuinn of the Byrds to start using one too. He also used a Ramirez Classical Guitar which can be heard in "And I Love Her" and seen used throughout the film A Hard Day's Night . Harrison used a Gibson SG around 1966 for promotional purposes; these can be seen in the promotional videos for "Paperback Writer" and "Rain", in addition to film of the recording session for "Hey Bulldog". He eventually gave this guitar to Pete Ham of Badfinger. Around 1968 Harrison also used a 1957 Gibson Les Paul model on a few songs, which was given to him by Eric Clapton and was once in the possession of, among other musicians, John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful. Originally a "gold top" model, the guitar was refinished with a dark red stain before it got to Harrison and was nicknamed "Lucy". The guitar can be seen in the "Revolution" promotional video and the Let It Be film. Also seen in that film is a rosewood Fender Telecaster, given to him by Fender, used on Let It Be and Abbey Road (1969). [2] [3] [4]
Lennon and Harrison both purchased Epiphone Casinos in the spring of 1966. [5] Paul McCartney acquired his Casino in 1964. They were used extensively by John and Paulduring the recording of the Revolver album and continued to be used throughout their remaining years along with other instruments by John and Paul. Lennon extensively used his Casino as can be witnessed in the film of their final concert at Candlestick Park in 1966, as well as in the Let it Be film when playing in their studio in London. Lennon's Casino was double-tracked to get sufficient distortion to satisfy Lennon in the intro to Revolution. Although they purchased the guitars with sunburst finishes, both McCartney and Lennon later stripped the finishes off the guitars, claiming it allowed the guitars to "breathe" better. Lennon's stripped-down Casino can be seen in video footage of the famous rooftop concert. Lennon used a Casino almost exclusively from 1966 until the group's break-up and he is even seen with it during the sessions for his Imagine album.
Paul McCartney's electric guitar parts (solos on "Ticket to Ride", "Another Girl", "Taxman", "Drive My Car", "Carry That Weight" and "Good Morning Good Morning" [6] to name a few) [7] were chiefly performed on his own Epiphone Casino or sunburst Fender Esquire. For recordings with acoustic parts played by McCartney ("Yesterday"), he favoured a 1964 Epiphone Texan FT-79. [8] In 1968, he started using a D-28 from C. F. Martin & Company.
McCartney custom-ordered a left-handed Höfner model 500/1 "violin" bass during one of the group's early residences in Hamburg. This model, with two pickups very close to the neck and almost touching each other, was replaced in 1962 by a 1963 model, whose pickups were spaced much farther apart, in a more conventional manner. McCartney continued to use his early model, although very rarely, until the Get Back sessions. It was stolen in 1972, [9] but was later recovered in 2023. [10] He continues to use his 1963 Höfner bass. In October 1965 he switched to a Rickenbacker Model 4001S, during the recording of Rubber Soul (as seen in pictures from those sessions), [11] but certainly by the recording of "Paperback Writer". It would be his principal choice for the remainder of the Beatles' career. He briefly used a left-handed Fender Jazz Bass during sessions for The Beatles double album and again for Abbey Road . [12] He returned to the Höfner during Get Back sessions [Note 1] and played it during the rooftop concert, but returned to the Rickenbacker for Abbey Road. [13] McCartney continued to use his Rickenbacker in his solo career and with Wings. [13] [14]
All four Beatles contributed keyboard parts to their catalogue, supplemented by George Martin, Mal Evans, Chris Thomas, Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston.
Although microphone usage varied somewhat according to the requirements of each song, the group's recordings at Abbey Road most often employed Neumann U47 or U67 microphones for electric guitars and one or more Neumann U47s (unidirectional); U48's "figure eight" (bidirectional) pickup pattern for vocals and most other instruments. The AKG C-12 was used as well, particularly on the bass (speaker) amplifier. Early in their recording career the drums usually were recorded with only two microphones: one overhead (an AKG D19 or STC 4038) and one for the bass drum (such as an AKG D20). Later, more microphones were used on the drums.
The AKG C28 is visible in the Let It Be film. Available studio documentation and interviews with their former recording engineers indicate that this microphone was not used for recording in the studio. [16]
With the group's encouragement, recording engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with microphone placement and equalization. [17] Many of his techniques were unusual for the time but have since become commonplace, such as "close miking" (physically placing the microphone very close to a sound source) of acoustic instruments or deliberately overloading the signal to produce distortion. For example, he obtained the biting string sound that characterises "Eleanor Rigby" by miking the instruments extremely closely—Emerick has related that the string players would instinctively back away from the microphones at the start of each take, and he would go back into the studio and move the microphones closer again. [18] [ page needed ] The recording of George Harrison's acoustic guitar in "Here Comes the Sun" was another incidence of close miking.
Ringo Starr bought a set of Premier drums in 1960, but in June 1963 made the switch to a four-piece Ludwig set. The American-made drums were newly available in England, but the clincher for Starr was the Black Oyster Pearl finish of the Ludwig kit. He used four similar kits altogether, including two that he kept at Abbey Road. The first two Ludwig kits were 20", 12", 14", plus 14" snare and the second two 22",13",16", 14" snare. Starr played a 20" kit on the Ed Sullivan Show debut in February 1964. He changed to the bigger 22" kit at the end of May 1964. Near the end of the sessions for the White Album, he obtained a natural-tone five-piece Ludwig Hollywood set and set it up alongside his existing Black Oyster Pearl bass drum, according to Mal Evans in the November 1968 edition of The Beatles' Monthly.[ citation needed ] Starr continued to use the Hollywood kit for the Let It Be and Abbey Road sessions, albeit with a Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl snare rather than the snare with the Hollywood kit, and he used it at the "rooftop concert" as well as his drum solo in "The End". Starr experimented with various muffling techniques. He used Ludwig and Remo drumheads. He started his career playing Paiste cymbals, but switched to Zildjian. He has used Paiste occasionally, most likely due to their easier availability in Europe. [19]
Photographs of these sessions reveal the following gear:
George Harrison owned many Indian instruments, including tambouras, a swarmandel (or Indian harp) and at least three sitars. All the Beatles kept pianos, guitars and other instruments at their homes to work on songs and demos. Most of these pieces never made their way into the studio with the well-known exception of Harrison's Moog synthesizer. Lennon's home Mellotron was never brought into the studio, though a Mellotron was rented for use during the Sgt. Pepper sessions and an Abbey Road Studios-owned Mellotron was used for the White Album. Both Harrison and Lennon were given Coral electric sitars. Other instruments were recorder, harmonica, banjo, trumpet, saxophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, accordion, [36] [37] comb and paper, and assorted percussion (congas, bongos, Arabian loose-skin bongo, African drum, timpani, anvil, package case, maracas, tambourine, zill, güiro).
