The result: Paul’s bass line, showcasing his mixture of melodic and rhythmic capabilities on the instrument, drives the song. Together with their legendary studio engineer Geoff Emerick, the band rigged up a way to use a loudspeaker as a microphone and, with Paul using a Rickenbacker instead of his iconic Hofner, boosted the volume higher than anyone had done before. Lennon had heard a booming bass sound on a Wilson Pickett record and thought it would be cool to replicate. The bass sound on “Paperback Writer” was actually John Lennon’s idea, yet another example of the astounding creative dynamic he and McCartney shared.
McCartney, one of the world’s preeminent writers of melody and most innovative musical minds, wasn’t content to let the bass take a backseat on every Beatles song, particularly as the band’s career advanced. Aside from the occasional solo (think The Who’s “My Generation”, which arrived in 1965), it remained in the background. Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. John Lennon’s Raw, Soul-Baring Vocals From the Beatles’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ (1969) Musician Plays Signature Drum Parts of 71 Beatles Songs in 5 Minutes: A Whirlwind Tribute to Ringo Starr.
#PAUL MCCARTNEY BASS HOW TO#
Throughout the 1960s and earlier, the bass was mostly viewed as a rhythm instrument, a bridge between the drums and the guitars intended to provide some low-end sound to flesh out chords and simultaneously emphasize the beat. Paul McCartney Offers a Short Tutorial on How to Play the Bass Guitar. Watch Paul McCartney play the 1961 Hofner bass at the Cavern Club in 1962 down below.Paul McCartney’s bass playing was probably his tertiary contribution to The Beatles, after his songwriting and his singing, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t just as revolutionary. While there are better bassist out there he changed the way that the bass was used in. To this day the guitars remain missing, and the location of McCartney’s original 1961 Hofner bass may never be known. Paul is one of the most respected Bass players in the history of rock.
#PAUL MCCARTNEY BASS PLUS#
A closet that contained McCartney’s ’61 Hofner, plus George Harrison’s Gretsch Tennesseean and his second Rickenbacker 360-12, was raided by an unknown assailant who walked out the front door with the priceless guitars. Soon after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, a theft occurred at EMI Studios. Still, McCartney busted out the original Hofner for the promotional video of the ‘Revolution’ single in 1968, and footage of McCartney using the bass can be seen in both Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary Let It Be and Peter Jackson’s docu-series The Beatles: Get Back. In 1965, McCartney largely switched to using a Rickenbacker 4001S in the studio, further negating the need for the ’61 Hofner. The ’61 Hofner was relegated to backup duty, and McCartney soon had the bass repainted with a sunburst finish. In gratitude for the publicity that McCartney had generated for the company, Hofner presented McCartney with an updated model in 1963, McCartney would use the ’63 model for the remainder of The Beatles’ live career and still uses the model today.
McCartney used this specific model, identifiable through its closely positioned pickups that were later separated on McCartney’s second model, throughout the band’s earliest recordings and tours, including on the album Please Please Me and With the Beatles.
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