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All Things Must Beat. Share Anything Beatles!!

Hi Everyone.

My name is Michael and I’m a Beatles freak.

It began in the late 60s. I was born in 1961. A rather quiet child who loved music from my earliest memories. My mother was the 2nd oldest of 14. So I had a couple of aunts and an uncle who were my older brothers age (they were 3-10 years older than me)
We would visit grandma on Sundays and I would go straight to grandmas huge awesome stereo console and play records by myself while other kids played outside or were in the kitchen with my grandma and the adults.

At that stereo console I found those amazing Beatles records! (And Led Zeppelin too) but those Beatles records were just stunning to my young mind. Songs like Strawberry Fields blew me away. I couldn’t get enough.

Then when I was 8 in 1969 my mom gathered us together and we walked a couple of miles to the local plaza (we didn’t have a car) and my mom, who didn’t have much, bought my oldest brother (5 years older and 13 at the time) a record player. It had a blue lid and a white bottom. When you opened it speakers were in the lid. Along with that record player he was allowed to pick one album. He picked “Meet The Beatles.” Yes!
He, and I ,wore that record out! He became a drummer and guitarist and I did the same but also play the bass almost exclusively now.

As a kid growing up in the 70s me and my friends were in to hard rock and blues rock. Led Zep. Sabbath. Other stuff. The Beatles were my secret obsession of sorts. The Beatles and Sabbath don’t really go together lol. So my friends were not in to them. Although Ozzy says John was his biggest hero and influence.

I currently have played bass exclusively for 3 years now (got my 1st bass in 1976) and have played one my whole life but have played one exclusively for the last 3 years.

I’m currently on a quest to learn 125 Beatles tunes and remember them. No small task. I’m up to 90. Only 25 more to go. Learned side two of Abbey Road recently that was fun!

I see the Beatles as 2 distinct bands.
The touring band and the post touring band. So with that in mind if forced to choose a favorite album I pick 2! Lol.
I love all of them!
(Well maybe not Beatles for sale that much lol)
So my favorite album of the touring years is “Hard Days Night.”
My favorite album of the studio years is “Let It Be” (Naked)
Ive found most Beatles freaks say Abbey Road or Sgt.. Peppers or Rubber Soul.
The biggest selling album surprisingly to me is the White album.

Anyway. That’s me in a nutshell. Beatles freak. Happy to be here.
Rumor has it you people are like minded! Lol
 
Here’s my contribution to this thread.

I am stoked about the new “Get Back” movie release!
Can’t wait!

So I did some research on the gear they used to record during that time period:

Lennon & Harrison shared a Gibson J-200.

McCartney used a Martin D-28.

Lennon & Harrison shared a Fender Bass VI
Harrison played it on “Two Of Us” and Lennon played it on “Dig It.”

George was mostly playing his rosewood Tele and put that through a Leslie 147rv on the “Let It Be” solo.

John was playing his infamous Epiphone Casino.

Paul was playing his Hofner 500/1 and his Rickenbacher 4001s was his backup bass but not used on the recordings.

Harrison and Lennon were both playing through 85 watt silver face Fender twins with vibrato and reverb.

Paul was playing through a 50 watt Fender bassman head and a Bassman cab.

(I got that from guitar world.com)

They all played their amazing voices/harmonies starting at their souls and passing through their lungs up in to their throats and out of their mouths. Lol…..
 
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I like the Fender hang tag on top of the amp in the foreground of this pic.
660FDFA3-C75E-41DE-8643-553AFAE97FCB.jpeg
 
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Lennon was just playing a Fender Jaguar on this 60 minutes piece!


That's not a Jaguar, but rather the Invalid Link Removed they got and used for the White Album sessions, shown in the 60 Minutes story about the new "Get Back" movie. It's what John and George used to play bass whenever Paul was on piano or acoustic guitar. Fender had given them a right handed sunburst Jazz Bass by this time, matching the left handed sunburst Jazz Bass Paul had used on the White Album, so they could have a "proper" bass this time. But they still preferred the more guitar-ish feeling Bass VI.

Paul has admitted that his lightweight Hofner coaxed more high register playing out of him than the more usual, heavier (wider necked?) "proper" basses.

Screenshot_20211114-215050_Chrome-02.jpeg


PSX_20190425_165338.jpg


paul_mccartney_uses_fender_jazz_bass_1_bf1929f06f.jpg

.
 
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That's not a Jaguar, but rather the Invalid Link Removed they got and used for the White Album sessions, shown in the 60 Minutes story about the new "Get Back" movie. It's what John and George used to play bass whenever Paul was on piano or acoustic guitar. Fender had given them a right handed sunburst Jazz Bass by this time, matching the left handed sunburst Jazz Bass Paul had used on the White Album, so they could have a "proper" bass this time. But they still preferred the more guitar-ish feeling Bass VI.

Paul has admitted that his lightweight Hofner coaxed more high register playing out of him than the more usual, heavier (wider necked?) "proper" basses.


Ahh so that’s the Bass IV! I never saw one and wondered. It has 6 strings. A tremolo bar. All those Jaguar switch’s and a Jag body. Interesting. And yet I knew of the bass and the fact that John played bass on Dig It and George played bass on Two Of Us. Interesting. Bass? Or guitar played as a bass? Or guitar/bass designed by Fender to look like a guitar, feel like a guitar, have guitar knobs and switches but sound like a bass? Interesting. Hey it worked! I like playing both of those songs on my standard short scale 4 string variety.
 
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Ahh so that’s the Bass IV! I never saw one and wondered. It has 6 strings. A tremolo bar. All those Jaguar switch’s and a Jag body. Interesting. And yet I knew of the bass and the fact that John played bass on Dig It and George played bass on Two Of Us. Interesting. Bass? Or guitar played as a bass? Or guitar/bass designed by Fender to look like a guitar, feel like a guitar, have guitar knobs and switches but sound like a bass? Interesting. Hey it worked! I like playing both of those songs on my standard short scale 4 string variety.

The Beatles used a technique on some songs, both a bass and the Fender VI were recorded in unison. The Fender VI is tuned an octive lower than a guitar. It produced a heavy sounding bass when the two were combined. They would sometimes triple it with a guitar. See 7 minutes in.


 
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