A Backbeat Book

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BEATLES GEAR

Andy Babiuk

A BACKBEAT BOOK

First edition 2001

Published by Backbeat Books

600 Harrison Street,

San Francisco, CA94107

www.backbeatbooks.com

An imprint of The Music Player Network United Entertainment Media Inc.

Published for Backbeat Books by Outline Press Ltd,

115J Cleveland Street, London W1T 6PU, England.

www.backbeatuk.com

ISBN 0-87930-662-9

Copyright © 2001 Balafon. All rights-reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or copied in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews where the source should be made clear. For more information contact the publishers.

Art Director: Nigel Osborne

Design: Paul Cooper

Editors: Tony Bacon, Paul Quinn

Production: Phil Richardson

Origination by Global Colour (Malaysia) Print by Tien Wah (Singapore)

foreword / 4
CHAPTER 1 / 6
1956-7
CHAPTER 2 / 16
1958-9
CHAPTER 3 / 28
1960
CHAPTER 4 / 44
1961
CHAPTER 5 / 60
1962
CHAPTER 6 / 80
1963
CHAPTER 7 / 104
1964
CHAPTER 8 / 156
1965
CHAPTER 9 / 176
1966
CHAPTER 10 / 196
1967
CHAPTER 11 / 212
1968
CHAPTER 12 / 232
1969-70
index / 252
acknowledgements

FOREWORD / I have to make a confession. Though I know I have a reputation of being an “expert” on The Beatles, there has always been a gaping omission in my knowledge, one major aspect of their lives and careers that has remained beyond my grasp: the musical equipment they used.
After I wrote The Beatles Recording Sessions I received hundreds of letters from readers, mostly asking some very specific questions. Among these correspondents were scores of fans who hunger for musical equipment data. They asked me intricate questions about the knob on this Beatles guitar or the make of that amp, and I always had to reply that I had no idea about any of it. I have never been a musician; beyond noting that John loved his Rickenbackers and Paul his Hofner violin bass, that George came back from America with a 12-string and Ringo played Ludwig - OK, I do know a few more details beyond this - I had never sought to acquire further information.
And yet The Beatles were musicians who cared deeply for and had great knowledge about their musical instruments. They knew what they liked and why they liked it, and could talk the musicians' talk in the clubs and in the studios. Beatles Gear: All The Fab Four's Instruments, From Stage To Studio is an authoritative guide to The Beatles' equipment, with all the evocative names - Vox and Gibson and Leslie and Elpico -making appearances along the way, correctly placed in The Beatles' timeline.
Facts, mundanely reported, can become very boring very quickly; discernibly interpreted and imaginatively presented, however, they can tell a strong story. Andy Babiuk shows himself to be both a persistent researcher and a writer of clarity. The result is a book about a narrow path that permits a broader vista, offering another glimpse, in its way significant, into the Beatles mechanism - that once-in-several-lifetimes combination of hubris, chutzpah and a musical invention literally unparalleled in the modern era.
Mark Lewisohn
Hertfordshire, England, July 2001