The "Beatle" style instruments have been used many times in pop culture. In Agent Cody Banks 2 during the fight scene, there is a display of the original instruments and Agent Banks uses Paul McCartney's Höfner bass to hit the villain. The instruments have also been replicated into plastic game controllers for the game The Beatles Rock Band .
Period | Lennon | McCartney | Harrison | Sutcliffe/Newby+ | Moore/Chapman/Best++ |
January–June 1960 |
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June 1960 |
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July 1960 |
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August–October 1960 |
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October–November 1960 |
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December 1960 |
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December 1960 – April 1961 |
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December 1960 – April 1961 |
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+ Chas Newby (December 1960 only), deputising for Sutcliffe ++ Tommy Moore (January–June 1960), Norman Chapman (July 1960), Pete Best (August 1960)
Period | Lennon | McCartney | Harrison | Best/Starr+ |
July–November 1961 |
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November 1961 – July 1962 |
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July–September 1962 |
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September 1962 – April 1963 |
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April 1963 |
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April–June 1963 |
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April–June 1963 |
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June–September 1963 |
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October–December 1963 |
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December 1963 – January 1964 |
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February 1964 |
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February–April 1964 |
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May–July 1964 |
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July 1964 |
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August–December 1964 |
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December 1964 – January 1965 |
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January–August 1965 |
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August – September 1965 |
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October 1965 – March 1966 |
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April–June 1966 |
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June–July 1966 |
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August 1966 |
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+ Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best in August 1962
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. Rickenbacker is the first known maker of electric guitars, with a steel guitar in 1932, and produces a range of electric guitars and basses.
Epiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in İzmir, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over his father's business, Epaminondas Stathopoulos named the company "Epiphone" as a combination of his own nickname "Epi" and the suffix "-phone" in 1928, the same year it began making guitars. From the 1930s through to the early 1950s, Epiphone produced a range of both acoustic and (later) electrified archtop guitars that rivalled those produced by Gibson and were the instruments of choice of many professionals; a smaller range of flat-top guitars were also produced, some designations of which were later continued during the Gibson-owned era for the company.
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Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments, such as violins, violas, cellos, double basses and bows for stringed instruments.
"The End" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. It was composed by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles, and is the final song of the medley that constitutes the majority of side two of the album. The song features the only drum solo recorded by Ringo Starr with the Beatles.
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"And I Love Her" is a song recorded by English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It is the fifth track of their third UK album A Hard Day's Night and was released 20 July 1964, along with "If I Fell", as a single release by Capitol Records in the United States, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. The guitar debuted in 1961 and has been associated with such guitarists as Howlin' Wolf, Phil Upchurch, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Keith Richards, Dave Davies, Brad Whitford, Shirley Manson, Paul Weller, The Edge, Josh Homme, Daniel Kessler, Brendon Urie, Gary Clark, Jr., Glenn Frey, John Illsley, and Peter Green.
"It's Only Love" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released in 1965 on the Help! album in the United Kingdom and on the Rubber Soul album in the United States.
John Lennon's musical instruments were both diverse and many, and his worldwide fame resulted in his personal choices having a strong impact on cultural preferences.
During 1965, the Beatles toured Europe.
The Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass is a model of electric bass manufactured by Höfner under several varieties. It was introduced in 1955 and gained fame during the 1960s as the primary bass used by Paul McCartney of the Beatles.
The Beatles' first English tour lasted from 2 February 1963 until 3 March 1963. The Beatles were fourth on an eleven-act bill headed by 16-year-old Londoner, Helen Shapiro. Other acts on the tour were the Red Price Band, The Kestrels, The Honeys (UK), Dave Allen, Kenny Lynch and Danny Williams. They were also joined briefly by Billie Davis during the latter part of the tour.
On 30 January 1969, the Beatles performed a concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row, in central London's office and fashion district. Joined by guest keyboardist Billy Preston, the band played a 42-minute set before the Metropolitan Police arrived and ordered them to reduce the volume. It was the final public performance of their career. They performed nine takes of five new songs as crowds of onlookers, many on lunch breaks, congregated in the streets and on the rooftops of nearby buildings to listen. The concert ended with "Get Back", and John Lennon joking, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition."
Andy Babiuk is an American musician, author, consultant, and owner of Andy Babiuk's Fab Gear in Fairport, New York. He is a founding member and bassist of the supergroup The Empty Hearts and is also a longtime member and current frontman of The Chesterfield Kings. Babiuk is the author of Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio (2001), The Story of Paul Bigsby (2009), Rolling Stones Gear (2014) and Beatles Gear – The Ultimate Edition (2015). He is a staff consultant to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as to auction houses in New York, London and Los Angeles. Andy also owns and operates the guitar shop Andy Babiuk's Fab Gear which is located in Rochester New York.