Beatlemania had other absurdities as well. On page 134 of Beatles Gear, there's a photo of 'Beatles' Guitar Strings', "Manufactured to the Beatles' own specifications', according to the typically hyperbolic label on their packaging. But five pages earlier, Paul McCartney is quoted as saying "Some guy in a guitar shop I went into said 'What kind of strings do you use?' I said, 'long, shiny ones.'".
Turning a Limitation into an Asset
It's arguable to say that electric guitars had largely reached the limits of their technological sophistication by the early 1960s, at least judging by the continued massive sales of Fender Strats, Teles, and Gibson Les Pauls. But public address systems were dreadfully crude in the 1960s. No one had expected live music to be played in baseball stadiums in front of 55,000 screaming teenagers, so the equipment to compensate just didn't exist while the Beatles were touring in the early to mid-1960s.
As Babiuk notes, prior to their retirement from the stage, the Beatles toured with astonishingly little in the way of amplification compared to the mammoth amount of equipment carried by today's touring groups: the equipment for their concert at Shea Stadium for 55,000 fans arrived in a pickup truck. And it was only as a result of rock music going into larger and larger venues that the equipment of modern live concerts was born.
Freed from having to play songs onstage, the studio-era Beatles began to use a wide range of new instrumentation-the afore mentioned Melotron on "Strawberry Fields Forever", a Bach piccolo trumpet (played by a session musician) on "Penny Lane", various Indian instruments (some played by Harrison, others played by London-based Indian session musicians a "baritone guitar" such as the Fender Bass VI, which were hybrids of bass and guitar, and Beatles Gear has photos and information about all of them.
During the Sgt. Pepper period, for their filmed promotional clips, and for their Magical Mystery Tour Movie, the Beatles gave their guitars psychedelic paint schemes. Even Ringo's drumhead got a "Love" logo for their "All You Need is Love" studio performance that was broadcast worldwide on TV. As Babiak notes, in 1968, as a symbolic gesture that this phase of their career was over, and that they were adopting a more natural-sounding recording style, all three of the Beatles' guitarists sanded the paint off their primary instruments for a "back to nature" sort of feel. (Similar to how the "White Album"'s stark white cover and lack of a proper title contrasted with lavish packaging of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club band.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Great Ed! Fascinating review, great pics too.
2 - Ed Driscoll
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
3 - darryl
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.
4 - Ed Driscoll
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.
5 - Ed Driscoll
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
6 - Derek
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.
7 - Ed Driscoll
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
8 - Caroline
Went to www.beatlesgear.com but found only amplifiers there. Nothing more.
9 - Ricki Moss
I believe I have the Challen Piano used in Hey Jude at my house.... how could I confirm whether this is true? I'd be interested in some help.