Quoted from Beatles Gear - Andy Babiuk p.157: Lennon was playing a Fender Stratocaster during these [the Help!] sessions. (...) His Strat was in Fender's pale-blue custom-color finish, officially known as "sonic blue". Harrison later recalled that both he and Lennon acquired Strats at the time. "It was funny", he said, "because all these American bands kept coming over to England, saying, 'How did you get that guitar sound?' And the more I listened to it, the more I decided I didn't like the guitar sound I had. It was crap. A Gretsch guitar and a Vox amp, and I didn't like it. But those were early days, and we were lucky to have anything when we started out. But anyway, I decided I'd get a Strat, and John decided he'd get one too. So we sent out our roadie, Mal Evans, said go and get us two Strats. And he came back with two of them, pale blue ones. Straight away we used them on the album we were making at the time, which was Rubber Soul - I played it a lot on that album, most noticeably the solo on 'Nowhere Man' which John and I both played in unison." |
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Although Harrison's recollection places the acquisition of the Fenders later, photographs featured in The Beatles
Monthly Book show Lennon at the February 1965-sessions with his new Fender Stratocaster. It's not certain if either
Strat ended up on any of these p.161. More memorable clips include the mock recording-studio scene - actually made at Twickenham Film Studios - for 'You're Going To Lose That Girl'. Again, Lennon uses Harrison's Gibson J-160E and McCartney his Hofner bass, while Harrison opts for his second Gretsch Country Gentleman. The sequence presents a "studio" set-up with the group recording, and Harrison, McCartney, and Lennon singing through a pair of Neumann U-47 microphones. Starr is seen using his smaller Ludwig drumset with the 20-inch bass drum - the same kit he used during the filming of A Hard Day's Night, with number 3 Beatles-logo drumhead. |
Posted: 17 apr 2011
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