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paul mccartney sound

mccartney sounds like mccartney no matter what equipment he's used throughout the years. flats are probably the only real requirement other than playing like mccartney. heard him with hofners, a ric, a yamaha, a wal 5 string, and a jazz, and he always sounds like mccartney.
 
If it's the recorded tone of the Beatles the OP means, then a TON of compression is needed. According to that wonderful book on the Beatles recording sessions, the engineer (Geoff Emerick?) used to run the bass track through a compressor and repeat that three or four times before mixing with the other tracks.
 
If it's the recorded tone of the Beatles the OP means, then a TON of compression is needed. According to that wonderful book on the Beatles recording sessions, the engineer (Geoff Emerick?) used to run the bass track through a compressor and repeat that three or four times before mixing with the other tracks.
i once heard a soloed bass track from with a little help from my friends, and it sounded like a youtube video recorded with a cam mic. very compressed, very noisy, but brilliant in a mix.