Paul McCartney and his Basses

[ggvicviper]

I saw Paul live over the weekend in NJ. While he had a little bit of trouble singing a couple of songs in the 35+ song set (his voice cracks a bit these days - he is in his mid 70s, and years of screaming on some of those songs, as well as past habitual cigarette and pot smoke probably affected his voice a bit), it was still amazing. His Hofner was used in 10 of those songs, while Brian Ray played bass on the rest. Only disappointing part was he played too little bass.

I still wish he would break out his Yamaha BB1200 for some of those songs. That, to me, was his best bass tone.

 

[terr0rgasm]

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

A podcast focusing entirely on isolated tracks from Solo years as well as Beatle era!

I am about 15 episodes in, and its amazing.... No doubt lots of bass isolations to be found.

 

[guygorilla]

just to clarify, Paul didnt play the bass on Elvis Costello's Veronica..EC himself played Macca's Höfner

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

just to clarify, Paul didnt play the bass on Elvis Costello's Veronica..EC himself played Macca's Höfner

I have the Elvis Costello CD "Spike" and the credits list Paul McCartney as playing Hofner bass on "Veronica"

- Steve

 

[bassnyc1]

Also, Paul... and his Hofner, are lefty. EC is not. Furthermore, if you listen to the track, it's classic McCartney style bass playing.

 

[guygorilla]

Also, Paul... and his Hofner, are lefty. EC is not. Furthermore, if you listen to the track, it's classic McCartney style bass playing.

I stand corrected. (bad memory) EC does play the Hofner bass on the other Macca co-written tune, Pads Paws And Claws (did he flip it or have one of his own?)..I do recall it was EC's Hofner playing and enthusing over it's sound that got Macca back to playing it.
PS..thanks to the both of you for the correction

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

I stand corrected. (bad memory) EC does play the Hofner bass on the other Macca co-written tune, Pads Paws And Claws (did he flip it or have one of his own?)..I do recall it was EC's Hofner playing and enthusing over it's sound that got Macca back to playing it.
PS..thanks to the both of you for the correction

EC is listed as playing "Bass (Hofner)" on "Pads, Paws and Claws"....one of three bassists on this track...and "God's Comic", but I've never heard that it was Paul's Hofner. It may be that EC has his own right-handed Hofner bass.

- Steve

 

[Skokiaan]

I stand corrected. (bad memory) EC does play the Hofner bass on the other Macca co-written tune, Pads Paws And Claws (did he flip it or have one of his own?)..I do recall it was EC's Hofner playing and enthusing over it's sound that got Macca back to playing it.
PS..thanks to the both of you for the correction

Actually, Elvis specifically asked Paul to play his (Paul's) Hofner, which Paul was hesitant to do at first.

 

[yogibarrister]

I started out as a jazz bassist in high school. I picked up the bass because I could read bass clef, and it was the only instrument that wasn't filled at the time. So I began lessons the summer before starting out on a Fender Squire that I played into the ground. By my senior year, I had switched to my 1991 P-Bass Lyte.

Anyway, a kid moves to our school from Austin, Texas and is a huge Beatles fans. I start listening to his records, and I became obsessed with McCartney and his melodic basslines. I spent a ton of my free time listening to Beatle and Wings records just to pick out the bass lines. So, there's my story.

Anyway, we know that Paul received his Rickenbacker 4001S in August 1964 while on tour in the United States, but it does not show up on the recordings until Rubber Soul. The apparent difference in the sound between the Help! and Rubber Soul and that difference begins with the bass sound. The bass is much thicker and fuller in Rubber Soul, likely a combination of Paul switching to the Rick as part of the Beatles' continuing experimentation with different instruments and sounds, and George Martin bringing up the bass line in mixing the recordings.

