Beatles instrumentation

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[edit] Guitars

Both Lennon and Harrison used the Gibson J160E, an acoustic guitar with an electric pickup at the base of the fretboard. The resonant character of the full acoustic body, combined with the electric pickup, meant that this guitar was susceptible to feedback -- employed to great effect on the intro to "I Feel Fine."

[edit] Bass guitars

McCartney custom ordered a left-handed Höfner bass during one of the group's early residences in Hamburg. In 1965 he switched to a Rickenbacker model 4001, beginning with the recording of "Paperback Writer", for the remainder of The Beatles' career. He briefly returned to the Höfner during rehearsals and recording of Let It Be.

[edit] Microphones

Although microphone usage varied somewhat according to the requirements of each song, the group's recordings at Abbey Road most often employed Neumann U47 or U67 microphones for electric guitars and one or more Neumann U48s for vocals. Early in their recording career the drums usually were recorded with only two microphones: one overhead (an AKG D19 or STC 4038) and one for the bass drum (such as an AKG D20). Later, more microphones were used on the drums.

The AKG C28 is visible in the Let It Be film. Available studio documentation and interviews with their former recording engineers indicate that this microphone was not used for recording in the studio.^[1]

With the group's encouragement, recording engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with microphone placement and equalization.^{[citation needed]} Many of his techniques were unusual for the time but have since become commonplace, such as "close miking" (physically placing the microphone in very close proximity of a sound source) of acoustic instruments or deliberately overloading the signal to produce distortion. For example, he obtained the biting string sound that characterises "Eleanor Rigby" by miking the instruments extremely closely — Emerick has related that the string players would instinctively back away from the microphones at the start of each take, and he would go back into the studio and move the microphones closer again.^[2]