Paperback Writer Reviews

	Quoted from Beatles Gear - Andy Babiuk Keeping in step with their scheduled LP and 45rpm releases, the group set out to record a new single, PAPERBACK WRITER. The April 13th session was photographically documented for The Beatles Monthly Book providing detailed information on the instruments used. New to their guitar line-up was a Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 that Lennon used. The early-1960s orange-finished double-cutaway 6120 hollowbody guitar had gold-plated hardware apart from its aluminium-coloured Bigsby. The other new guitar at the PAPERBACK WRITER session was a Burns Nu-Sonic Bass. Strangely, it was Harrison who was pictured playing it, while McCartney used his Casino and Lennon the Gretsch 6120. The solidbody short-scale Nu-Sonic Bass was only available in a translucent cherry red finish.
John pictured in April 1966 at the 'Paperback Writer' session at Abbey road, playing the Gretsch 6120. In the foreground is a Vox 7120 amplifier, with its tubes clearly visible.	Lennon and Harrison were only ever photographed using the Gretsch 6120 and Burns Nu-Sonic bass during the PAPERBACK WRITER session, and the instruments were never seen again. Perhaps the Burns was used as part of the experimentation going on during Beatle sessions at this time to try to achieve a better bass sound? Engineer Geoff Emerick has said the group had been listening to records by artists such as Wilson Pickett and wondering why their own recordings did not have as much low-end. McCartney said later, "By then bass was coming to the fore in mixes ... you listen to early Beatles mixes and the bass and bass drum aren't there. We were starting to take over ourselves and bass was coming to the fore in many ways. So I had to do something ... I was listening to a lot of Motown, Marvin Gaye and Stax stuff, [who] were putting some nice little basslines in."
Chief engineer Geoff Emerick relates another bass recording experiment made during the work on PAPERBACK WRITER. "I was getting frustrated listening to American records like the Motown stuff because the bass content was a lot stronger than we were putting on our records. We were governed by certain rules and regulations at Abbey Road, so I could never get the sound I really wanted on the bass. In desperation one day I figured that we could use a loudspeaker as a microphone - it works the same way in reverse, so it's effectively the same thing. That way the speaker could take the weight of the air vibrations from a bass. So we used that on a couple of tracks. It sounded all right." The photographs from the PAPERBACK WRITER session also reveal both of Starr's 22-inch-bass Ludwig drum sets present in the studio. The kit that he used to record with has Mal Evan's tambourine "invention" set up on the bass-drum's cymbal holder.

Quoted from Beatles Gear - Andy Babiuk

Keeping in step with their scheduled LP and 45rpm releases, the group set out to record a new single, PAPERBACK WRITER. The April 13th session was photographically documented for The Beatles Monthly Book providing detailed information on the instruments used. New to their guitar line-up was a Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 that Lennon used. The early-1960s orange-finished double-cutaway 6120 hollowbody guitar had gold-plated hardware apart from its aluminium-coloured Bigsby. The other new guitar at the PAPERBACK WRITER session was a Burns Nu-Sonic Bass. Strangely, it was Harrison who was pictured playing it, while McCartney used his Casino and Lennon the Gretsch 6120. The solidbody short-scale Nu-Sonic Bass was only available in a translucent cherry red finish.

John pictured in April 1966 at the 'Paperback Writer' session at Abbey road, playing the Gretsch 6120. In the foreground is a Vox 7120 amplifier, with its tubes clearly visible.

Lennon and Harrison were only ever photographed using the Gretsch 6120 and Burns Nu-Sonic bass during the PAPERBACK WRITER session, and the instruments were never seen again. Perhaps the Burns was used as part of the experimentation going on during Beatle sessions at this time to try to achieve a better bass sound? Engineer Geoff Emerick has said the group had been listening to records by artists such as Wilson Pickett and wondering why their own recordings did not have as much low-end. McCartney said later, "By then bass was coming to the fore in mixes ... you listen to early Beatles mixes and the bass and bass drum aren't there. We were starting to take over ourselves and bass was coming to the fore in many ways. So I had to do something ... I was listening to a lot of Motown, Marvin Gaye and Stax stuff, [who] were putting some nice little basslines in."

Chief engineer Geoff Emerick relates another bass recording experiment made during the work on PAPERBACK WRITER. "I was getting frustrated listening to American records like the Motown stuff because the bass content was a lot stronger than we were putting on our records. We were governed by certain rules and regulations at Abbey Road, so I could never get the sound I really wanted on the bass. In desperation one day I figured that we could use a loudspeaker as a microphone - it works the same way in reverse, so it's effectively the same thing. That way the speaker could take the weight of the air vibrations from a bass. So we used that on a couple of tracks. It sounded all right."

The photographs from the PAPERBACK WRITER session also reveal both of Starr's 22-inch-bass Ludwig drum sets present in the studio. The kit that he used to record with has Mal Evan's tambourine "invention" set up on the bass-drum's cymbal holder.

Posted: 28 juni 2009