It was a good move. As the Beatles' music was transforming from dance music into introspective musical rock, Paul's basslines became more melodic and complex. If you listen to any album made prior to the Rubber Soul sessions, you will notice first that most of Paul's basslines are still based upon repetitive four bar patterns and, second, that the recordings pick up the bottom notes well but that the Hofner is generally lost at the top of its range. Paul continued to play the Hofner on stage and on promotional videos up until Sgt. Pepper, but the recordings in the studio were all from from the Rick. The only exception may be "Wait", which appeared on Rubber Soul but was recorded as part of the Help! sessions.

Nothing against the Hofner 500/1 Violin Bass. It is iconic and a great bass. It is lightweight, easy to play on stage and has a condensed fretboard, which makes it a great play on high-tempo songs. I have one of the re-issued 500/1's and it will always remain among my instruments.

 

[CaseyVancouver]

The Cavern Club in Liverpool started as a 'trad' jazz club in the '50s.

My friend Ron Minshal, who I have played with regularly for decades, played there in the '50s & '60s. He played on nights when the Beatles were not. Ron is in his '80s now but still plays out, just played a gig with him the other night. Ron usually sings about whiskey, women and gambling. Sometimes for fun he sings 'She Loves You' with a heavy Liverpudlian accent in whatever jazz tune he feels like putting it in.

The first LP I ever received was 'Twist & Shout' for my birthday in 1964. I remember that a couple of the Beatles on the liner notes stated they dislike 'trad' jazz haha!

This all has nothing to do with Paul's basses

 

[guygorilla]

I started out as a jazz bassist in high school. I picked up the bass because I could read bass clef, and it was the only instrument that wasn't filled at the time. So I began lessons the summer before starting out on a Fender Squire that I played into the ground. By my senior year, I had switched to my 1991 P-Bass Lyte.

Anyway, a kid moves to our school from Austin, Texas and is a huge Beatles fans. I start listening to his records, and I became obsessed with McCartney and his melodic basslines. I spent a ton of my free time listening to Beatle and Wings records just to pick out the bass lines. So, there's my story.

Anyway, we know that Paul received his Rickenbacker 4001S in August 1964 while on tour in the United States, but it does not show up on the recordings until Rubber Soul. The apparent difference in the sound between the Help! and Rubber Soul and that difference begins with the bass sound. The bass is much thicker and fuller in Rubber Soul, likely a combination of Paul switching to the Rick as part of the Beatles' continuing experimentation with different instruments and sounds, and George Martin bringing up the bass line in mixing the recordings.

It was a good move. As the Beatles' music was transforming from dance music into introspective musical rock, Paul's basslines became more melodic and complex. If you listen to any album made prior to the Rubber Soul sessions, you will notice first that most of Paul's basslines are still based upon repetitive four bar patterns and, second, that the recordings pick up the bottom notes well but that the Hofner is generally lost at the top of its range. Paul continued to play the Hofner on stage and on promotional videos up until Sgt. Pepper, but the recordings in the studio were all from from the Rick. The only exception may be "Wait", which appeared on Rubber Soul but was recorded as part of the Help! sessions.

Nothing against the Hofner 500/1 Violin Bass. It is iconic and a great bass. It is lightweight, easy to play on stage and has a condensed fretboard, which makes it a great play on high-tempo songs. I have one of the re-issued 500/1's and it will always remain among my instruments.

Rickenbacker first presented Paul with a right handed (oops) Ricky in 64, it wasnt until '65 they got around to giving him a proper lefty...Macca's bass was finally given its own recording track around the time of Rubber Soul, hence the boost in sound..as far as I know the only song on RS to feature the new Ricky was George's Think For Yourself, the rest still have the Hofner.

 

[ICM]

Rickenbacker first presented Paul with a right handed (oops) Ricky in 64, it wasnt until '65 they got around to giving him a proper lefty...Macca's bass was finally given its own recording track around the time of Rubber Soul, hence the boost in sound..as far as I know the only song on RS to feature the new Ricky was George's Think For Yourself, the rest still have the Hofner.

