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PayPal Tip Jar: These two songs were recorded together on July 25th, 1969 for the side two medley on Abbey Road (aka The Long One). The lineup was Paul McCartney on bass guitar, John Lennon on Framus Hootenanny 12-string acoustic guitar, George Harrison on lead electric guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums The Framus Hootenanny was the same 12-string heard on classic songs earlier in their career- Help, I've Just Seen A Face, I'm A Loser, and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. After retiring it around 1965-67, John brought it back, just for these two songs It's not 100% clear which guitar George Harrison used for these sessions, it was either his 'Lucy' Les Paul or his Rosewood Telecaster. The beginning of Polythene Pam features a very warm crunchy neck pickup part, which sounds more characteristic of a Les Paul. But his guitar solo at 0:48 is very bright and more Fender-y sounding George was definitely plugged into a Fender Twin Reverb amp, the main amp used on Abbey Road. They are 85 watts and very loud. It is harder to make these amps crunch up, especially with a single coil Fender. I concluded that George used his Les Paul, but that he used very bright settings on the amp There is a slapback-delay effect on George's guitar throughout the song, which was applied after the recording session using tape machines. During the Polythene Pam guitar solo you also hear volume swells happening at various points. This was also done after the recording session using console faders, not with a volume pedal. I confirmed this by listening to the original mix of the Medley, heard on the Abbey Road super deluxe box set. There were no volume swells at that stage of mixing George overdubbed a second guitar for the descending lines, which segues the first song into the second. At 1:13 you hear the overdubbed guitar, which is very crunchy and definitely sounds like a Les Paul Here are some interesting guitar parts that occur- 0:11 George slides up to only the 11th fret (Eb instead of E) 0:18 John mistakenly pauses, playing a C chord quieter 0:31 George slides up to only the 11th fret again (Eb instead of E) 0:37 George mistakenly hits an F note on the D-string 15th fret 0:49 George switches to bridge pickup for the guitar solo 1:33 George switches to middle position pickup for one line 2:01 John ends his A chord later than George 2:37 George switches to middle position for one line 2:52 John mistakenly plays a Bb note in his D minor (3rd fret G) I'm using my 1967 Gibson B-25-12 acoustic guitar for John's part. It has a smaller body size, like the Hootenanny. I'm mic'ing it with a Neumann TLM-103 condenser. The Beatles almost exclusively mic'd their acoustics with Neumann U67's and 87's For George's guitar parts I'm using my 2005 Gibson Les Paul Standard. It's plugged into an Analogman King of Tone overdrive pedal, into my 1974 Fender Pro Reverb amp. I turned the bright switch ON for the main guitar part I'm using an Abbey Road J37 Tape plug-in for the slapback delay effect. It is set to 195ms. I also manually created volume swells in Pro Tools, for his Polythene Pam guitar solo My Gear: 1967 Gibson B-25-12 2005 Gibson Les Paul Standard (OX4 Pickups) Analogman King of Tone (boost side for main guitar, drive side for overdubbed guitar) 1974 Fender Pro Reverb (Weber 12F150 Speakers) Neumann TLM-103 Thanks for watching and please subscribe! #guitarlesson #thebeatles #guitarcover
