Fab Gear
Published December 06, 2002
I had never really thought of the Beatles as being an "equipment band". They didn't brandish their guitars around their waists as Freudian phallic symbols the way Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin did. They didn't become associated with individual instruments the way that B.B. King and Chuck Berry did with the Gibson ES-335, or Hendrix did with the Fender Stratocaster, or Clapton and Page did with the Les Paul in the late 1960s. They didn't invent new technologies, the way that The Who did with the Marshall amplifier stack.
But I was wrong.
Reading Andy Babiuk's Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments, from Stage to Studio, it's obvious the impact the Beatles made on musical equipment in the 1960s. Indeed, the fact that the guitar is still the dominant instrument in rock, forty years after the A&R man for Decca fatefully rejected the Beatles' demos and told their manager, "Groups with guitars are on the way out, Mr. Epstein", is a statement in and of itself. And the fact that Rickenbacker sells 12-string electrics to this day, and that Vox still sells the same AC-30 tube amplifiers the Beatles used is a testament to the Beatles' pioneering efforts.
How a Beatles Book is Born
As Mark Lewisohn states in his introduction, the origin of Beatles Gear came out of Lewisohn's groundbreaking The Beatles Recording Sessions. Published in 1988, it exhaustively examines every day the Beatles spent in Abbey Road. But Lewisohn kept getting questions from readers about what instruments the Beatles played on those sessions.
Not being a musician himself, Lewisohn handed the ball over to Babiuk, an American guitarist and journalist, who's a consultant to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The result is a treasure trove of information and photos for everyone from a budding pop or rock musician to a seasoned collector of arcane music trivia. And even a casual fan of the Beatles with an interest in the group's history will have a flood of memories unleashed by the book. Among other anecdotes, the origin of Ringo Starr's classic "Beatles" drop-T drum logo is revealed, as is the story behind Paul McCartney's violin-shaped Hofner bass, and John Lennon's acquisition of a 1965 Mellotron, a primitive Jurassic sampler that used tape-recorded sounds of instruments played by an organ-style keyboard, from which came the haunting opening of "Strawberry Fields Forever", arguably the Beatles' best song (and certainly the summation of their recording efforts).
The Beatles' True Collector
As Babiuk notes however, while George Harrison may not have been the single most talented musician in the Beatles (that title has to go to Paul McCartney, even if Lennon was frequently the better songwriter), he was, by far, their true instrument collector. Harrison was always on the lookout for an unusual guitar-and later of course, Indian instruments such as the sitar, and near the end of the Beatles, a Moog synthesizer.
- Fab Gear
- Published: December 06, 2002
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- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Entertainment
- Writer: Ed Driscoll
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Comments on this articleComments
Eric,
Thanks. With the exception of the Lennon photo (it was tough finding a decent shot of one of the Beatles holding an instrument that had been sanded down during their "natural phase"), they're all on this site, which has some other photos and trivia that might be of interest to a Beatles fan.
Ed
great article, but check your facts in your intro:
"B.B. King and Chuck Berry did with the Gibson ES-335, or Hendrix did with the Fender Stratocaster, or Clapton and Page did with the Les Paul in the late 1960s. They didn't invent new technologies, the way that The Who did with the Marshall amplifier stack."
bb king played les pauls, namely Lucille.
clapton played strats, "blackie" of layla fame and "brownie" from most cream-era recordings. GuitarPlayer published a few issues commemorating the landmark guitars and the musicians that wielded them for reference, but these should be obvious, especially Clapton's Stratocasters.
Darryl,
I just noticed your comment. But for the record, B.B. King was only associated with Les Pauls very early in his career. (There's a photo of him looking very young and holding one here. He's much more known for his use of Gibson ES-335s and ES-355s, both semi-hollowbodied guitars, both larger than a Les Paul.
Gibson's current "Lucille" model B.B. King signature guitar is essientially an ES-355 without f-holes, to reduce feedback. Compare this photograph of it, with this photo of a Les Paul, to see the difference between the two.
Darryl,
Oh, and Eric Clapton was largely responsible for introducing the Les Paul to the British blues scene, through the use of it on the classic Bluesbreakers album with John Mayall. There are several photos of him holding the late 1950s sunburst model he purchased used just before recording that album, which inspired Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, and other British blues rock guitar heroes of the 1960s to purchase theirs. Clapton played Gibson Les Pauls, SGs, and I believe Firebirds during his Cream days, as well as during Blind Faith. He only switched to Stratocasters around the time of his first solo album in 1970. To this day, he also frequently plays Les Pauls and other Gibson guitars, particularly on more blues-based numbers, for a thicker sound. See this page for what looks like a pretty decent list of his 1960s guitars.
I've played guitar for over twenty years now, and went through periods of living and breathing this stuff, so believe me--I'm not making up who played what, and when!
Regards,
Ed
I bought the book, but then discovered the web site www.beatlesgear.com Once I figured out that the web site was not connected to the book, it dawned on me that the book is a joke and so is much of the information in it. Babiuk's research falls short when compared to the hard facts provided in the website. My guess, he's just a fan who went with whatever he was told just to fill the pages of the book. I don't mean to be so hard on the author, but the book cost way more than the web site and is obviously full of a huge amount of mistakes.
Derek,
That's a rather harsh statement about a book that's been very well received by both musicians and fans. What are some examples of mistakes you found in it?
Ed
Went to www.beatlesgear.com but found only amplifiers there. Nothing more.
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Great Ed! Fascinating review, great pics too.