The first song Paul used the Rick to record on was the fuzz bass part of Think For Yourself.
Help! is entirely Hofner, while Revolver is entirely Rickenbacker, there's some debate on which songs on Rubber Soul have which bass. Is there a definitive list that has the instruments Paul used? He used the neck pickup on both basses at that time (to my ear) so they have a similar sound. I'd imagine George Martin in post production made the Rick and the Hofner sound even more similar too.

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

R..as far as I know the only song on RS to feature the new Ricky was George's Think For Yourself, the rest still have the Hofner.

Photos from the sessions for "Michelle" show Paul with the Ric...and a capo!

- Steve

 

[mcarp555]

It does say in The Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk (pg. 172) that "McCartney used his new left-handed Rickenbacker 4001S bass almost exclusively on the Rubber Soul sessions." It then quotes an interview with Paul where he talks about how much better the Rick was at staying in tune than the Hofner in terms of intonation.

I personally doubt that Think For Yourself was the first track to feature the Rick. It was not the first tune recorded in the Rubber Soul sessions, and with a new bass at hand, I have a hard time imagining that Paul would not start off with it. Photographic evidence from the time does show both basses (Rick and Hofner) in the studio, so on some tunes the bass part may be in doubt (not uncommon with Paul). They were recording with 4-track often bounced down to a second machine, so the bass track would almost never have a track to itself by the time of mixing.

One thing that's often not noted in discussions about this very subject is that another new piece of gear was also present at the start of the Rubber Soul sessions: a Fender Bassman amp. This may explain better than anything else why the bass was so much more prominent from this point onward.

 

[mcarp555]

Photos from the sessions for "Michelle" show Paul with the Ric...and a capo!

- Steve

The photos of Paul with the capo don't specify which song it actually is. Capos were used on Norwegian Wood for guitars, but it's unclear when Paul put the capo on the Rick.

 

[guygorilla]

so the bass track would almost never have a track to itself by the time of mixing.

I'm talking about during recording... the bass on a separate track, and DI'd too

 

[ICM]

I know that photo, he has two capos on in one of them, I can't even guess what was going on there:

2 capos:

1 capo:

 

[ICM]

It does say in The Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk (pg. 172) that "McCartney used his new left-handed Rickenbacker 4001S bass almost exclusively on the Rubber Soul sessions." It then quotes an interview with Paul where he talks about how much better the Rick was at staying in tune than the Hofner in terms of intonation.

I personally doubt that Think For Yourself was the first track to feature the Rick. It was not the first tune recorded in the Rubber Soul sessions, and with a new bass at hand, I have a hard time imagining that Paul would not start off with it. Photographic evidence from the time does show both basses (Rick and Hofner) in the studio, so on some tunes the bass part may be in doubt (not uncommon with Paul). They were recording with 4-track often bounced down to a second machine, so the bass track would almost never have a track to itself by the time of mixing.

One thing that's often not noted in discussions about this very subject is that another new piece of gear was also present at the start of the Rubber Soul sessions: a Fender Bassman amp. This may explain better than anything else why the bass was so much more prominent from this point onward.

I never read that quote! Good stuff.
There are two bass parts on Think For Yourself that I hear. One fuzz, one regular. My guess is that its both Hofner and Rick.

 

[Craig4003]

I never read that quote! Good stuff.
There are two bass parts on Think For Yourself that I hear. One fuzz, one regular. My guess is that its both Hofner and Rick.

Could be, or they could both be the Ric. The fuzz-tone lead bass is certainly the Ric.

 

[mcarp555]

I'm talking about during recording... the bass on a separate track, and DI'd too

DI wasn't used until Pepper, mainly because it hadn't been invented yet (by Abbey Road staff). But session engineer Geoff Emerick says it was never used for bass, because they felt the sound was too sterile.

While sometimes bass would be on a separate track, it wasn't always. By the time the backing would be bounced to a second 4-track, it certainly wasn't then. I wouldn't think there would be much totally separate bass until halfway through the white album, when EMI finally installed 8-track.